OPINION OF MEL ROBBIN FOR MONICA LEWINSKY

Stop judging Monica Lewinsky

Editor's note: Mel Robbins is a CNN commentator and legal analyst. Mel is the Founder of Inspire52.com, a positive news website and author of "Stop Saying You're Fine," about managing change. She speaks on leadership around the world and in 2014 was named Outstanding News Talk Radio Host by the Gracie Awards. Follow her on Twitter @melrobbins.

(CNN) -- We could all learn a few things from Monica Lewinsky, and when you read the essay she penned for Vanity Fair, "Shame and Survival," you undoubtedly will—maybe even about yourself. That is, judging by the excerpts of her article, which the magazine released Tuesday, ahead of publication.

Most of the world will be looking for the salacious details of her "consensual relationship" with President Clinton. As many will recall, that affair began in 1995 and when news of it broke in 1998, it became a global story. It almost took down the President—he was impeached-- and sent Lewinsky into such an isolated state of hell, she writes, that she had suicidal thoughts at times and a "fear that I would be literally humiliated to death."

Frankly, when you consider just how intense, relentless and abusive the Lewinsky bullying has been for the past 16 years--by the media, the politicians, the public and trolls on the Internet, it's a wonder she had the psychological stamina to resist those suicidal thoughts. And thank God she did.

Lewinsky on Clinton affair: 'Time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress'

MEL ROBBIN

You can't underplay how huge the news of the Lewinsky-Clinton affair was at a time when the Internet wasn't only used for trolling celebrities; it had such an impact in the public arena that there are people who are still making money off it. The founder of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudge, broke the story of the affair on his then mostly unknown website in 1998; the story put him on the map. In 2014 the site averages more than a billion page views a month.

When Barbara Walters interviewed Lewinsky in 1999 on "20/20," a record-breaking 70 million viewers tuned in. While the media pointed fingers at "that woman," it was taking advantage of the hottest story in presidential scandal history and squeezing every dollar it could out of Lewinsky's demise.