“ So Many Survivors I Know Regret Sharing Too Much Too Early ”: Human Trafficking Survivors’ Experiences With Public Storytelling

Survivor storytelling has been a critical component of anti-trafficking work for decades. However, people with lived experience of trafficking have experienced a range of harms through public storytelling engagements, including but not limited to gatekeeping, mental health impacts, tokenizing, and economic exploitation. Using a mixed methods survey with trafficking survivors in the United States and Kenya, this study explored motivations for public storytelling, prior experiences doing this work, and recommendations for ensuring that storytelling practices align with survivors’ needs and goals.