what are the dirtygirl diaries?

I've documented everything in my life, except the years from 1975-1984 as I wandered lost in Times Square, looking for family, love, a drink, a man, a way to die or a way to live. This is that.

the dirtygirl diaries are the stories of life in the streets & topless bars of 42nd Street in the 70’s & 80’s – before Disney got its four-fingered white gloves on it and turned it into Mouschwitz. A time when street pimps looked like Huggy Bear, silicone was the exception, lap dances were non-existent, and no one was stripping their way through grad school; where innocence was snatched, money was stolen, lifted, spent, forgotten and the nights lasted all day long.

We went to disappear, change our names, change our luck, make a dollah, dollah, dollah bill y’all, have a real goodtime, to find out what we were made of.

This is a love story that made a wrong turn and wound up in the sweat & steam of Times Square

Times Square owned my ass for naked ten years, it has my broken heart for a lifetime. This is my love story. This is the diary of a Times Square dirtygirl.

Recommended books for further reading (academic, historical, memoir & novels) about sexwork, addiction and Times Square: The Dirtygirl Diaries Reading List on Bookshop.org*.
*affiliate link