LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- An Arkansas woman who was a victim of sex trafficking is speaking out.

“Of course it wasn’t fun, but I just thought it was part of life,” said the survivor. “Everybody did that.”

Fear, confusion and manipulation are things a child should never have to experience, but for this Arkansas woman, that was her childhood. She says the abuse started when she was just six or seven years old.

“Whatever that person paid for, that’s what I had to do,” she explained. “I was groomed before that and prepared to be able to do a number of things with different people.”

Fox16 is protecting her identity for safety reasons because the people she says sold her for sex were her own parents. 

“My parents would have parties at the house, and they would invite people over,” she recalled. “After a certain section or a certain time, some people wanted to have me by themselves, so they would pay for it.”

According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 29 human trafficking cases were reported in Arkansas during the first half of 2018. The majority of those were sex trafficking.

“About 80 percent of the clients that we serve are from Arkansas,” said Louise Allison, the Executive Director for Partners Against Trafficking Humans, or PATH. 

Allison said Arkansas has generally ranked high for the number of human trafficking cases, and it’s partly because of Interstates 30 and 40. They’re major U.S. highways, making it easier to move sex clients in and out quickly. 

“It happens everywhere,” said Allison. “It can happen in a home, in a hotel, in high-ticket areas, in poverty-stricken areas. There are a few more frequented areas, and those are along Interstate 40 at truck stops.”

Allison is a sex trafficking survivor too. 

She first met the woman at the hospital after she tried to take her own life. 

“She was scared,” Allison explained. “She didn’t trust too many people, very broken, very depressed.”

After getting help from PATH, she now has a different outlook on life. 

“They’ve just been a part of my healing,” the woman says. “They’ve walked me through so many different things.”

Healing is allowing her to use her strength to help others who are walking in her path. 

One of the biggest misconceptions with human trafficking is it only happens to women and girls. Boys and men can also be victims.

For more statistics on human trafficking in Arkansas, click here.

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text “HELP” or “INFO” to “233733”.