Former Prostitute Rescues Girls from Sex Trade

Rachel Lloyd provides housing, education and job training for exploited teens

April 22, 2011

After escaping a life of prostitution, Rachel Lloyd (left) established Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) in New York City to help young women leave the sex trade.

Rachel Lloyd understands why and how young girls become prostitutes. She was once once herself.

"I grew up with a lot of trauma and dysfunction in my family," she says. "So by the time I was like 13, I dropped out of school. I was working full time in factories and restaurants. I began to model, a kind of nude modeling, so I was already on the periphery of the sex industry."

Looking for a new start, Lloyd left her home in Britain for Germany. She ended up working as a hostess in a Munich sex club at the age of 17. After three suicide attempts and one effort by her boyfriend/pimp to kill her, she found shelter in a local American church. She eventually immigrated to the United States and vowed to not only change her life, but also to help young women in need.

Lloyd recounts her story in "Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale; An Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself." Lloyd began that healing process by going back to school when she was 23.