GIRL NEXT DOOR WAS CAUGHT IN SEX TRADE

When Jenn was 16, she lost her virginity in the sex trade, working the
streets in New Westminster.

Today, the pretty teenager, who looks like the girl next door, is back at
home in Maple Ridge.

She's one of an increasing number of suburban girls from good homes who end
up selling their bodies for cash.

"Kids get bought and sold and traded like baseball cards," she told The
Sunday Province.

"Recruiters will go into schools and specifically look for the suburban
kind of girl. They have been highly trained to pick out the risk-takers.
It's a billion-dollar industry."

Jenn lived for four months as a "sexually exploited child."

"We're not prostitutes. It's a form of child abuse and slavery."

Now 17, she doesn't fit the stereotypes often attached to teens in the sex
trade.

She comes from a normal home and is the youngest of three children.

Her mom, Carol, is a nurse and runs an animal rescue centre from the
family's Maple Ridge home.

Her father, Brian, is a plumber and plays in a rock band.

Today, she often speaks in public as an advocate for street youth.

Working the streets in New Westminster, Surrey and Burnaby was frightening.

She was beaten and, in a separate incident, came close to being murdered by
a violent trick.

"I was held hostage once and that was pretty scary," she said.

"I was in a hotel room with another girl and a guy who was determined to
kill us. He had been in jail a lot. He started to slit her throat and I was
going to be next -- luckily, he OD'd."

So how does a girl who won medals in track and field and who's doing some
modelling, end up selling herself to strangers?

It started in Grade 7, when Jenn had problems with authority and got
labelled as a bad kid.

She hung out with a drug-taking crowd and ended up breaking into houses and
shoplifting.

"I did whatever the 'craziest' thing was, because the crazier you are, the
cooler you are," she admitted. "So I'd do the most drugs, drink the most."

She started skipping school in Grades 9 and 10 to go to North Vancouver for
a couple of days at a time "just to party."

"At school, I was getting drunk at lunchtime. I was doing acid. Friends
were using cocaine, so I started using it, getting addicted."

She started bingeing, doing crystal meth and going to raves.

That's when her mom gave her an ultimatum, which she regrets.

"I kicked her out," Carol said. "I didn't expect her to leave. I was trying
to force her back to school."

Jenn moved in with friends in New West. By now she was addicted to crack
cocaine.

"One guy was pressuring me for sex," she said. "I had to move out because I
didn't want to have sex -- I had never had sex before."

She tried to get a job.

"Nobody would hire me because I was a street kid with no phone or address.
I couldn't get welfare because I was too young."

She spiralled on down.

"I ran into some people in their 20s who I started partying with. They had
everything I needed. They had a place to stay, they had food, drugs,
everything.

"Nothing's free. I had to pay it back and I was introduced to the sex trade.

"It's not like Pretty Woman -- it's a survival thing. There's no glamour in
it. You don't work in the sex trade to make a lot of money or have a lot of
fun."

Her $200-a-day crack habit gradually grew to $700.

She said it's hard to describe being addicted strongly to drugs.

"My confusion, anger, sadness and frustration -- I numbed it all with the
drugs," she said. "I would do anything for those drugs."

Her clients were everyone from "creepy weirdos" to family men -- "someone's
dad or husband."

"When you're out there in the sex trade, you're in a whole other world,"
she said. "It's like you're not even on Earth any more. You're very
isolated from society. Every day I was out there I thought, 'Somebody help
me, God I want out,' but help was not there. I wasn't strong enough to take
myself out of that situation."

She went from 135 pounds to 90 pounds, going without sleep for up to 10
days and rarely eating.

She'd come home every so often to eat and sleep and then go back.

"She looked like a walking corpse," said her mom.

Near the end, she was living with a drug dealer and she got sick.

She called her mom, who took her to hospital.

"I had a fever, pneumonia and my lungs were in danger of collapsing," Jenn
said.

She spent six days in hospital, enough time to detox.

"All these memories and emotions you have blocked off come flooding
through," she said. "'What do I do now? All I know is street slang?'

"You have to learn how to live again, how to love yourself. That takes a
long time."

She says the greatest need is for safe houses for kids, with youth workers
who've been in the sex trade and who understand.

Jenn's been home for a year and she's still healing.

She's back at school and will graduate this year. She's having trouble
fitting in.

"My old group of friends are still on drugs so I can't hang out with them,"
she said. "It's hard to connect, to walk down the hallway when no one talks
to you."

She plans to get involved in a street festival for street kids in Coquitlam
in March.

"I know I'm a good person. It's sad to think my past is the present and
future for thousands of kids."

Jenn's story can be seen in a documentary called Innocent Tricks, airing on
CBC Newsworld on Tuesday and Saturday at 10 p.m.

KNOW THE SIGNS

Some of the behaviours that could indicate your child is involved in
prostitution:

- - Being secretive and uncommunicative.

- - Skipping school, falling grades.

- - Dressing provocatively, heavy make-up, carrying condoms.

- - Extreme mood swings, street language, abusive behaviour.

- - Having a much older boyfriend.

- - Having unexplained money.

- - New and expensive clothing or jewelry.

- - Packing a change of clothes when going out.

- - Receiving phone calls in the middle of the night.