Title: Girls Like Us
Author: Rachel Lloyd
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1451608625
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
From the Publisher:
A deeply moving story by a survivor of the commercial sex industry who has devoted her career to activism and helping other young girls escape “the life”
At thirteen, Rachel Lloyd found herself caught up in a world of pain and abuse, struggling to survive as a child with no responsible adults to support her. Vulnerable yet tough, she eventually ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. It took time and incredible resilience, but ?nally, with the help of a local church community, she broke free of her pimp and her past.
Three years later, Lloyd arrived in the United States to work with adult women in the sex industry and soon founded her own nonprofit—GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services—to meet the needs of other girls with her history. She also earned her GED and won full scholarships to college and a graduate program. Today Lloyd is executive director of GEMS in New York City and has turned it into one of the nation’s most groundbreaking nonprofit organizations.
In Girls Like Us, Lloyd reveals the dark, secretive world of her past in stunning cinematic detail. And, with great humanity, she lovingly shares the stories of the girls whose lives she has helped—small victories that have healed her wounds and made her whole. Revelatory, authentic, and brave, Girls Like Us is an unforgettable memoir.
My Review:
In a disquieting description of the lives of girls and young women entrained in the commercial sex trade, Rachel Lloyd in Girls Like Us tells readers of her perseverance to leave the abusive, destructive, and devastatingly tragic treatment that is so much a part of this major human rights issue. Lloyd grew up the daughter of a poor mother and an abusive male figure whose identity as her father was uncertain. Faced with the departure of the “father” figure, Lloyd’s mother who was nurturing in her early years sank into depression and relied heavily on alcohol as Lloyd was coming of age. Lloyd relied heavily on friends and petty crime to keep her afloat amidst the lack of support and caring from her mother. Lloyd shows how her longing for a caring, loving adult figure in her life set her up for what is all too often the very weakness that allows pimps to seduce disadvantaged girls into the sex trade. To help ensure that at-risk girls do not succumb to the seductions of the sex trade, Lloyd founded the Girls Educational and Mentoring Service (GEMS), a remarkable capstone to her life experiences that began with an incomprehensibly grotesque existence in the sex trade and through her determination and personal strength carried her into a life of confidence, independence, and now author of an incredibly educational, eye-opening memoir about an oft-overlooked human rights abuse that spans the globe. I cannot recommend Girls Like Us highly enough for all adult readers and book groups.
Rachel Lloyd earned her BA in psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and her MA in applied urban anthropology from the City College of New York. She is the founder and executive director of GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award. Lloyd is an Ashoka Fellow and a Prime Mover Fellow, and she was a leading advocate for the Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act, which made New York the first state to protect, not prosecute, sexually exploited children. She lives in New York City.
I received a complimentary ARC of Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd from Harper Collins. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
Wow!
That one word truly sums up the book.
Awesome review – I put in a request for this one and I hope I get in on it.
It was a deeply moving book and I highly recommend it.