Jobless, Selling Nudes Online and Still Struggling

OnlyFans, a social media platform that allows people to sell explicit photos of themselves, has boomed during the pandemic. But competition on the site means many won’t earn much.

Savannah Benavidez stopped working at her job as a medical biller in June to take care of her 2-year-old son after his day care shut down. Needing a way to pay her bills, she created an account on OnlyFans — a social media platform where users sell original content to monthly subscribers — and started posting photos of herself nude or in lingerie.

Ms. Benavidez, 23, has made $64,000 since July, enough not just to take care of her own bills, but to help family and friends with rent and car payments.

“It’s more money than I have ever made in any job,” she said. “I have more money than I know what to do with.”

Lexi Eixenberger was hoping for a similar windfall when she started an OnlyFans account in November. A restaurant worker in Billings, Mont., Ms. Eixenberger, 22, has been laid off three times during the pandemic and was so in need of cash by October that she had to drop out of dental hygiene school. After donating plasma and doing odd jobs, she still didn’t have enough to pay her bills, so at the suggestion of some friends, she turned to OnlyFans. She has made only about $500 so far.

OnlyFans, founded in 2016 and based in Britain, has boomed in popularity during the pandemic. As of December, it had more than 90 million users and more than one million content creators, up from 120,000 in 2019. The company declined to comment for this article.

With millions of Americans unemployed, some like Ms. Benavidez and Ms. Eixenberger are turning to OnlyFans in an attempt to provide for themselves and their families. The pandemic has taken a particularly devastating toll on women and mothers, wiping out parts of the economy where women dominate: retail businesses, restaurants and health care.

“A lot of people are migrating to OnlyFans out of desperation,” said Angela Jones, an associate professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Farmingdale. “These are people who are worried about eating, they’re worried about keeping the lights on, they’re worried about not being evicted.”

But for every person like Ms. Benavidez, who is able to use OnlyFans as her primary source of income, there are dozens more, like Ms. Eixenberger, who hope for a windfall and end up with little more than a few hundred dollars and worries that the photos will hinder their ability to get a job in the future.
“It is already an incredibly saturated market,” Ms. Jones said of explicit content online. “The idea that people are just going to open up an OnlyFans account and start raking in the dough is really misguided.”

The most successful content creators are often models, porn stars and celebrities who already have large social media followings. They can use their other online platforms to drive followers to their OnlyFans accounts, where they offer exclusive content to those willing to pay a monthly fee — even personalized content in exchange for tips. OnlyFans takes a 20 percent cut of any pay. Some creators receive tips through mobile payment apps, which aren’t subject to that cut; Ms. Benavidez earns most of her money this way.

But many of the creators who have joined the platform out of dire financial need do not have large social media followings or any way to drum up consistent business.

Elle Morocco of West Palm Beach, Fla., was laid off from her job as an office manager in July. Her unemployment checks don’t cover her $1,600 monthly rent, utility bills and food costs, so she joined OnlyFans in November.

But Ms. Morocco, 36, had no social media presence to speak of when she joined the platform, and has had to gain subscribers one by one — by posting pictures of herself on Instagram and Twitter, and following up with people who like and comment on her posts, encouraging each one to subscribe to OnlyFans. It’s more challenging and time consuming than she expected, and less financially rewarding.

“It’s a full-time job on top of your full-time job looking for work,” she said. “Fans want to see you posting daily. You’re always churning. You’re always taking pictures to post.”
She has made just $250 on the platform so far, despite sometimes spending upward of eight hours a day creating, posting and promoting her content.

Ms. Morocco also worries that her presence on the platform will make it more difficult for her to be hired for traditional jobs in the future.

“If you’re looking for a 9 to 5, they might not hire you if they find out you have an OnlyFans,” she said. “They may not want you if they know you’re a sex worker.”

Digital sex work can give the illusion of safety and privacy — content creators can get paid without having to interact with clients in person. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t risks.

“Online sex work is a much more appealing alternative to many people than going on the streets or selling direct sexual services,” said Barb Brents, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “That said, anybody getting into this kind of work needs to be aware that there are dangers.”

