This considered before consuming episode contains discussions of sexual violence.

Listener discretion is advised.

Today's episode is with Selena, a former porn performer and sex trafficking survivor, who

now works as an associate program director at a long-term recovery facility for women.

Selena shares her harrowing journey, from working in the commercial sex industry from a

young age, to finding the strength to reclaim

her life and help others do the same. She offers us a look into the realities of the porn

industry, the tactics of coercion and abuse, and her road to recovery. With that, let's jump into

the conversation. We hope you enjoy this episode of Consider Before Consuming.

Okay, Selena, thank you so much for joining us today on Consider Before Consuming.

Can you introduce yourself in the work that you do?

Hi, my name is Selena.

I have a bachelor's in psychology, and I currently am a associate program

director for a long-term facility that focuses specifically on women that have been sex trafficked.

Amazing. Thank you. And when did you first consider doing this work? What led you on this path?

I think just based off of my own trauma and my own recovery,

it was one of the things that the leadership had thought that would be a good fit for me. And I was like,

no, I don't want anything to do with my past. I don't want anything to do with my trauma. I would

rather define myself off of something else as opposed to a survivor or an ex-porn star or whatever label they may have of you.

And so I was working in the hospital for several years, kind of working my way up, that clinkledder.

And I saw that there's still that need and there's still that vagueness behind the definition of being trafficked. And so many of the

Generation Z and the generation before that, it's just normalized for them to go on to the

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