Who is Angela Rae Clark? Woman 'sold' by grandfather at 5 for $25 reveals her village had 'pedophile club'
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
Angela Rae Clark revealed that she was only five years old when her grandfather "sold" her to another man for the first time. She claimed she was "groomed" for sexual abuse at a young age to the point that she believed that what was happening to her was okay. Clark said she unconsciously suppressed her childhood, but the memories kept coming back to her in flashes through dreams and they still do. She was unable to recall her early years until they slowly began to resurface in her 20s and even now, they constantly haunt her dreams.
"There was a small pedophile club where I grew up, and the sexual abuse was every flavor of sexual abuse that there is," Clark told The US Sun. Abusers created "a climate that normalized the behavior of trafficking," she added. "We don't know that it's not horrible." According to Clark, she has unsettling visions of "being in a lineup and being chosen."
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"I have had nightmares my entire life. Sometimes, my nightmares were so violent that I wouldn't sleep for days," Clark said. "They were very visceral and real, and I realized I was having these nightmares my entire life, and now, the nightmares made sense. It was a discovery process or remembering process." She continued, "I didn't remember any of my childhood, and I thought it was normal, and when I hit the memory about being sold for the first time, it jarred me in a way that sexual abuse was beyond that."
After years of intensive counseling, she developed her writing voice. She maintained journals and published poetry. In 2018, she first discussed it at a Ted Talk. She was inspired to write her most impactful poetry by a specific freeze-frame vision of money being exchanged over her head. "It's all part of survival," Clark said. "It's a lifelong journey to better myself." Clark said, "I remember $25 being exchanged over my head, and being left with a man while my grandpa waited in the car out in front of the house, it felt like I was at his house for hours and hours."
According to author and anti-human trafficking activist John DiGirolamo, Clark lived in a tiny, suburban town in middle-class middle America, which is a popular breeding ground for sex trafficking. In his most recent book, 'It's Not About Sex', DiGirolamo included Clark's narrative. The book examines sex trafficking in rural and suburban America from the perspectives of a survivor, an advocate, and law enforcement.
In his book, DiGirolamo claimed that 60 percent of abused children are enlisted by people they know. He claimed that for many predators, the ability to dominate someone is more important than having sex. "A lot of people think that human trafficking only happens at the border or in the big cities," DiGirolamo told The US Sun. "And that's not really true." He continued, "It can happen anywhere, anytime, anyplace, and cuts across all racial, social, and economic lines." He added, "Pedophiles often don't care if it's male or female, it's about having the power to have power over someone."
The acclaimed author further said, "So many people think that a pedophile is really driven by sex, but sex is the weapon that they can use over and over."