www.myfoxhouston.com
Updated: Thursday, 23 Feb 2012, 10:19 PM CST
Published : Thursday, 23 Feb 2012, 10:19 PM CST
SALLY MACDONALD
Reporter
She was supposed to start her freshman year of high school. Instead, she started her journey as a teenage stripper.
Last year, "Rebecca" ran away from home and soon became desperate for fast cash. At the age of 15, she started stripping at several clubs that make up Houston's sprawling sex trade.
"I didn't like it. Every time I would go on the stage, I would close my eyes,” the teen said. “I'm not comfortable. I never in my mind thought I would do something like that.”
Rebecca counts five strip clubs that hired her to perform, even though she told them she had no identification. That doesn't surprise the girl's recovery coach, Kathryn Griffin.
"You hear it everywhere, and amazingly enough you get to be 17 or 18 years old and you've aged out,” Griffin said. “The younger they are the more money they bring in."
Strip clubs can be a gateway into prostitution and human trafficking. Rebecca said soon after she ran away, she was approached by men wanting to sell her for sex.
"He was trying to lure me into his business because he was a pimp,” she said. “He was like, I can make a lot of money off you, show you off and all that."
She fears a life of sexual slavery was right around the corner had she not been arrested by an undercover officer.
"Thank God the day the cops came in and got me because if I stayed longer, that probably would have happened to me. That's not the life I want. I don't want to go down the same path. I don't want to make those mistakes."
Updated: Thursday, 23 Feb 2012, 10:19 PM CST
Published : Thursday, 23 Feb 2012, 10:19 PM CST
SALLY MACDONALD
Reporter
She was supposed to start her freshman year of high school. Instead, she started her journey as a teenage stripper.
Last year, "Rebecca" ran away from home and soon became desperate for fast cash. At the age of 15, she started stripping at several clubs that make up Houston's sprawling sex trade.
"I didn't like it. Every time I would go on the stage, I would close my eyes,” the teen said. “I'm not comfortable. I never in my mind thought I would do something like that.”
Rebecca counts five strip clubs that hired her to perform, even though she told them she had no identification. That doesn't surprise the girl's recovery coach, Kathryn Griffin.
"You hear it everywhere, and amazingly enough you get to be 17 or 18 years old and you've aged out,” Griffin said. “The younger they are the more money they bring in."
Strip clubs can be a gateway into prostitution and human trafficking. Rebecca said soon after she ran away, she was approached by men wanting to sell her for sex.
"He was trying to lure me into his business because he was a pimp,” she said. “He was like, I can make a lot of money off you, show you off and all that."
She fears a life of sexual slavery was right around the corner had she not been arrested by an undercover officer.
"Thank God the day the cops came in and got me because if I stayed longer, that probably would have happened to me. That's not the life I want. I don't want to go down the same path. I don't want to make those mistakes."