In one way or another, Naomi Alderman has spent her entire life dealing with trolls. The daughter of British historian-slash-journalist Geoffrey Alderman, Naomi's childhood was peppered with death threats directed at her father, for articles he'd written about the Jewish community. But it wasn't until Naomi reached adulthood, and co-created "Zombies, Run" -- which became the top grossing fitness app in the Apple store in 2012 -- with gaming company Six to Start that they started to hone in on her.

Because Alderman is not only a woman in the gaming universe (which the world learned in 2014 is not the safest place), but she also self-identifies as fat... and created a fitness app. So in other words, Naomi is at the cross-section of two things that the Internet's most vicious trolls love to hate the most -- which makes her confident, body-positive attitude (read her enlightening piece in Medium for proof) all the more inspiring.

"There’s a really interesting thing going on at the moment, and it’s partly women talking more seriously about the s--t that you get on the Internet," she told MTV News over the phone. "Sometimes you feel like the people who invest in hate are winning. Then you just want to talk about love, and what it really means to love yourself. Which is not to say that you think you’re perfect... You can love your dog, but you don’t have to think your dog is perfect when they pee on the rug. But you still love the dog!

"A lot of that stuff was in my head, and so many amazing women -- people, actually -- are blogging about fatness, and body image, and all of those kinds of things. Sometimes you just feel like you want to take part in that conversation and go, 'Hey, here’s what I think about this.'"

As for what Alderman thinks about these trolls herself, she admitted that years of exposure, a "f--kton of therapy," and having plenty of female friends helped her decide that most of them -- the non-violent ones who aren't doxxing people -- are actually quite pathetic. (And for those not in the know, "doxxing" is the act of publishing personal information, like addresses and phone numbers, about someone on the Internet, often with malicious intent.)

"Can you imagine how much pain they must be in, and how much they must hate themselves, in order to get to a point where the only thing they can do with it is go and throw it at a stranger?" Alderman asked. "If you realize where your own judgments about other people come from, when you realize at that moment that you’re going, 'Oh, that bitch at work'... You realize that is coming from a place of your own anger about yourself, and things in your own life. Then you realize this is true of everybody else."

However, Alderman added that that doesn't mean you should feel embarrassed about "having a cry" if a particularly nasty one gets you... as long as you shake it off and continue sharing the work, experiences, and opinions you truly believe in. Which for Alderman, largely consists of garnering more female involvement in gaming.

"Certainly in the games industry, it’s just exhausting to have to argue constantly, or to always be the one who is putting the hand up for women," Alderman said, noting that her partners on "Zombies, Run!", Six to Start, have been very supportive. "Going, 'Hey, women also exist! Maybe we could put some in this game! Maybe they’re not just little sexual fantasies for you to enjoy. Maybe they could also be the science professor!'"

And for Alderman, this is truly the crux of it -- that even when trolls are at their nastiest and most vile, she knows that the work she's putting out there is helping people around the world fall in love with exercise. But that doesn't mean that she doesn't recommend taking precautions.

"The most important thing is to become very aware of all the things you need to do to keep yourself safe online, because it will make you less afraid," Alderman said. "Things like finding out what would happen if somebody doxxed you, seeing how much information can be found out about you online, and trying to minimize that as much as you can. There’s a great post by Zoe Quinn about unlinking accounts from your other accounts -- making sure you use two-step verification for all of your different Twitter and Facebook and Apple accounts.

"It’s like buying a smoke alarm. Probably nothing will happen, but something might happen, and if it does, you want to know. It will help you sleep at night, to know that you have really made yourself safe."

Because at the end of the day, Alderman says, the point of these trolls -- whom she refers to as "intimate terrorists" -- is to silence one's voice. And that, according to Alderman, would be the worst possible thing that could happen.

"No one should ever feel obliged to speak or to put themselves out publicly online, but I do think it’s a good thing to do," she concluded. "The more of us who are women, making our work and just going ‘Here I am, here’s my work,’ the easier it gets for everybody. It’s a good thing to do."