On Friday, December 12, my social justice group and I interviewed Peggy Kern, author of realistic fiction young adult novel, Little Peach. Little Peach is about a fourteen year old named Michelle who is a victim of sexual trafficking or modern day slavery. All my group members had finished Little Peach in under two days and agreed it was a page turner. This is because everything was so realistic, for example, the setting which included all real locations in New York or the characters’ emotions which are very much alike to an ordinary teenager minus the trauma. Celia, Campbell, Maxine and I were so excited to meet Peggy that some questions we prepared were a little off topic. Once Peggy arrived at our school she was very impressed with our school’s atmosphere and the whole Social Justice Project. Upon Peggy’s arrival, Patty McCormick, author of Sold had briefly spoke to our librarian/close friend. We were so shocked that two amazing writers, both being activists through unspoken words, were standing so near us. After we sat down to discuss this brutally dark topic, one of the first things Peggy said during the interviews was, “Sexual Trafficking is an under-acknowledged crisis.” This is important because most women who are sexual trafficked are in a permenant position and people still think escape can fix everything. If victims go to the police, the will be arrested if not killed by their pimp first, and if they do happen to escape they wind up in a group facility that is more like an institution. Once victims are eighteen they really have no where to go, no one to care for them, and they often find themselves in the sex industry once again. An interesting question we asked Peggy was why she uses the second person perspective in certain chapters. To this she said girls who are trafficked don’t get to share their stories so she wants us to be as close to the victim as possible. Lastly, Peggy Kern told us about her many interviews she had with victims of sexual trafficking and even a trafficker. She also went to all of the places in the book such as a hotel where sexual trafficking took place. After our interview, Peggy spoke to the class about most of the topics we had covered in the interview. Peggy also projected pictures of the hotel she visited where the main character was continuously sold to middle aged men, and tattoos on victims done by their pimps to label them as property.
Although statistics, aftermath and signs of sexual trafficking are all very important, Peggy Kern was the first one to tell me what a victim goes through when exploited. Most of the things Peggy touched on were unfathomable but also un forgettable, even after she left. For example, when she said there are pimps who lurk around the Port Authority Bus Terminal looking for girls with big backs and pillows that call for someone to love and care for them. With this in mind, I sometimes look at the world through a different lense, asking myself, “Could this be a sign of commercial sexual exploitation?” Overall, I can now clearly understand a victim’s life and more importantly how to convey this in a way that will catch people’s attention and show everyone that someting is terribly wrong with our system.
