Welcome!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Deanna Leah and I learned about Human Trafficking when I was seventeen years old. It was fall of my senior year of High School and I had to find and watch a documentary about any public issue and then prepare a speech about it that's purpose was to convince viewers to do something about the issue.

While browsing YouTube I found a documentary called "Selling the Girl Next Door" and the title intrigued me. I watched the full 50 minute video and was appalled to find that you can buy and RECEIVE a human being for sex within only a few minutes of searching on craigslist or backpage. I wouldn't stand for it and I created this video along with an online campaign.

The campaign never took much ground, but it was the documentary (still widely available on YouTube) and this video that got me started in the passion that now, three years later, I know will span the rest of my life.

Some of you might know me from my first novella, The Home of Our Hearts, available on Amazon.com, from my previous blog, from short stories and poetry I have published in Mavgaurd magazine, from UNM campus where I go to school full time and speak at events or even from this video that I recorded so many years ago.

In many ways, it might seem like I am reinventing myself, but really I am setting my eye on a goal and focusing on the dream - which I wasn't fully doing before.

I am still writer - of romance, and mystery, and life.

I am still a blogger who is finding herself and her place.

I am still an author seeking publication.

I still LOVE public speaking and I am still working to become a counselor for victims that WILL be free.

I am still a volunteer.

I am still an activist.

This blog is only going to concrete all of those things as I set my eyes on the dream of teaching people about human trafficking and spreading the word about the brave men and women who are already blazing the trail.

This blog will be full of information to help, reveal and empower.

This blog will feature events across the globe.

This blog will market my writing as I grow my career in that area.

But most of all I hope this blog will become a community because the thing I love most is connecting with people who have dreams and will work to achieve them.

Much Love,

Deanna Leah - Founder of SPEAK.COM

#beginnings #humantrafficking #Sellingthegirlnextdoor #aboutme #goals