“I want to do all I can to educate young girls on how this lifestyle is not the glamorous life it is presented as… OnlyFans is preying on young women and it’s time for me to speak out”
We recently met Victoria at an event in Melbourne. She wanted to tell us her story. At the time she was still in the industry. But soon after, with our support and the support of others, she found the strength to leave. This is her story.
By Victoria
I got involved with the OnlyFans recruitment agency through a friend. With my background in start ups, business, marketing and management, she thought I’d be a good fit for the launch of a new agency.
When I first started at the agency, my job was to help scale the girls' accounts through social media platforms. I had to learn how to leverage TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter and other websites to funnel paying customers ultimately to these girls’ accounts.
We would get the girls to post suggestive TikToks and turn them into reels on Instagram. In the onboarding questionnaire that the girls had to do before joining the agency, there was a question asking ‘What is your favourite porn to watch?’ It was assumed they would take content ideas from porn and that they’d recreate the porn fantasies men requested of them.
Soon enough we learned that we needed to be posting their sexually explicit content on Reddit to even be able to compete with what other people post on that website. Reddit was a way to promote the girls without the NSFW restriction of Instagram. Posting sexual content there got more click throughs for the girls.
One of my jobs was to hype the girls up and get them excited about the content they had to create for social media with the promise of more fans and traffic to their OnlyFans account - which of course meant more money for them. We had girls posting and doing TikToks which some weren’t particularly happy or comfortable doing but we would tell them they had no choice - it was the only way to gain more subscribers (subs) and money.
On at least two occasions, we kicked girls out of the agency if they didn’t adhere to these social media marketing strategies as we couldn’t grow their accounts the way we wanted to. And that means less money for us.
The pressure we applied meant more profits and led to us becoming one of the largest and fastest growing agencies in the country.
We had a ‘levels' system which would indicate the content level they would post on their OnlyFans account. We had a ‘level 1’ at the start which was bikini and lingerie pics on Instagram, but soon got rid of it as we stopped accepting girls who wouldn’t show their naked body on the platform. Level 2 was suggestive but not full frontal nudity, level 3 was naked but no sex, level 4 was sex (but no anal), level 5 - everything, no rules.
The younger she looked, the more money she made
As time went on working in the industry, the girls prepared to do the most degrading acts were the most glorified on OnlyFans. We would seek young girls, ‘fresh’ teens, or girls who looked younger than they were and advertise them as “barely legal” or “teen” as that is what made the most money. The youngest girl on our books was 19, but we’d advertise girls who were 20 as 18. The younger the men thought she was, the more popular the girl.
We told ourselves that it was a “safe space” and we were “creating a community” for these girls.
We let them think we cared for them. The girls would say that the agency “saved their lives.” Some were lonely, shy, and socially isolated. Many came from broken homes. The main demographic was girls from lower socio economic parts of Melbourne. They saw us as the “family” they didn’t have.
As time went on, I became more involved in the full life cycle of the girl’s account and would see all the chats from subs in the OnlyFans chats, plus all the content the girls would upload. I have seen young girls in the most intimate of positions. I have even seen them defecate on themselves and it was encouraged by the agency, as the more intense the act,the more money you could make. The more the girl would do, the better for us.
I had people ask for the girls to be tied up, write ‘slut’ on her stomach, play with sex toys on camera while saying the man’s name, moaning and other sexual acts. ‘Age play’ was huge! The girls who looked the youngest were the most in demand and made the most money so you’d promote them that way.
While I was there the requests became darker. One sub wanted the girl to get someone to have their hands hanging on a ledge, not too high that they were in danger but just so they were slightly suspended , and the girl to step on their hands and zoom in to make sure the person being stepped on was in pain. It was just twisted and dark. The girls would adhere to these requests, and we would encourage them as it was extra money per request.
Boundaries broken down
Any boundaries they may have had when starting out were soon broken down. There was too much competition for them to say “no”.
These girls were so broken, dealing with stalkers, obsessive fans, fans wanting to send presents for their children… disturbing stuff. Some of the men genuinely believed they were in relationships and “loved” these women. They would need to be speaking with them 24/7 and you could tell the obsession through the conversations. It was very unsettling.
The writers of the girls’ profiles were taught to offer subs the “girlfriend experience”. This way the men would be emotionally connected to the girls and feel like they genuinely cared for them and would in turn spend more money.
We would encourage girls to leave their normal jobs, break modelling contracts and do whatever it took to get them to come to the agency. We would say it was the better option, a better life, they’d be in a sisterhood and community if they joined us. And they believed it and would be so excited to join and be a part of what the agency offered.
While working at the agency, I spent a considerable amount of time in contact with girls on TikTok and Instagram encouraging them to do OF, and to try to get them to join our agency. For girls who didn’t meet our minimum earnings, we would give them tips on how to grow their OnlyFans account so they could join us. They would then make it their life mission to grow their OnlyFans so they could be a part of our agency. We let them think they were privileged to come on board with us.
This world is so shallow and sad, these girls think they are liberated, that this is a new age woman, that “judgement won’t pay your bills” and the money you earn is worth exposing and degrading your body the way they do.
They do sex tapes with men with big followings in the hopes they will share the video and promote them and earn them more subs. Anything and everything to gain more subs and money and we would glorify and encourage it all. The mentality is “they’re going to do it anyway so why not capitalise on it” or “we are moral and don’t take advantage of them so it's fine”.
I once thought the same.
But as time went on I struggled to even be able to open a photo or video without feeling sick. I would cry everyday for these girls and think about the young babies in my family and if they grew up to do this how heartbroken I would be.
I had to get out…
I left the agency not long after feeling that way and now want to do all I can to educate young girls on how this lifestyle is not the glamorous life it is presented as. This is not how to celebrate women! We need to talk about how dangerous and damaging this industry is.
This is a small glimpse into how dark and sad the world of OnlyFans is. And why I had to get out.
Since then I’ve met other women who have left and we support each other to stay out of the industry, and find work that doesn’t violate our bodies, minds and spirits. It’s not worth it.
Victoria, 25, lives in Melbourne. She works in marketing and is involved in the fitness industry and alternative medicine.
See also
‘Side Hustles and Sexual Exploitation’, CATWA/Collective Shout
New Report on OnlyFans: A Case Study of Exploitation in the Digital Age
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