Christopher Bates was a lonely 16 year old, with a mother who worked long hours and struggled with mental health and a largely absent father. He was forced to grow up rather quickly, and as a gay teenage boy, he was often treated as an outcast. This all changed, however, when he began connecting with people online. He began to connect with people who liked him, cared about him, understood him. Or so he thought.

When he started posting photos of himself online, older men began to compliment him and make him feel special. Christopher then began to sell explicit content to these men, and even meet up with them for sex. With the money he was making, he could buy little luxuries for himself that his single mother could never afford. These seemingly harmless encounters came with a price, however, and Christopher became more isolated than ever from his family and his peers.

Three weeks before his eighteenth birthday, he ran away. He was trying to escape his trauma, but succeeded only in putting himself into further danger. He continued exchanging sexual services to survive, and after two years, he felt stuck. He reached out to his mother, who happily reunited with her son.

Now, Christopher works on a national level to bring awareness to the "widespread issue of youth and young adults needing to exchange sex to meet their needs."

Click here to read all of Christopher's story.

Christopher’s story was originally shared by the Polaris Project.