The STOPLight

Volume 4, Number 1
June 1993
© Copyright 2003 Adults Saving Kids<

Who are these girls

She especially enjoyed dance lessons, Growing up, Monica did well in school. which she started at a young age. Both her parents were alcoholics, so there were problems at home. At age eleven, her best friend's older boyfriend raped her and got her involved in turning tricks. She didn't get out of prostitution until she was 17 and was arrested while working for an escort service. Monica called us a few months ago in fear because her former pimp had threatened to kill her.

Now she participates in a weekly support group for girls and young women who are or have been involved in prostitution. This summer she will earn her GED and get her driver's license. She wants to pursue a career in fashion design.

But Monica will never dance again. Her pimp broke both her knees with a baseball bat. Sometimes when she is walking, her knees give out.

Teenage prostitution is vastly misunderstood. Stereotypes abound and myths are perpetuated through television, magazines and movies.

I know the stereotypes are wrong. I work as a therapist with girls and young women who are or have been involved in prostitution. I facilitate a weekly support group at Project Offstreets and meet with many of them individually. I am honored when they learn to trust me, can open up and share their hopes, fears, pains and dreams with me and with each other.

I am also angry. Angry because these girls have so many strikes against them. Most left home situations that included physical and/or sexual abuse, alcohol or drug abuse. On the streets, they face violence and live in constant fear of their pimps and the johns. They are at risk for sexually transmitted diseases -- even death.

The girls I work with are 13 -20 years old, and being both female and young, they have no power in this society. They know condemns them for to do to survive, and they internalize these judgments. They often loathe themselves. They do not feel comfortable talking to

counselors, teachers, ministers or family members. Many times the ones who've physically or sexually abused and exploited them are the very ones who should have protected them. Their trust in adults has been broken.

One of the things I try to do is provide opportunities for the girls to act their age. They enjoy going to the mall, rides at amusement parks, going out for pizza or a movie, innocent flirtations with boys. While their violent experiences set them apart in some ways, they still share the same tastes, enjoy the same things and have the same dilemmas as other teens.

Who are these girls? Are they "bad" girls? Are they morally inferior? If they get AIDS or get beaten up, isn't it their own fault? It just happens in the big city, doesn't it? Don't they all come from broken homes?

So, who are these girls? They are your daughters, sisters, friends -- maybe even you in other circumstances. None of them deserve to be ignored, forgotten or abused all over again by our attitudes and false beliefs about who they are.

by Martha Dille, Project Offstreets