Stepping into a gown and onto a runway was a big deal for 15-year-old Michelle Fierro.
A director and model in the #Youth4Freedom Youth Fashion Show, Michelle overcame her own insecurities to raise funds for Sold No More, a local nonprofit working to stop sex trafficking in Tucson. The organization says 13 is the average age of someone sold into sex slavery.
“I was kind of antisocial in that I was really shy and just wasn’t confident at all,” says Michelle, a freshman at Desert View High School. “Me doing different things and stepping up and learning to dance and taking pictures was just different.”
The fashion show grew out of a presentation by Sold No More to Desert View’s Youth Empowered for Success (YES) Club, but just learning information about sex trafficking wasn’t enough for the students.
“They were like, ‘Now what?’” says Roseanna Gonzalez, the club sponsor and fashion show coordinator and head director. “I was scratching my head.”
From that enthusiasm grew the #Youth4Freedom Youth Fashion Show as a fundraiser for Sold No More. The show used dresses from the bridal boutique Free Ever After, a division of the nonprofit.
As one of the show directors, Michelle worked closely with Gonzalez in the months leading up to the September show. She handed out fliers, promoted the show in school clubs and Tucson churches, choreographed an interpretive dance for the show and performed a piece of spoken word poetry she wrote.
She was also a model for the promotional material.
“That was probably the turning point for her when it came to her self esteem,” says Gonzalez, a special education English teacher at Desert View. “When she first did the photo shoot, she was like, ‘I don’t like this dress or the way I look’ and was tearing herself apart.”
Gonzalez quickly debunked those lies.
“We let her know she is valued and she does matter, and this is the reason why we are doing this fashion show,” Gonzalez says. “There are many girls and boys who do feel destroyed and not valued, and she could be the voice for those kids.”
Michelle found her confidence walking down the runway, dancing to the song “Beneath Your Beautiful” by Labrinth and reading her writing.
“I just went for it and decided to do it, to be confident and to trust in God,” she says.
She feels like a different person now — more confident and more compassionate.
“She manifested into an awesome performer,” Gonzalez says. “She was impactful and strong and had it together. She was not the same little girl I got when I first started.”
The fashion show not only taught her how to overcome her own insecurities but gave her a desire to help others do the same.
“It made me see that there is so much out there with how people are being treated and how teenagers these days are suffering through everything,” she says. “Before, I didn’t pay attention to it. I was just in my own world.”
The fashion show raised more than $1,000 for Sold No More, operating on a budget of $0. Michelle would do it again.
“I felt like I needed to do something to help people, because it’s not just sex trafficking,” she says. “It’s helping those who are confused and lost and can’t find somebody to help them.”
