Jade Helena Brooks is an author and advocate known for her

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

''The Teen Sex Trade: My Story''. Her activism work centres around helping sexually exploited youth and raising awareness.

Career

Following her exit from the sex industry in 2011, Brooks began working with an agency in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

to help other victims of the sexual exploitation. She helped to create The Stages of Sexual Exploitation, a tool to help identify if someone is being sexually exploited. Her first book, ''The Teen Sex Trade: My Story'', was published in September 2017. She self-published a follow up book, ''Renegade: Teen Sex Trade Part Two''. In 2019, Brooks was featured at

Pictou County Pictou County is a county in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1835, and was formerly a part of Halifax County from 1759 to 1835. It had a population of 43,657 people in 2021, a decline of 0.2 percent from 2016. Furthermo ...

's symposium on human trafficking. Brooks helped to develop a module of online program, Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence: A

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

Resource, focussed on the exploitation of children and youth in 2021.

Books

* ''The Teen Sex Trade: My Story'' (2017) * ''Renegade: Teen Sex Trade Part Two'' (2021)

Personal life

Brooks has four siblings. She was born in Toronto and grew up in the

Uniacke Square Uniacke Square is a public housing residential area in the north central area of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is flanked in the northeast by Brunswick Street and to the southwest by Gottingen Street. History Uniacke Square was opened on May 7, 1966 ...

area of

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

. At age 11, she was placed into the Nova Scotia

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family ...

system. Brooks met the man who would become her boyfriend and, later, trafficker, at age 15. She was trafficked in both Toronto and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. Brooks was able to exit trafficking and the sex trade at age 19.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Jade 21st-century Canadian women writers Writers from Halifax, Nova Scotia Writers from Toronto Victims of underage prostitution Living people Canadian women activists Anti–human trafficking activists Black Nova Scotians Black Canadian writers Black Canadian women writers Canadian women memoirists 21st-century Canadian memoirists 1992 births