How Grooming Hides in Plain Sight
How Grooming Hides in Plain Sight Trigger Warning: This post discusses grooming, exploitation, drug exposure, coercion, and abuse involving teenagers and adults. It does not contain graphic detail, but the themes may be distressing. Please prioritise your wellbeing while reading. Support resources are linked at the dedicated page of this site. SUPPORT & RESOURCES When I look back at my teenage years in Tring and the surrounding areas, one pattern stands out with uncomfortable clarity. The “cool kids” were always the ones with older people hanging around them. At the time, it didn’t look sinister. It looked aspirational. Cars pulling up outside school. Older faces at the edge of teenage gatherings. Invitations to houses where there were fewer rules. The sense that you’d somehow skipped a level and been granted access to something grown-up. When you’re fourteen or fifteen, older attention feels like validation. It feels like you’ve been chosen. That is how grooming often begins...