Julie's parents kicked her out of the house for taking drugs when she was 17. Like many teens who wind up in the sex trade, she stumbled into it with the help of "caring" adults.
She met an older boyfriend who suggested she work as a stripper to earn some cash. One night after work, someone slipped a drug into her drink. She woke up in a hotel room with several girls and a man she'd never met.
"He didn't say he was a pimp or anything," said Julie. "But I had a cellphone, and when I said I wanted to call my boyfriend, he took it away."
Within hours, she was in a car with the guy and the other girls, driving down the interstate. Said Julie: "I didn't even know where I was going. It was like, 'I just want to go home.'"
Stories like Julie's propelled the Women's Foundation of Minnesota to launch its campaign to end the teen sex trade. The young woman, now 21, is getting help at Breaking Free, a St. Paul nonprofit that supports women fleeing the sex trade.
Julie is so afraid of being kidnapped again that she agreed to talk only if her full name and other details were withheld.
"He had me dancing first," she said. "Then sex with the customers. Then he put me on the streets. He decided that wasn't right for me so then he put me on the Internet."
The Internet ad claimed she was 20. Julie wound up servicing Internet clients by day, typically in hotel rooms, and other men at the strip club at night. She did this in state after state.
