Ashton Kutcher, Carrie Underwood, Emma Thompson—when stars use their public platforms to give visibility to the realities of sex trafficking, people start paying attention.

Trafficking hides in plain sight. Just ask Suzie, a trafficking survivor turned police officer whose boyfriend sex trafficked her when she was 19 years old.

“When I was two years old, I was sold into human trafficking and was taught that children needed to allow grown men to use their bodies.”

If someone is forced, manipulated into, or threatened into performing any sexual act in exchange for money, safety, or to evade punishment, this is sex trafficking. It can be situational—it doesn’t have to be a lifetime of sex slavery.

These signs can appear anywhere in any context, whether it’s someone you know or not. It’s better to report something that isn’t actually trafficking than to avoid reporting when it actually is.

The collective efforts of the healthcare, trucking, and hotel industries show us that change is possible when we fight together against sex trafficking.

The hospitality industry has long been a hotspot for sex traffickers. Due to a policy lapse, Airbnb could be permitting sex trafficking like other hotel chains.

The global issue of sex trafficking will take a global community of Fighters to join together and stop the demand for exploitation.

Around the US, researchers are focusing on the issue of sex trafficking and doing their best to raise awareness to both educators and students.

The perception of what trafficking victims look like can often jump to mind: young, foreign, female. There are many victims of trafficking like her, but she’s not the only one. Men and boys can be trafficked, too.

Many of us see the phrase, “If you see something, say something,” on signs at public transportation stations, but how many of us actually speak up?

How does the epidemic of human trafficking hide in plain sight? It can be easy to move and transport victims when traffickers don’t think anyone is looking. But this is what happens when people start paying attention.