- Well, when I was nine,
my dad was in prison and he told my grandma
to let me use his phone for my birthday. So, I was going through his pictures and I found a video and it was him raping me when I was four. And then, when he got out
I confronted him about it and it started happening again, so. - [Mark] All right, Faith. Faith, where'd you grow up? Where are you from originally? - [Faith] Oklahoma. - [Mark] And tell me about your childhood, you had both your parents as a kid? - I have one parent. - [Mark] Mom? - Dad. - [Mark] Dad? - Mhmm. - [Mark] What happened with your mom? - She went to prison
when I was six months old and my dad left her. - [Mark] Oh wow. - And I met her one time, but she said that she came to visit me, but she came to get divorce papers signed. That's really all she came for. But she called me from
prison like a few weeks ago. - [Mark] So you never
really had a mother figure. - No. - [Mark] And tell me about your childhood, any traumatic events, any abuse? - At 14 I was kidnapped. - [Mark] By who? - A guy named Jaykuan Robinson,
he's in jail right now. They're trying to get me to go to court, He was arrested in 2017. - [Mark] He kidnapped you and did what? - Locked me in the closet
and had people come pay him to rape me pretty much. That's how I got brought
into this kind of life. - [Mark] Through? - 'cause I was kidnapped. - [Mark] Yeah, but you met people that started pimping you or
something like that? - He was pimping me. - [Mark] Oh, he was okay. Oh, wow. And rather than stopping that kind of behavior, you continued. - Well, I went home after
I was kidnapped and like everybody just like treated
me different, you know? And I just felt like, Oh,
you guys think I'm not shit anymore because of what happened to me. So, since they treated me
wrong, I just went back. - [Mark] So, how old are you now? - 16.
- [Mark] 16? - Mhmm. - [Mark] And, do you still
have contact with your family? - No. Some of them, yeah, but. - [Mark] But, does your
dad know you're out here? - He knows what I do. - [Mark] He does? Has he tried to intervene or anything? - Yeah. But he just really minds his own business. He's not really worried about me. - [Mark] So, you've been
doing sex work for how long? - Huh? - [Mark] you have been working
as a prostitute for how long? - I was kidnapped in 2017. - [Mark] Since you were 14 years old? - Mhmm. - [Mark] And where did
you go from Oklahoma? Did you start working there? - In 2009, I moved to California and I didn't start working
until I was kidnapped. I didn't know nothing about any of this. - [Mark] Do you feel like that event kind of changed
the course of your life? - Yeah.
- [Mark] Sounds like it. - Yeah. - [Mark] Then, so today you're
working Figueroa street? - Mhmm. - [Mark] Do you have a pimp? - I have a boyfriend. - [Mark] Yes, I understand. And you bring your boyfriend,
the money you make? - No, it just stays in
the room, we share it. - [Mark] Okay. And you're fine with that arrangement. He takes care of you? - Yes, he does. - [Mark] So, how many
guys a day or a night will you entertain? - A lot. I don't know. It's just hard right now, because like, I'm pregnant, so. - [Mark] Oh, you're pregnant? - Yeah, two months. - [Mark] And your boyfriend is the dad? - Mhmm. - [Mark] Are drugs a part of your life? - No, not anymore. - [Mark] Not anymore. Where were you using before? - Crystal.
- [Mark] Crystal. Crystal meth helps you get in the mood for all this kind of stuff? - Well, when I was kidnapped, he would like, force me to do it. So, like I think I just
got addicted, you know? - [Mark] So, that was a pimp
that you met in Oklahoma, or he met you? - No, I met him in California city and he was with my step-sister and she was the driver
when I was kidnapped, he paid her. - [Mark] And you make enough money? You're saving money, you think? - I don't save no money. - [Mark] No? - No, I need to. - [Mark] Where do you live? Do you live just motel to motel? - Yeah, right now. I'm trying to get a
studio apartment though. - [Mark] You had any bad experiences other than your kidnapping, since then? - My dad is a child molester, so like, my whole life,
like was just hard. - [Mark] Did you ever
have sexual interactions with your dad? - He had sexual interactions with me. - [Mark] That's what I mean, yeah. - Yeah. - [Mark] What age did that start? - Well, when I was nine,
my dad was in prison and he told my grandma
to let me use his phone for my birthday. So, I was going through his pictures and I found a video and it was him raping me when I was four. And then, when he got out
I confronted him about it and it started happening again, so. That's why I just stay as
far away from him as I can. - [Mark] Living this life. Do you get depressed? Do you get anxious? - All the time, I have scars on my arm, 'cause I used cut myself. - [Mark] Because you cut yourself? - Mhmm. - [Mark] Oh wow. - All the way up. I don't do it anymore though. - [Mark] And does some of your customers get rough with you as well? - No.
- [Mark] You haven't had that? - Well, there was one,
like, the other night he kinda got mad. That's why I have the Mark right here. - [Mark] Yeah, I see the
bruise on your arm too. - I know that's from a while ago it was just won't go away. - [Mark] So, this kind of work, does it build your self esteem somehow or does it undermine your self-esteem? - Well, since I was
kidnapped, I suffer from PTSD. It used to like, make me
feel better about myself, because people would pull up and tell me I'm pretty
and stuff like that. But now, like, after every day I wanna cry and all kinds of stuff,
because I'm supposed to be on psych meds, but I don't have anymore. Because I suffer from major depression, bipolar depression, and PTSD. - [Mark] Mm. The guys that will date you, do you respect them? Do you like them? - I just put up with them. - [Mark] Are you in love
with your boyfriend? - Yes I am. - [Mark] How old is he? - 27. - [Mark] 27. What do you think the most
misunderstood thing is about this kind of work? A lot of people will drive down Figueroa and think all these
girls just love sex and they don't see the
bigger picture behind it. - it's easy for everybody
to get a job, you know. It's quick, easy money, you don't have to fill
out no paperwork, nothing. And really most of the girls out there are girls with really low self-esteem, who don't care, you know? And going out there just
makes them feel better, because people will pull up to you just to tell you you're
beautiful, you know? - [Mark] Yeah. How far do you wanna house in school? - Huh? - [Mark] How far did you go in school? - Eighth grade.
