'I feel like a champion': Human trafficking survivor heals through motherhood, helping others
Janette Diaz was failed by multiple systems when she was a child.
She was placed in child protective services when she was just 5 years old and faced sexual abuse in places trusted with her care.
She was criminalized and sent to juvenile hall for prostitution when she was 12 years old.
But despite all that, now at age 32, Diaz has a warm, caring demeanor.
"I've been through hell, honestly," Diaz said before cutting herself off. "Oops, I'm not allowed to say that, am I? I've been through heck."
Diaz dedicates her time to helping others who face the same abuse she did. She wants to share her story so others don't have to go through what she did.
Janette Diaz's Childhood
Diaz was stuck in a generational cycle.
Her mother was a prostitute.
When she was 5, Diaz was taken away and placed in various foster homes, but that didn't lead to a better life.
"You get taken away to get helped. And instead of being helped, I got hurt, and I kept getting hurt, and I kept getting hurt," Diaz said. "I just wanted someone to care."
When she was 12 years old, Diaz decided to run away and find her biological mother along Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento.
She said after she found her mother, the sex trafficking began the next day.
Federal law describes sex trafficking as when "a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age."
"I didn't understand what she was doing to me was actually wrong," Diaz said. "I was being forcibly fed drugs."
As an adult, Diaz recognizes her mother was grooming her. Her mother would tell her doing certain things would help her get better.
Her time with her mother ended after a couple of months, when her mom sold her to an undercover officer.
"I didn't realize until we got arrested that she was actually doing something to me," Diaz said.
But her arrest didn't end her abuse.
Stuck in the cycle of abuse
After her time in juvenile hall, Diaz was sent to a group home in Los Angeles for other "prostitutes."
"Being labeled a prostitute at 12, come on now," Diaz said. "Did you think about why a 12-year-old child would be strung out on drugs and prostituting?"
Diaz's experiences made it difficult to trust people in positions of authority.
She ran away from the group home, which continued to put her in unsafe situations.
Diaz said being on the streets alone at such a young age attracted the wrong kind of attention.
"A trafficker is going to understand the fact that this person is lost, this person has no food, this person has no help," Diaz said. "They’ll feed you, they’ll act like they care about you. As a kid, you think, 'This person cares; they’re going to help me.' The second they buy all these things for you, then you owe them."
Diaz faced trauma no child or adult should ever have to. But when she was 18, she found the strength to break the cycle.
Moving forward into motherhood
Diaz broke the cycle of abuse after she was thrown down a flight of stairs.
She was pregnant at the time and said her pimp called her "damaged goods" before throwing her down the stairs.
Diaz said she was able to move forward and get help for her daughter's sake.
"When I say my daughter saved my life, literally. My daughter saved my whole life," Diaz said.
Now in her early 30s, Diaz has been clean for 14 years.
"I want my daughter to know that, as a woman, we can be solo, we can accomplish our dreams and we don't have to be taken advantage of," she said.
Diaz said she tries to give her daughter things she wished she had in her childhood, like birthday parties, family dinners and stability.
"That's really how I get my healing, being a parent to my daughter," she said. "What I missed out on is what I give my daughter."
Diaz also finds healing by helping others who face the same situations and traumas she faced as a child.
"My whole life, I've been broken," Diaz said. "And I have a choice now to not be broken and to share my story and to be strong for people that can't be strong because that's the only way that it's going to help people."
Diaz spends her time helping other survivors break their cycle of abuse and rebuild their lives. She serves on the Survivor Advisory Board for 3Strands Global Foundation.
The foundation's goal is to combat human trafficking through prevention education and reintegration programs for survivors.
"I'm just teaching them ways to go through it," Diaz said. "I just try to give them the ammo that they need or the push that they need or the motivation that they need. You know, sometimes you got to tell someone 'you're a boss.'"
She said repetition is key when reaching out to survivors.
"You just got to keep trying," she said.
And as for her personal battle, she takes pride in breaking the cycle.
"I feel like a champion," Diaz said. "The fight's over. I won. I finally won."
The story was produced as part of the KCRA 3 Investigates documentary "Escaping The Blade" about sex trafficking in Sacramento County. Watch the full report here.