My name is Samantha and I'm a sex industry survivor from a large Texas city. I started working as a topless dancer and "escort," at the age of 18. I had come from a home where I was sexualized by my father and physically and verbally abused by my mother. I was very promiscuous in high school as a result of this abuse. In my high school yearbook I was not nominated as most likely to succeed. I was voted "most likely to become a porn star."

As an escort, I felt in control of my sexuality, and also saw a way to gain financial independence so I could get away from my family.

Working as an escort, I saw up to five clients a day for five years. I always went to school and was intent on bettering myself so I split into two girls, a "day" girl and a "night" girl. This was easy for me to do, as I learned how to do this at a young age in my childhood home.

During this period of time, I set up an Internet sex site that depicted me and three close friends having sex. It was wildly successful and was voted one of the "hottest" sex sites in the country by several men's magazines. This led to me being "scouted" by a porn company in Los Angeles. They flew me out to California to make me a "contract," girl.

The minute I got there, I started having second thoughts. As the producers told me what I would earn per scene I literally felt ill. They reeled off the prices for "double penetration," "anal," "oral," "girl-girl," etc. I went back to my hotel and started praying for a way out.

God answered my prayers because I saw Anne Bissell on "A Current Affair," speaking about Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous. I called the toll free hotline and Anne referred me to another survivor in Texas.

She had come from a background like mine and had worked in Houston strip clubs. We started talking every night and gradually I began to change. I quit the escorting and started working at a "gentlemen's club."

I quickly saw how destructive this behavior still was, and could no longer tolerate men wanting to dump their sexualized anger on me and I found the strength through S.I.S.A. to leave this club as well.

I have a real job now and go to college part time. I don't make as much money, but I have something much more valuable, my personal integrity. I still speak to survivors at least once a week and I am able to give back what was given to me. I love it that I will be able to tell my daughter's kindergarten teacher where I work and what I do without shame or humiliation

Thanks to S.I.S.A. I have joined the land of the living.