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How She Survived Sex Trafficking?
“I became the woman who would have protected the child I was”
Carla was born in Oakland, California. At 2, she was taken from her mother. At 4, she went to live with her aunt. Structure, rules, food on the table — everything a child needs to survive. But the essentials were missing: hugs, kisses, affection. Her aunt made a point of constantly reminding her how much money she spent on her.
One day, at 11, she found cigarettes in Carla’s room. The punishment? She dropped her at her crack-addicted mother’s door with just a backpack.
In fact, the cigarettes weren’t even for her to smoke — she was just trying to befriend a 16-year-old neighborhood girl, desperately trying to find human connections in a world that rejected her.
From a tidy house and three meals a day, she plunged into a hell of violence and drugs. Her mother and stepfather would lock themselves in their room to smoke crack and fight. One night, curious about the screams, Carla peeked under the door. What she saw changed her life forever. She ran away for the first time at 11. On the street, a 30-year-old woman approached, offered her marijuana.
She became her “second mother”. At 12, she drugged her at a party. Carla woke up in a bed with a strange man. The “second mother” had sold…