Last April, a mechanic in Indiana lost her job at a Honda dealership after management learned she had an OnlyFans account. Creators can be the target of “doxxing” — a form of online harassment in which users publish private or sensitive information about someone without permission. In December, The New York Post published an article about a New York City medic who was using OnlyFans to supplement her income. The medic believed that the article, published without her consent, would damage her reputation and get her fired from her job.

Creators can also be subject to “capping,” a practice in which users take unauthorized screenshots or recordings and then share them elsewhere on the internet. OnlyFans creators have also received death and rape threats on social media.
OnlyFans content creators can face not just professional consequences but personal ones, too. Ms. Eixenberger has been keeping her account secret from her father, but knows he will find out now that she has gone public. “I don’t want to be shamed or disowned,” she said.

Others say the experience has been empowering. Melany Hall, a single mother of three, earns $13.30 an hour as a paramedic in northern Ohio, barely enough to cover her bills. She started an OnlyFans account in December.

“I’m a mom of three kids. I never thought anyone would pay to see me naked,” said Ms. Hall, 27. “It’s been a confidence boost.”

She has made about $700 so far — not enough to change her life, but enough to make the holidays special.

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“This is the first year I didn’t have to choose between the electric bill and Christmas presents for my kids,” she said. “This is the first year I’ve been able to do it all by myself.”
Sculpted dresses that redefine feminine sensuality. Meticulous construction born out of haute couture mastery. Singular pieces that don’t date, but rather age like fine wine. Azzedine Alaïa was responsible for so many instantly recognizable advances in fashion that his vision has taken on a life of its own. This spirit of progression and innovation continues to drive the brand today, as shown in the Spring/Summer ’21 collection: drawing from his heritage, building on signature techniques and creating with women’s multifaceted lives in mind. Says Alaïa’s C.E.O., Myriam Serrano: “It’s not a revolution, it’s really more of an evolution, which has always been the creative approach of Azzedine Alaïa.” In another fresh start, the house has just named its new creative director, Pieter Mulier, who will present his first collection in spring 2022.

Lauded in the ’80s as the “King of Cling,” Azzedine Alaïa draped fabric on the body before shaping his clothes, making this the starting point of his work and a constant reference. The house mirrors that relationship in a collection built for motion. “Every dress — every look — is engineered,” says Serrano, “shaped on the body to make it look amazing and very constructed — but at the same time flexible, allowing freedom of movement.” Once the custom fabrics are developed, they’re sculpted on a model to determine how they interact with the body, dictating the final shape.

The creative team has advanced house codes, extending mini hems to midis and creating necklines that frame the body rather than mold to it. Pleated skirts that flare from the waist are open-knitted and partially unlined, revealing glimpses of flesh and shadow.
An international, worldly vision has always been at the heart of Alaïa, making these pieces even more relevant today. The decorative details that distinguish the Spring/Summer ’21 collection can be traced to Azzedine Alaïa’s significant personal attachment to Africa. Tiers of lustrous raffia soften angular shoulder straps and add movement to skirts, giving them a dynamic flow when in motion. An earthy palette is punctuated with vivid red, accents of gold, and a deep brown that evokes the hue of African sculpture.

The culture of his native Tunisia long informed the designer, and dresses are spun in a  precise jacquard, the patterns borrowed from an image from the artists’ enclave of Sidi Bou Said, where Azzedine Alaïa had a home. Arab-Andalusian art and architecture was one of his constant sources of fascination, and resulted in the Vienne motif, a series of circles and triangles mimicking the intricate geometry of decorative walls and columns. It can be seen today in laser-cut perforations tracing a bag or in meticulously wrought knits where skin becomes the canvas for delicate openwork.
Revisiting a much-loved signature involves looking at it from a different angle. “We took what we think is interesting and important and reinterpreted it into new yarns and new details,” says Serrano.

The Angèle bag , a soft tote, echoes the generous sensuality of the clothing through sculptural forms and revisited laser-cut ornamentation. The leather is slightly tumbled, so it can be draped like a dress, but is still structured enough to hold its shape. Instead of all-over perforations, only the seams are edged with cut-out leaves. This subtle approach is “a way to play with signatures, with codes, that make it new,” say