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Trigger Warning: This discussion includes frank, explicit, discussions of abuse and pornographic content that may be triggering to some. Listener discretion is advised.

Alia grew up in Ventura, California, with a young mother. From a very young age, Alia experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend. Her warped understanding of love and affection pushed her to seek out validation from older men on social media. By the time she was 14, she had entered into a relationship with a man twice her age who then trafficked her. When she was 18, the exploitation Alia experienced evolved into performing in strip clubs where she was eventually invited by a customer to join the porn industry. Ultimately, Alia’s experience in the porn industry was dramatically different from the glamorous and empowered life that was initially promised to her. Even as a popular mainstream performer, she experienced more trafficking, abuse, and exploitation, eventually breaking free and connecting with other sex industry survivors. See how Alia’s childhood abuse paved the way for her career in the commercial sex industry, and why she finally left on her own terms.

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As you go about your day we invite you to increase your self-awareness, look both ways, check your blindspots, and consider before consuming.