- What makes you happy?
- Life.
I'm grateful for every day.
- Oh, that hit.
Sorry, I'm like kind of getting emotional in this interview
just 'cause I've been through like a situation,
and so I'm really thankful that you're sharing your story
'cause I feel like a lot of people need to hear about this,
and I really appreciate you just for speaking out.
- Yes.
Thank you so much for being here.
What a warrior you are.
Look at you.
- [Announcer] If you were alone
in a room with someone who was human trafficked,
what would you ask?
- How many abusers did you have?
- Was there ever a point
where you thought this was gonna be forever?
- Did you try to seek help from anyone?
(soft music)
- Hello, I'm Madison.
What's your name?
- I'm Jay.
It's nice to meet you, Madison.
- Nice to meet you.
- How did it happen?
- So I became homeless
after I left home to escape some abuse
at the hands of an extended family member.
And I befriended some people
who seemed like wonderful people.
And then these two gentlemen began speaking to me
about selling sex as a way of making a living.
I rejected their offers because I was only a teenager,
and later those two men came and took me
and put me in the trunk of the car
and drove off into the night,
and that was the beginning of my exploitation.
- How old were you when this happened?
- Yes, so I was 16 years old when I first was exploited,
and then I wasn't able
to get out of my trafficking experience
until after I was 17.
- How many abusers did you have?
- Well I had two main traffickers,
and then as far as the people who purchased me,
which would be the folks who abused me day in and day out,
I had over 24,000 buyers.
The age range of the men who bought me
would be anywhere from their early twenties
up into like elderly men.
But the typical age of a buyer is the middle-aged white male
usually with a six-figure income.
- What kind of abuse did you endure during your time?
- I mean there was really all kinds of abuse.
There was, of course, sexual abuse, physical abuse,
psychological abuse.
A lot of it was just also unpredictable.
So you might have gotten paid with change,
and I would give the change over to the trafficker,
and then suddenly change is not acceptable,
and now I'm being beaten
with the change inside of a pillowcase
to let me know not to ever take change again.
And then the next night I turn down a buyer who has change
and then I would get beaten because I didn't accept money.
So it was really all about keeping us confused.
- How was your living condition
during the time they kept you?
- Our living conditions were terrible.
We lived in a terrible apartment.
Had literal mold covering all of the walls.
We had no furniture except for one bed,
but you couldn't sleep in the bed.
We also weren't allowed food or water.
We weren't allowed to pick out our own clothing.
We weren't allowed to bathe.
We didn't have towels, soap, toothbrushes.
We had nothing.
- Was there ever a point
where you thought this was gonna be forever?
And what got you through day by day?
- Yeah, so I thought every single day
that this was going to be forever.
And so I really just lived moment to moment.
I frequently dissociated.
That was probably one of the biggest savers for my brain.
I am very grateful for my ability to dissociate
and remove me from situations
that would have otherwise broke me mentally.
- Did you try to seek help from anyone?
- So I did not try to seek help
while I was being trafficked.
One, because they had drilled it into our heads
that if we went to the police, that we would be arrested
because we were criminals, we were prostitutes.
- What do you think about the people who paid
or got access to you through the traffickers?
Do you think they knew what was going on,
and what do you think they were doing there?
- I don't think that all the buyers
were aware I was being trafficked,
though a lot of them did ask questions about my pimp.
So they definitely knew
that I was under somebody else's control,
and that my profits would be going to another person.
Any buyer who wants to help you,
that just means that they wanna take you home,
and make you their personal slave.
And that didn't really seem like a good idea.
As far as what I think about buyers,
it takes a certain level of entitlement.
Whatever is going on in their life,
whether it's under the guise of being lonely
or having sex as a quote unquote need,
versus what it actually is, it's a want.
You know, air and water and food are a need.
They give themselves permission.
So to objectify and dehumanize me on that level
in order to make me an object of pleasure for them,
that's not somebody who I can have empathy or sympathy for.
- How do you feel about sex work?
- So I personally do not believe that sex work is work.
I think the lowest statistic that I've read was 87%
of people who are in exploitation,
even if they're choosing to be there,
that they feel trapped and there's not a way out,
and so they continue.
And if somebody feels trapped, is that really consent?
