--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew by Ricky Martin: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd856222c734fa906/69868b651eebf76063370791/withelma-t-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 23, 2014 # Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew by Ricky Martin  Illustration by Michael Hoeweler for TIME Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew spent the first 18 years of her life in the U.S. foster care system and for seven of them she was victimized by sex traffickers in streets, strip clubs and massage parlors. Now a college student, T has become a beacon of hope, raising her voice against the world’s $96 billion human-trafficking industry, which exploits 27 million victims, including millions of youths and children. Testifying last October before Congress, T turned her words into action, offering practical tools to improve the child-welfare system. A modern-day abolitionist, T has set herself free and empowered us to liberate others. _Martin is a four-time Grammy Award winner, UNICEF goodwill ambassador and founder of the Ricky Martin Foundation_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70856/wilthelma-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-2014-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70856/wilthelma-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-2014-time-100/"},"headline":"Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew","datePublished":"2014-04-23T21:49:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:58:56.387Z","description":"The modern abolitionist","url":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70856/wilthelma-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-2014-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd856222c734fa906/69868b651eebf76063370791/withelma-t-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd856222c734fa906/69868b651eebf76063370791/withelma-t-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70856/wilthelma-ortiz-walker-pettigrew-2014-time-100/","name":"Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew"}}]}] ```