Naked

‘I’m not taking my clothes off.’ My words bounced off the walls of the empty changing room. I was ten years old. I folded my arms tightly across my chest. I’d seen them outside. Naked Mum tried a smile. ‘Nobody minds here.’ But I minded. I’d never seen strangers naked before. With a volatile father and an alcoholic mother, ten-year-old Jo was a desperately unhappy child. Miserable at home and friendless at school, she didn’t think life could get worse. But it did. Her father became obsessed with going to nudist camps, and they soon became a dreaded weekly fixture. Forced to show her bare body in front of total strangers, Jo suffered at the hands of men who were at the camps to prey on young, naked girls. Men who were there to befriend, groom and sexually abuse. Living in fear of her shameful family secret being exposed, Jo coped by rebelling both at home and at school. But it took the violent rape of a young camper for Jo to finally find the courage to disobey her powerful and controlling father – and break free.]]>