If somebody would rather say "No," is that consensual?
And are we okay with that?
- How did you escape?
- Yeah, so we would frequently move hotels and hotel rooms,
and a hotel employee saw this group of young girls
getting in a car with these two older gentlemen,
thought something didn't seem right,
and so they contacted law enforcement.
Unfortunately, the state that I was in
is one of half of the states
that charged children with prostitution.
So even though I was abducted and trafficked,
the police arrested me.
I was arrested and charged with prostitution
and aggravated money laundering
for taking money from the buyers
and giving it to my traffickers.
- And did they offer any resources to help you or anything?
Or...
- No.
- How long were you in prison?
- Yeah, so I was held
for 40 days in this maximum-security facility.
My two traffickers each served 10 days for their crimes.
They took plea deals.
My main abductor, the one who I spent the most time with,
he has never been to prison,
and he is not a registered sex offender,
as he has not seen as a danger to the community.
- Oh my gosh.
When you returned and you were able to come home,
how did your family and friends react or treat you?
- So my family didn't learn
the true story about what had happened
until after I learned the true story of what had happened.
'Cause this wasn't something that I recognized.
When you're a child and you have traffickers
that are painting the illusion that you're making choices,
and then to be arrested, and then to have been labeled,
and to serve time, all of those things
told me that I was a perpetrator and not a victim.
So when I came home, what I came home to was a family
who believed that I was a criminal,
and so I was treated as very lucky
to have a space to even come to
after what I had decided to do.
And so it wasn't until I had gone
through a pretty significant amount of therapy
that I could speak to my parents about it.
- Do you find yourself like a lot more hyper aware
of your surroundings today compared to before?
- I am very hypervigilant
because I was taken after a knock on the door.
If somebody knocks on my door, I don't answer it.
Like to this day, I don't even get up.
I'm not even the least bit curious
about what's on the other side of that door.
- Now that you have some perspective
and it's been years since it's happened,
would you consider yourself a victim or a survivor?
- Both.
I am not ashamed of being a victim.
I have nothing to be ashamed of.
I was a victim of two people
who purposefully perpetrated these crimes against myself.
And I'm also a survivor,
because I'm not currently in that situation.
And I can speak to the other side
of what it's like to come out of that situation.
- If you can write a letter to yourself from that time,
from like the beginning, what would you write,
and how would you encourage that version of you,
that part of you?
- I think really just recognizing that it wasn't my fault.
Even to this day, I still have a hard time
having empathy for little me.
But then when it comes to old me, when I think about me
when I don't have physical control of my body,
when once again I am at the mercy of other people,
that scares the heck out of me.
And so I try to hold empathy and space for young me.
And then I really think about encouraging
the older version of myself who's going to have have
all of these triggers and a real loss of control.
- This is very special to me to be able to talk with you.
I was assaulted some years ago,
so I can't even comprehend your story and your experience,
knowing how that experience has shaped and changed my life.
Thank you again for sharing.
I really so appreciate it.
- What makes you happy?
- Life.
I mean, I shouldn't be alive.
I'm grateful for every day.
- Oh, that hit.
Sorry, I'm like kind of getting emotional in this interview
just 'cause I've been through like a situation,
and so I just feel like
it's bringing me a lot of clarity talking to you,
even though like it's been hard for me
to ask certain questions.
But I'm really thankful that you're sharing your story,
'cause I feel like a lot of people need to hear about this,
and I really appreciate you just for speaking out.
- Yes, thank you so much for being here.
What a warrior you are.
Look at you.
- Thank you.
- What's your favorite part about life today?
- I mean, really all of it.
I love my life now so much.
I have an insane amount of friends.
And my children are the coolest people I have ever met.
I don't know why I'm so lucky.
Being seen for myself, you know, for the first time,
in this phase of my life is just such a gift.
It's such a gift to feel genuine love for who I am.
- Wow.
I'm happy that it's over for you,
and you get to like live your life, and I'm here for you,
and I can't wait to meet you on the other side.
Hi. - You did amazing.
- Thank you so much.
- Oh my gosh, you're so brave
for coming and talking about this stuff.
I'm glad you're here.
You did good.
It's okay.
(soft music)