Far too many girls growing up in poverty exchanging sex for money is seen as their most viable option for achieving financial freedom.

NOTE: This is NOT an affront to sex workers.

Sex work is real work. Sex work exists because there is a market for it — and a lucrative one at that —with demand created primarily by men.

Sex work covers bills, pays tuition, and keeps food on the table. Sex work is labor that helps people survive and thrive.

But reliance on sex work is also a symptom of economic injustice.

We all know that most sex workers are women, but data from the FBI and rights4girls shows there are other major disparities when it comes to sex work, particularly the most exploitative kind.

Activist Emi Koyama further described the conditions that tend to lead youth to the sex industry in an Atlantic article:

“[M]ost of the young people in the sex trade come from families affected by poverty, racism, abuse (including homophobia and transphobia in families), parental imprisonment or deportation, or from broken child welfare systems, and do not have safe places to return to.”

It‘s clear that, for many vulnerable and marginalized people, sex work is not a choice made from a position of empowerment. It is a necessity resorted to in positions of desperation.