soulvomit:

Also something about growing up in LA because I feel like if you grow up in any kind of close proximity to the entertainment industry, “there are lots of creeps and there is lots of child abuse within the entertainment industry” is actually fairly common knowledge, I feel like a ton of people knew about child actors being drugged and sexually exploited for example, everyone knew about the “casting couch,” all but the most sheltered kids knew about “red light districts” and where they were, etc. 

I knew lots of people who felt they had to leave LA to raise children and one of the thoughts that’s always gone through my mind (though there are plenty of other reasons a person leaves an expensive, dirty big city to raise children) is that it’s very, very difficult to shelter your children there or curate their knowledge of the world. They’re going to know things you may not want them to know and they’re going to ask you questions you may not want to answer.

I feel like practically everyone who was into the whole “sheltering of our children” white Christian middle class vibe, tried to get their kids out of the city or get out of the city before having them.

Yet plenty of us had no choice but to grow up there anyway, despite the fact that we were going to learn about things that we weren’t supposed to know about

There were red light districts in LA? I mean, I knew about the Figueroa streetwalking track, and the Thai ladyboys on Western, and the “massage” brothels in WeHo, and that elsewhere it was the Korean massage places that were handjob parlors, and the hillside houses off Mullholland that are essentially permanent porn sets…

Actually I guess I did know where the red light districts were.