Translation of article to english
Me, Jenny, 13 years old, stripper
The carefully capped hair, trousers moulding and a black lace shirt maker, Jenny sits on the bench of a restaurant in Laval. She resembles any typical teenager. But few girls have lived the same kind of life she has. Nude dancer at age 13, escort at 14, Jenny could gain 1000$ per day and borrow 20$ the following day.
Confined to a readjustment center in Laval-after being arrested while in a private booth of a Montreal stripclub one year ago, Jenny cannot leave without her lawyer. Prior to the interview, the teenager, now 15, asks her father to go to sit elsewhere at another table. Jenny then begins to tell her story.
At 11, she hung around the bars of Point-Saint-Charles with her alcoholic mother who allowed her to finish off her glasses. "I'd get drunk and smoke pot at the same time. At the house, I'd loosen up her belt while she vomitted ", remembers Jenny.
When she was 12, she doesn't go to school, but hangs out with street gangs who sell crack. She's already active sexually.
At 13, she overdoses after taking a cocktail of mescalin, GHB, acid, coke and speed mixed with alcohol. After the separation of her parents, Jenny moves around various youth centers. There, she meets a girl who tells her she had been a nude dancer as a runaway. Seeing as a way to make quick & easy money, Jenny borrows the blurred I.D. card of a 19 year old friend and flees the youth center. The very same day, she knocks on the door of a stripclub on rue Saint-Denis. "They asked for my dancer name and told me to give my songs to the DJ", summarizes the teenager. "I was not sober, I had taken speed. I was 13 years old, my body was not developed but I nevertheless looked like a 15-16 year old girl."
Her first shift wasn't very lucrative. She thus agrees to follow three Asian tourists to a hotel. "For 300$, I spent two hours with them. I sexual relations with the three of them, one at a time." The following day, Jenny sees a heading in the newspaper. "Seek dancer. Very lucrative ", the ad of a bar close to Saint-Jérôme states. As a runaway, it was quite easy to move away from Montreal. Upon arrivall, nobody asked to see her I.D. "The owner was glad to see the arrival of a beautiful girl from Montreal who could dance", Jenny states. But he refused to allow the dancers do extras, but Jenny insisted. Work then became very lucrative to her when the owner yielded and that same evening, Jenny received proposals from a man in his 30's. "We got on the road & in his car, I made him FS (fellatio, masturbation, penetration) for 100$ ", she explains.
Still in possession of her fake I.D. card, Jenny is then hired by the Showgirl, a stripclub in Laval, where she will spend six months. "When I arrived, there was only one dancer there. It was like i had just fallen from the sky ", remembers it. She had just turned 14. Since the bar was straight, extras were prohibited. Jenny thus began using different strategies in order to enrichen herself. "I had a client who would bring me back to his place 2 or 3 times per week after work. For 600$ a night, I'd have sex with him twice and he'd then let me sleep."
She later offers her services to a Fabreville stripclub. There, the money was really pouring in, she said. "I could make 700$ on slow days and 1500$ on good days." Jenny states she multiplied the extras in the private booths. Only one rule: the condom was mandatory. The teenager regular serviced the more unstable & perverted clients. "One of them had a weird fantasy: he wanted to ejaculate in my stiletto high heel shoes. I refused and he became aggressive, so much so that the bouncer had to kick him out." Two months later, Jenny was fired. Her consumption of cocaine had become problematic. "I fell asleep in the private booths often since i was so tired."
She then returned to the Showgirl, seemingly going backwards. "I was fed up with the straight stripclub scene, I wanted to strictly work in a FS club." While still working as a stripper, Jenny begins to work as an escort for two Montreal agencies. "I had become hooked to the money. I worked seven days and I could spend 1000$ in one day." At 180$ an hour, she makes a lot of money, especially with businessmen and tourists. "A car comes to pick me up at home & then takes me to the most beautiful hotels. I could see 8 or 9 customers per day ", she figures.
At the same time, she decided to go and work at Les Amazones, a stripclub on rue Saint-Jacques. Her first shift there was also her last. "I had a bag containing all my costumes. I had realized that I had forgotten my lingerie and the distribution machine which sold G-strings was broken ", said Jenny. The teenager calls her mother, then a waitress at the restaurant next door. "I asked her to bring me my panties, but it instead of doing this, she called the police", said Jenny, who is still upset at her mother for this. The police errupted into the club as she dancing in one of the private booths. The teenager is finally led to the station, then to the readjustment center in Laval. This happened last October. She will remain imprisoned until September.
Today, Jenny doesn't have her platinum hair nor a face devastated by drug use. But, in spite planning to return to school, she's aware of her fragile state. "I come from an environment full of girls like me. That's all i know", she states. "I need to become a 15 year old girl again. I won't go back playing the Barbie doll." She acknowledges that she would undoubtedly have continued her activities if the police force had not arrested her. "It is weird to say, but these have been the best 6 months of my life, because previously, I was constantly high."
