Brenda Myers-Powell was just a young teenager in Chicago when, pressed by poverty, she sold sex for the first time to make money for her grandmother and her young kids. It didn't take long for pimps to find her and violently seize control of her life. From there, she spent 25 years as a prostitute.

In this recently published article, she chronicles her incredibly difficult decades as a prostitute--the lies, the fear, the violence, the stigma, and the lack of "a way out" that kept her there. She also shares about the series of events that got her into a safe house--the beginning of a new life that started with a place where she could rest and learn to trust others.

Read her story to hear her resounding message:

"I am here to tell you - there is life after so much damage, there is life after so much trauma. There is life after people have told you that you are nothing, that you are worthless and that you will never amount to anything. There is life - and I'm not just talking about a little bit of life. There is a lot of life."

Brenda founded and runs The Dreamcatcher Foundation, an anti-sex trafficking organization in Chicago.