An investigative report from Bloomberg reveals that the “fair-trade, organic” cotton used in many of Victoria’s Secret’s products is actually produced by a company that largely relies on forced child laborers.

The report follows the heartbreaking story of 13-year-old Clarisse, who works at a Burkina Faso farm that supplies much of Victoria’s Secret’s cotton. Clarisse recounts the back-breaking working conditions she endured, which had her help dig over 500 rows to sow the cotton “with only her muscles and a hoe, substituting for the ox and the plow the farmer can’t afford.” If she slows down in the 100 degree heat, she says the farmer, her cousin and foster parent, “whips her across the back with the tree branch and shouts at her.” She is not paid and most times she is fed but once a day. Other days she doesn’t eat at all. The result of her toil, and the toil of many “foster children” in similar situations in Burkina Faso, went into the colorful thongs and undies that Victoria’s Secret is so well known for–the company purchased all of Burkina Faso’s organic crop from last season, and was expected to get most of this season’s crop as well.