The Daily Telegraph

WHEN most schoolgirls were playing with their Barbie dolls, Amanda Brooks was dreaming of growing up to be a prostitute. “When I was in fourth grade, it sounded like a good idea for me. To me it sounded like a really interesting way to make a living and not having to follow other peoples’ rules,” she said by telephone to London from Texas where she lives. Retired at 29 with a steady boyfriend after two-and-a-half years working as an escort, she has published a handbook for aspiring call girls everywhere. The Internet Escort’s Handbook contains tips on how to set up a website, advertise, screen clients to stay safe and keep out of trouble with the law. It won’t win literature’s famous Booker Prize – because, despite its bizarre nature, it is not fiction – but is set to sell well, say pundits. “When I began working I had a lot of questions and there wasn’t really any way to find out answers. I did what they always tell authors to do: I wrote the book that I wished I had been able to read,” she said. “How did I feel working as an escort? Happy, satisfied, in control of my life; wealthy, healthy, at peace with myself, free, successful and I slept like a baby every night.”

Brought up in a small town in Texas, she graduated from university with a double degree in photography and English before getting a job as a cocktail waitress at a strip club. She then worked as a stripper for four years before finally taking the plunge at 26 and placing an ad offering escort services. The worst abuse she suffered was clients who refused to pay her fees, which she said were “standard prices in the US, between $US250 ($A265) and $US500 ($A530) an hour”.

Retiring after two and a half years! She has been a busy girl……..