Selling Their Bodies

Lisa has been many things in her life—a student at a private all-girls' school, a college student, and a stay-at-home mom. She never thought she'd be shooting crack cocaine in a cheap hotel room and selling her body as a prostitute.

By the time Lisa was 13 years old she says she was using drugs regularly. After dropping out of college, Lisa worked several jobs over the next 10 years, ending up at an advertising firm. All the while she continued using drugs. When she quit her job in 2002, Lisa became homeless and spent her time searching for a way to buy the drugs she could not afford. Lisa was desperate and began prostituting herself, getting clients by running ads in local papers. She says she has lived in this cycle of prostitution and drugs for three and a half years.

It was only after seeing Cracked Not Broken, a documentary about herself filmed by her friend's husband, that Lisa finally realized what her life had become. "I was moved in a way I didn't understand," she says. "I couldn't even put words to the feelings. How did this happen to me?"

Days after seeing the edited version of the documentary, Lisa says she walked out of her hotel room and even left all of her clothes behind. She says she hasn't turned a trick in a month and hasn't used drugs in 16 days.