"It is jarring to go public for the first time about my own experiences: The looks, the snide comments—particularly from the adults, who are supposed to know better—make me flush with shame and cry at night."
Rachel Lloyd's story is powerfully gripping, as told in her recent memoir, Girls Like Us. Strikingly real because the author herself successfully escaped the lifestyle she now fights to end, Girls Like Us is the true story of how Rachel Lloyd left her life as a sex-industry victim, established GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) in 1997, and took it from a two-woman operation to what is now one of the most innovative and groundbreaking nonprofits in the United States, helping more than 300 girls a year in the New York City area.
Lloyd is able to present the harsh reality of an unthinkable business in the United States: the sexual exploitation of women and young girls. In a tone both poignant and clinical, Lloyd recounts her personal history, growing up in Europe and emigrating to the United States. Interwoven in the painful details of her own life, Lloyd introduces girls like Aisha, Jennifer and Miranda, victims of abuse, homelessness, neglect and, ultimately, sex trafficking—all of whom are United States citizens. Paralleling her own story, Lloyd depicts the girls’ initial defensiveness, writing that “the girls are surprised, and then relieved, when they realize I won’t judge them.”
Lloyd explains that “according to a 2001 University of Pennsylvania study, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 adolescents are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States each year,” yet the common perception is that these girls choose to work as prostitutes and therefore don’t often receive the attention or help they deserve. Lloyd dispels this misconception almost immediately, recounting a late-night meeting with a tough, jaded, experienced eleven-year-old sex trade victim.
Although Lloyd’s story is heartbreaking, eye-opening and at times painful to read, her ultimate success founding and growing GEMS allows the reader a sense of victory over a cruel reality. Lloyd’s own maturation throughout the book is mingled with small victories, stories of girls she has helped and the lives they have been able to establish after escaping the sex trafficking world.
Girls Like Us offers a raw, honest and detailed account of a reality that many Americans could never understand. Lloyd’s work with GEMS is shown as a critical necessity in the United States while the industry’s many victims are proven resilient, powerful and full of potential.