EMMY MYERS

FIGHTING BACK AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKING

as a high school student in Milwaukee’s suburbs, Emmy Myers had many friends and participated in cheerleading, gymnastics, soccer and the Model UN educational simulation. Then an older boyfriend introduced her to drugs and the sex-trafficking trade.

Today, Myers, 28, shares her story to prevent others from suffering her fate. In memory of a friend who lost her life to trafficking, Myers founded Lacey’s Hope Project, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that educates the public on the subject.

“If you talk to anyone in the life [of sex trafficking], we don’t know at the time that we are victims,” says

Myers. “I had a drug addiction and was not in the right state of mind.”

Carol Redders, a leader of the Micah Ministry anti-trafficking group that operates out of Northbrook Church in Richfield, says hearing from people with first-hand experience like Myers helps the public grasp that sex trafficking happens right here in Milwaukee. Redders believes Myers’ speaking engagements not only help those listening, but help Myers in return.

“I think the more she shares [her story], the more freedom will come into her life,” Redders says.

Through Lacey’s Hope Project, Myers strives to break down the Hollywood stereotypes of sex trafficking. “It is definitely not something from the movie Taken,” she says. She also wants to inform people of the warning signs: marks of physical abuse, unexplained work or school absences, fear of police and lying about where they’ve been.

But mostly, Myers wants to inspire women who have been victims of trafficking. “I want to give people hope that there is life after ‘the life,’” she says. With regard to the work she does, Myers says: “I always wanted to be a part of something good.” –