The girls on the corner

For two years, journalist Eliane Trindade recorded the daily lives of six teenagers who prostituted themselves to survive, but who never abandoned their dreams. The numbers are alarming. The sexual exploitation of Brazilian girls occurs in hundreds of municipalities across the country. But statistics and projections fail to explain the reasons that lead these adolescents to enter the sex trade. Percentages and figures don't tell us how they relate to their grandparents, parents, and boyfriends. Or the plans they make to buy a Barbie doll or a pair of fashionable pants. Britney, Natasha, Milena, Yasmim, Vitória, and Diana, whose stories are told in the book, are beautiful, intelligent, and have the same material and affectionate desires as any girl their age. The difference is that they live in an eternal now, with no prospects for the future. There's no point dreaming about college because they haven't even had access to a basic education. Three of them are teenage mothers, a fact that further limits their possibilities. Surrounded by violence and poverty, they throw themselves into life without a parachute.