Girls Like Us: Fighting For a World Where Girls Are Not For Sale

Girls Like Us: Fighting For a World Where Girls Are Not For Sale, is a memoir by Rachel Lloyd that challenges how sexually exploited girls are treated and perceived in society. The book was originally published by Harper Perennial in February 2012 to positive reviews from various sources and figures such as Elle, Marie Claire, Demi Moore, Harlem Children’s Zone, and Tony Award-winning playwright and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sarah Jones.

Rachel Lloyd, a survivor of child sexual exploitation, founded Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) in 1998 at the age of 23. GEMS is now the nation’s largest organization offering direct services to victims of the domestic sex industry from ages 12 to 24. Lloyd is an Ashoka Fellow, a Reebok Human Rights Award winner, and a nationally recognized expert on the issue of child sexual exploitation. She played a key role in the passage of New York State’s Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, which was the first law in the United States to end the criminalization of child sex trafficking victims. Lloyd’s work at GEMS is the subject of the 2008 documentary Very Young Girls, distributed by Showtime and directed by David Schisgall and Nina Alvarez. Lloyd has been featured in outlets such as CNN, ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and New York Magazine. She was named one of the “50 Women Who Change the World” by Ms. Magazine and one of the “100 Women Who Shape New York” by the New York Daily News.

Girls Like Us weaves Lloyd’s personal experience in child sexual exploitation with the methods she used to begin GEMS, such as youth leadership, professional development, mentoring, and advocacy training. In the first chapters of the book, Lloyd lays out how family influence, lack of socioeconomic resources, and public stigma influence children’s involvement in sexual exploitation. She illustrates these interconnected issues through her own experience growing up poor in an abusive household, being forced into work at a young age, and entering the sex industry in order to survive. Lloyd’s story is not dissimilar to many of the girls that she works with, who face the deaths or addictions of parents, lack of protection from the very social and government agencies that are supposed to support them, and disdain from the general public.

The book’s middle section lays out the key players within the sex industry and their various roles, such as pimps, Johns, cops, and victims. Lloyd maintains that while pimps are often glorified within mass media, girls who are victims of sexual abuse are criminalized, especially if they are girls of color. Lloyd points out that “Johns,” a shorthand for clients of the sex industry, are rarely held accountable for their participation in child sexual exploitation. She maintains that even the nickname “Johns” normalizes their involvement. While Johns and pimps are the perpetrators of sexual violence and child abuse, law enforcement rarely intervenes. Lloyd describes her typical experience with cops as indifferent at best and aggressive at worst. She clarifies that not all cops she has worked with have been unresponsive; however, she emphasizes that this is the exception to the rule.

The last section of Girls Like Us maps out the possible roads to recovery for girls who have been sexually exploited. Lloyd emphasizes the need for an accepting environment in which girls are not shamed for their experiences or for their sometimes rocky transitions out of exploitation. Lloyd explains that it is a natural byproduct of trauma for people who have been abused to miss their abuser when faced with the realities and struggles of everyday existence, such as finding a job and housing. Lloyd’s approach through GEMS has been to put the power to change and honor their narratives into the hands of the girls themselves. The book ends with GEMS’s successfully fight for the passage of the Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth after four years of advocacy.