“I am both numb and oversensitive, overwhelmed by the need, the raw and desperate need of the girls I am listening to and trying to help. I'm overdosing on the trauma of others, while still barely healing from my own. I cry for hour at home and have fitful nights of little sleep. My nightmares resurface as my own pain is repeated to me, magnified a thousand times. It feels insurmountable. How can you save everyone? How can you rescue them? How do you get over your pain? How do you ever feel normal?” PainHealingCryNormalTraumaGirlsNeedHelpRescueNumbNightmaresOversensitive Book:Girls Like Us Source: Girls Like Us
“Every new encounter provides a new mirror for me to view my own experiences through, and there is a level of selfishness during this period as I hunger to understand more about the girls' lives in order to understand mine. If I could figure out what had happened to them, perhaps I had a better chance of explaining it all to myself.” SelfishGirlsUnderstandExperiencesMirror Book:Girls Like Us Source: Girls Like Us
“In 1973, Jan Erik Olsson walked into a small bank in Stockholm, Sweden, brandishing a gun, wounding a police officer, and taking three women and one man hostage. During negotiations, Olsson demanded money, a getaway vehicle, and that his friend Clark Olofsson, a man with a long criminal history, be brought to the bank. The police allowed Olofsson to join his friend and together they held the four hostages captive in a bank vault for six days. During their captivity, the hostages at times were attached to snare traps around their necks, likely to kill them in the event that the police attempted to storm the bank. The hostages grew increasingly afraid and hostile toward the authorities trying to win their release and even actively resisted various rescue attempts. Afterward they refused to testify against their captors, and several continued to stay in contact with the hostage takers, who were sent to prison. Their resistance to outside help and their loyalty toward their captors was puzzling, and psychologists began to study the phenomenon in this and other hostage situations. The expression of positive feelings toward the captor and negative feelings toward those on the outside trying to win their release became known as Stockholm syndrome.” TraumaTraumatizedStockholm SyndromeTrauma BondingHostage Situation Author:Rachel Lloyd
“It's hard to explain to Tiana that her feelings about this aren't indicative of what a great guy her 'daddy' is but rather an indictment against how awful all the adults in her life have been...If you haven't had proper love and care, then a substitute will feel like the real thing, because you've got nothing to compare it to. For Tiana, whose entire fifteen years on the earth have been filled with physical violence, neglect, and horrific abuse, this analogy doesn't really make sense. Her 'daddy' is the first person who's shown her any type of kindness, who's modeled what a 'real' family looks like- even though after dinner he takes her and the other girls out and sells them on the street.” TraumaSex TraffickingPimps Book:Girls Like Us Source: Girls Like Us
“I think a huge part is how we're socialized growing up to see our value and worth as being tied into a relationship and how our culture teaches us a distorted sense of romantic love - can't live without you, can't breathe without you, I'll die without you. As teenage girls we believe that level of emotional intensity and dramatics equates with real love. We're also taught that if we date lots of people, then we're sluts, so at an early age we put all our eggs into one basket, so to speak, and concentrate on "the one".” PeopleThinkingBelieveRealAgeValuesCultureGirlSpeakTeachGrowing UpEmotionalBreatheReal LoveRomantic LoveTeenageTeenage Girl Author:Rachel Lloyd
“I think boys and men are socialized very differently rather than girls and are trained not to show their emotions in the same way, to date lots of people, not just one exclusively, and are rewarded for many other things in our culture outside of maintaining a relationship.” PeopleThinkingMenCultureGirlEmotionBoys Author:Rachel Lloyd
“Even in New York City, we've seen some major improvements from the way the system was 20 years ago. There's still a lot to do - we know that training workers and parents, reducing caseload size, developing therapeutic foster care, strengthening kinship care, and putting more emphasis into preventive care are all solutions. Unfortunately, if a child is in a situation where removal from the home becomes neccessary, there's already been trauma. Putting a traumatized child into a "system," not a home, with strangers is creating a perfect storm for further trauma.” ChildrenHomeCareParentPerfectSituationSolutionsTrainingStrangerTraumaStormImprovementStrengtheningRemovalKinshipFoster Care Author:Rachel Lloyd
“Every age, race, socio-economic background of men are 'johns.' It's a little more complicated who's doing the selling. The truth is that the average street pimp selling American girls is often a man of color, however, Mexican pimps are selling Mexican girls, Russian men are selling Russian girls etc. Those who profit off the sex industry overall are not the ones who are standing out on the street. They're the owners of massage parlors, escort agencies, strip clubs, and brothels.” MenAgeGirlTruth IsComplicatedSellingStanding OutMexicanMassagePimp Author:Rachel Lloyd
“Over time I learned that there were a lot of people who would judge you, blame you, and try to make you feel lesser, no matter what you did; that a degree, a good suit, and a career wouldn't always insulate you from scorn.” PeopleFeelsTryingMatterCareersJudgingDegreesNo Matter WhatBlameSuitsScorn Author:Rachel Lloyd
“Girls weren’t drug addicted, they were love addicted, and that, I’ll learn, is far harder to treat.” GirlDrugTreatsHarderDrug Addict Author:Rachel Lloyd
“If we're going to address trafficking in our country we have to address poverty, racism & gender based violence.” IfsCountryPovertyViolenceRacismGenderOur CountryAddressesTrafficking Author:Rachel Lloyd
“An important documentary that sheds light on one of the most terrifying realities in the U.S. today—the commercial sexual exploitation of young girls. TRICKED is a comprehensive portrait of all the players in this human rights abuse: survivors, traffickers, johns and cops. Everyone should see this film.” ShouldHumansImportantRealityLightTodayFilmYoungGirlRightsPlayerAbuseHuman RightsSurvivorCopShedExploitationPortraitsDocumentariesComprehensive Author:Rachel Lloyd
