kris

Julia has been raped more times than she can count. The tranq knocks her out and she wakes up not knowing what was done to her. A man shoved her head into his car seat, she jumped out while it was moving. Cops curb-stomped her on day one. She used to be a hairstylist. She's from North Jersey. Her mom is from Ukraine. She had her own apartment and five cats. She did hair, danced, put on fire-spinning shows at music festivals. Then a maintenance man illegally evicted them. Unscrewed the door hinges, let the cats out, screwed the door shut and threw their stuff outside. She's been on the street since October. Her very first day in Kensington, police pulled her girlfriend out of a U-Haul. When Julia wouldn't get out, an officer pulled a gun on her. "I got thrown on the ground, curb stomped." No shoes, in shorts, in the cold. In the video below she tells you what being a woman out there really means. Did she dance at strip clubs? "I did. My family knows too." She misses the pole. What does she want other girls to know? There are men who watch you for months, learn everything about you, then act like it's their first time. What happened to her? A man offered her a job. She got in. "They shove my head down into the seat. 'Don't move.'" She waited for the car to slow down at a turn and jumped. "I f*cked myself up, but it probably would have been better than that." Anything else? "I've been held at gunpoint. I've been raped more times than I can count." Why? The tranq. "It knocks you out. You don't really know what's going on." And her body? "It's ruining my skin. I have burns all over me now." She's so thin she has to roll up her jeans. She forgets to eat until she sees people walking to the free meals. Her mom can't even go back to her own house in Ukraine. That part is under Russia now. So Julia prays for them too. And for everyone sleeping outside next to her. Some people will say she chose the drugs and everything that came with them. Others will say nobody chooses waking up not knowing what was done to them. A hairstylist who used to spin fire on stage now jumps out of moving cars to stay alive. Does Julia make it back to the life she had, or does Kensington keep her?