- [Mark] Eighth grade. Do you find it difficult to be surrounded by people that are all up to no good? You know, what you're doing is illegal, What your boyfriend's doing is illegal, what the customers are doing is illegal. - I don't really care. - [Mark] You've been doing
this for a few years now. How do you feel like it's changed you? - I used to be a good little white girl. I used to go to school,
always had my nails done. I dressed a little hoochie, but that just 'cause I thought
I was pretty, you know, but after I was kidnapped,
like, everything just went into a down spiral. I stopped going to school, started using. My family disowned me, neglected me. So, really, since my family wasn't there, the streets were, you know. I didn't have nowhere to stay, no money to buy no food. I was under age, it's just not like I could just go get a job, you know? - [Mark] Yeah, with an
eighth grade education it's gonna be hard to get jobs too. - Yeah. - [Mark] Do you ever stand
back and look at your life and just think, this is such a crazy life compared to maybe who
you went to school with, some of your friends back in
Oklahoma or even California. - [Faith] I talked to like, people that I went to like
elementary school with and stuff in California city. And like, all doing good, got cars, houses, jobs and I'm just like, damn, that could have been me. Could have been me. But, I'm thinking about
going back to school. - [Mark] Yeah, you're 16, so, you can easily change
the direction of your life. - [Faith] 'cause I wanna go to
college for victim advocacy. - [Mark] Good for you. - [Faith] Yeah. - [Mark] That sounds like a great idea. - [Faith] Well, I'm gonna
be a VA, victim's advocate and then I'm gonna do like public speeches in like, places that can't afford to have people come visit schools and stuff. - [Mark] That'd be a great idea. - [Faith] So, I'm gonna
do free volunteering. - [Mark] What would you tell a young girl who's been
through some of the traumatic stuff that you've been through? How would you advise them? - [Faith] It's other ways
to deal with your emotions. It might be a little bit more work to find the things that'll
help you get through them, but this ain't gonna help. - [Mark] No. It's like you're recreating the traumatic event that happened to you. - You live it every day. - [Mark] Whereas with a
little bit of courage, you can use that as fuel to go in a better direction for yourself. And perhaps you can teach
others to do the same. Sounds great. You believe you deserve a
better life than this is? 'cause this is.
- I do. - [Mark] That's great. I mean, just as an
outsider who just met you, I could tell you, you do. It's very clear to me that that's what you should be doing, something like your friends from school right now are doing, but I understand what you went through. After it happens to people, it almost, you become like a moth to a flame and you end up going right
back to the same kind of behavior or something that
will recreate that behavior. The abuse, the disrespect, the lack of love, all that stuff. - By going back into it,
you're not helping yourself. You're just putting yourself
back into that same situation. - [Mark] What does this
kind of work taught you about human nature or about men? - Everybody's different. - [Mark] Yeah. That's very true. - You can't judge anybody, because I'm the one out there, you know. I don't know what's going
on in these people's lives to have them paying for females, you know. - [Mark] Do you get asked to do things that you're uncomfortable to do? Like, have sex without a condom. - Sometimes, but I just tell them no. - [Mark] You do? - If I don't feel
comfortable, I'm not doing it. - [Mark] You believe in karma. - I do, good and bad. - [Mark] There's a lot of
karma stories in your life, from what your dad did to you and - Oh, I know, and it's going to get him. - [Mark] And the decisions
you've made for yourself also you'll pay a price for that down the road and if you change the
direction of your life you'll change your karma as well. - See, the thing is, I
have time to change mine. - [Mark] Yeah, but don't waste it. A lot of people, you know, start in their teens and
they never ever get out. I've talked to a lot of women in their fifties and sixties, I think and they're still doing this. - That's them, I'm me. - [Mark] Good for you. Good for you. What about your childhood do you think if it was different, if
it had been different, might have changed the
direction of your life? Having your mom? - Probably, yeah. - [Mark] I would think
that would be a big one. What have you learned
from doing this kind of, living this kind of life? What mistakes have you said, oh my God. I need to never do that again. - I don't know. You make mistakes to learn from them, so I don't really repeat
the mistakes I make. - [Mark] Do you sometimes find
guys that want to pick you up and you're afraid to
get in the car with them? - Yes, actually I was in Bakersfield and that happened to me. And I was still walking and
the guy ended up parking and getting out and running up on me and tackling me and all kinds of stuff. It was so crazy and my friend was on the
phone right down the street, I was so mad. - [Mark] With the child
on the way, do you think that'll motivate you to maybe get out of this line of work? - [Faith] It's already motivating me. - [Mark] Good for you. That's nice to hear. All right, Faith. Well, thank you so much
for talking with me. - Thank you. - [Mark] And I wish you and your baby, the best of luck and I hope
some of your plans come true. - [Faith] All of them will. - [Mark] thank you.
