Breaking Free (20 page)

Be cool, man.

This book is mostly about the girls and women affected by sex trafficking, but of course we need to look at the demand for sex and the way boys are taught that pimping is “hot.” Apne Aap has a great “Cool Men Don’t Buy Sex” campaign. Visit the Apne Aap website to see how you can start a “Cool Men” movement:
www.apneaap.org/cmdbs/cool-men-dont-buy-sex-campaign
.

Shop!

You can buy jewelry and gifts made by survivors. It is incredibly empowering to survivors to learn a new skill like jewelry making or sewing, especially as they are healing from trauma. Each piece of cloth or bead is filled with hope and new light. Whether you wear it yourself or give it to someone else, you’re helping to expand the anti-trafficking momentum. Look at the beautiful gifts being made here:

International Sanctuary, Purchase with Purpose

Jewelry, stationery, awesome gifts for kids and adults

www.isanctuary.org

Made By Survivors

Jewelry, bags, the cutest backpacks you’ll ever carry

www.madebysurvivors.com

Somaly’s Empowerment Store

Cards, jewelry, clothing, accessories, inspiring books and CDs

www.empowermentstore.org

Oh, and perhaps the most important thing you

CAN and MUST do NOW:

“Practice and cultivate self-love…
Empowering survivors to be who they are is really the same as empowering anyone to be themselves.”

~Minh Dang

Afterword

The same old street, but with a new door

This morning, I was riding my bicycle to the local public pool in Brooklyn. It was a little past sunrise and the streets were familiar to me. But I saw something I’d never seen before.

The flash and glitter of a tall woman wearing a black skin-tight spandex outfit and stilettos caught my eye. She looked like she was about twenty years old—maybe younger. She was walking quickly along the broken sidewalk. Then a thick metal door opened up out of a brick warehouse-looking building. I saw a man’s stocky arm holding the door open. The edge of his T-shirt was a faded red and stained. As the woman rushed in, the stocky arm shut the door swiftly behind her.

I saw this for the first time today, even though I’ve been down this old street before. It’s not far from my apartment. Not far from the local coffee shop where I often sit for hours and write. Not far from the playground where I bring my kids to swing and splash in the sprinklers.

I saw this just today, and I wanted to stop my bicycle, sit on that broken sidewalk, and weep.

But I’m the one making up the rest of this woman’s story. I don’t know who she is or what she was doing. I certainly don’t know if she’s being trafficked. Maybe she was going into an unmarked door just after dawn dressed the way she was dressed for a gazillion reasons. Wouldn’t it be great if she were getting home from a disco party with her closest friends that went all night, or even a masquerade?

Whatever her story is, I owe it to her to stop and think. Just as I owe it to the extraordinary girls and women in this book who walked into unmarked doors that changed their lives forever. Their voices fill me with tremendous hope, and also a great sense of responsibility.

So today, right now, I have a choice to make.

I can look up the address of that building and call any organization I trust to report what I saw, making sure I contact people who won’t put that girl in any danger.

I can volunteer at the teen shelter near my apartment and get to know my neighbors more honestly.

I can write a letter to our new mayor and ask him exactly how buyers of sex are being prosecuted.

I can talk to friends about this door and ask if they’ve seen it, too.

Whatever I decide, I have to do
something
.

It’s the same old street I know so well. Only, now I see it with new eyes.

I see how it’s my chance to help one more person break free.

Acknowledgments

There are so many incredible people who helped make this book possible. Thank you to Jen Zeigler who led me to the incredible NoVo Foundation. Thank you to Jody Myrum, Caitlin Ho, and Pamela Shifman at the NoVo Foundation; Megan and Melissa at Gracehaven; Rachel Lloyd and Twanna at GEMS; Ruchira Gupta, Lindsey Swedick, Tinku Khanna, Sahana Dasgupta, and Anupam Das at Apne Aap; Anita Channapati; Vednita Carter of Breaking Free; and Lauren Hersh from Equality Now. Your patience, wisdom, and encouragement have been such gifts to me.

Thank you to Ben Skinner, Nicholas Kristof, and Sheryl WuDunn for your inspirational writing on human trafficking and for cracking open worlds that were secret for so long.

Thank you to Amy Klein, Kimmi Berlin, and Judy Batalion for reading and re-reading my words, making sense of my half-baked ideas. To Emma Tsui, Kim Thackeray, Gabra Zackman, Megan Grano, Sara Moss, Alexander London, Joselin Linder, and Alysia Reiner for constantly motivating me and buying me coffee.

Thank you to Lori Black, Abigail Disney, and Leymah Gbowee, who taught me the importance of standing up to make a difference. Thank you to my dear friend Samantha Mary Karpel, who was the first person to teach me that my voice could matter.

Thank you to my amazingly kind and supportive agent, Joelle Delbourgo. Thank you to the entire Barron’s team, especially my awesomely inspiring editor, Angela Tartaro.

Thank you, thank you to my incredibly loving family; Betsy, Jon, Easy, Boppy, and CK; Jason, Sunny, and Zev, who told me all the time that I could do it and reminded me every day to enjoy knock-knock jokes. An extra special thank you to Samson Bird, who grew in my belly as this book was born and is already teaching me so much about seeing the world anew.

And of course, thank you to the generous, extraordinary survivors who spoke to me about their experiences. J.K. Rowling once said, “The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.”

Thank you so much for entrusting me with your truth.