This week is meant to be a celebration of true love all around the world. We sneak flowers into our loved ones’ offices, send sweet notes to our grandmothers, host Valentine parties in school classrooms, and watch movies like The Princess Bride. Growing up, I knew that you “can’t buy love.” Sadly, I’ve met hundreds of girls who have been lured by men who pretended to love them and then sold them for sex.

One of these girls is named Valerie.

Actually, Valerie isn’t her real name. I don’t know her real name because I’ve never met her. It’s the name tattooed on her back, so I call her Valerie. She’s 18 and from somewhere in Washington State, according to records shared with me through law enforcement contacts. I first found Valerie in the escort section of Backpage.com, where she has been advertised for sex.

The first time that I saw Valerie being sold online last year, her advertisement had actually been re-posted by another man who claimed to have previously bought Valerie for sex. The disclaimer he added said, “Beware, gentlemen. This girl doesn’t like to have sex and tries to get out of it. And, her pimp takes all the money and yells and screams at her! She’s just a tease.” The warning read as if it was intended to caution other men who were thinking of buying 18 year-old Valerie for sex online. More than likely though, this advertisement was re-posted by her pimp, who was letting men know that they could “get rough” with Valerie if they liked to do so. In addition to buying sex from teenage girls, some men also seek to buy girls they can physically harm. I’ve seen images of girls being sold online with bruises that visually indicate that they have been brutalized already.

Valerie is being posted on Backpage.com by an aggressive pimp several times a day and is likely a victim being forced to have sex against her will. As co-founder of FAIR Girls, a nonprofit that has helped hundreds of girls escape sex trafficking in the past nine years, I spend my days identifying and supporting girls who have been enslaved. I recognize all too clearly the signs that Valerie is being exploited.

The escort section of Backpage.com, formerly owned by Village Voice Media, is widely recognized as a go-to resource for men seeking to buy sex from the women and girls advertised for purchase. FAIR Girls uses it to search for girls who we know are missing and might be at risk of being sex trafficked and sold online in advertisements on Backpage.com, or other classified advertising web sites. However, with false photos, fake ages, and ever changing locations and phone numbers, it is nearly impossible to know if one is viewing a consenting adult or a sex trafficked teenage girl. Searching for a missing, trafficked teen girl is painstakingly hard and disturbing. There were over 220 such ads on Backpage.com by 2:00 PM last Saturday, February 9th, in the escort section of the general D.C. Metro Area alone.

I once called the phone number on the advertisement that was selling Valerie. I started to tell her that if she wanted to leave, I could help her escape. She was listening quietly when her pimp yelled, “Bitch” and hung up the phone. A few days later, there was a new phone number listed on the advertisement selling Valerie. After that, I was worried that if I called back, Valerie might disappear for good.

I first time that I saw Valerie being sold online was in August 2011. For the following six months, I’ve see her face several times a week. She was being advertised and sold online as being 19, 20, or 22 years old in D.C., Virginia, Long Beach, Miami, and other cities. These ads make her appear willing, but I believe otherwise after reading about her violent pimp and unwillingness to engage in sex. You don’t have to be an anti-trafficking advocate to realize that something is terribly wrong with Valerie’s situation. The photos show her small and child-like body in provocative poses that cannot mask her baby face. I know she was not 18 at the time her photos were taken, according to her date of birth and the posting dates of the initial advertisements. Frustratingly, this is about all I know about Valerie. In May of last year, Valerie disappeared from the online world. I hope for the best, but know she likely is not okay. Valerie is simply gone. Likely, her pimp took her even further underground.

Valerie is somebody’s daughter. She may be someone’s sister, too. Or, even someone’s first sweetheart. She could have been excited about her first day of school, her first visit to the zoo, her first slumber party, or the first time she found a Valentine card stuffed secretly in her locker. Instead, in a few photos selling her on Backpage.com, Erotic Review (a web site for men to rate the girls they have bought as if they were cars), and MyEros, Valerie has tears in her eyes.

Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about love. While I will spend Valentine’s Day with my loving husband, Valerie will likely be forced to have sex with 10 different men while her pimp takes every penny. My Valentine’s Day will be filled with homemade pasta and love songs. Hers will likely be filled with sexual abuse, rape, the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, and even threat of death. No girl should spend her Valentine’s Day as another man’s commodity.

Dear Valerie, I hope that for Valentine’s you finally break free.