Shadowed: How I Became the Sex-Trafficked Mother Next Door

Book Synopsis: Sex trafficking. For many Americans, it sounds like fiction. After all, who could believe that a preschool teacher was being transported against her will every weekend? That she was being sold for sex in multiple US states, out of the country, and even in her own home? That she was repeatedly threatened, drugged, and raped until she returned to her regular routine as a mother of three in an upper-class northern Utah community every Monday morning? Julie Whitehead would believe you. It’s exactly what happened to her.

Equal parts tragic, terrifying, and triumphant, Shadowed: How I Became the Sex-Trafficked Mother Next Door is the story of Julie’s life of trauma and—finally—escape. Through her experiences in middle-class America, Julie illuminates the hidden reality of sex trafficking and proves no one is immune to this American epidemic.