Trainee teacher uses Only Fans to travel the world

In an era where digital platforms redefine the way we connect, work, and live, OnlyFans is quite the revolutionary force. It dominates social media, with influencers promoting the luxury lifestyle the platform grants to its users. For some women on the platform, OnlyFans isn't just about financial gain – it's a means to fund their globetrotting dreams. This is true for Evelyn,* a formally struggling student who now boasts of a lifestyle that takes her around the globe. She tells Grace Cushnie how the platform changed her life.

From your average starving student to a woman with the world at her hands, Evelyn traded instant noodles for gourmet meals, her textbooks for a camera, and dreams for reality.

She says: 'We’ve all heard the joke… I might just start an OnlyFans. We’ve all said it, especially when we’re sat facing an empty bank account or a bill. The way it was plastered over social media made it seem like some sort of saving grace to everyone. Plus, I was crushed with the feeling that I would never be able to do what I wanted on this earth. An overwhelming feeling of wanderlust just crushed me. I decided to just do it, try out the saving grace.'

The 23-year-old joined the OnlyFans ‘movement’ in the spring of 2022, fresh out of university with a degree in English Language.

'Now, after spending the summer travelling most of Europe, I’m on my way to the States to start there. I had no idea what that decision meant for my life', she says.

Evelyn, a trainee teacher, posts spicy photos and videos, pay-per-view messages, and requested content onto the site for paying consumers. All of which she does under an alias to protect her future career, as well as being a faceless presence on the platforms used to promote her account.

'It posed quite a risk,' she states, 'working anonymously.'

Compared to other influencers who have a big social media presence, like Anna Paul or Chloe Khan, Evelyn struggled to get her views up to begin with.

She confesses: 'I had to put a lot more work in than my competitors because I wasn’t willing to risk my future plans. It took a lot of playing with Twitter and Reddit’s rules and skimpy bikinis to gain some traction, and even now I have to do some questionable things to keep it.'

She details several face-crinkling stories, including having to act like a cat chasing her subscriber, the mouse, meowing to keep things ‘believable.’ Her general days, though, consist of bathing in unconventional liquids, ‘findom’ (dominating men), and taking cheeky pictures of her body. She completes her subscriber's requests, including celebrities, sports personalities, and comedians, and embraces what is requested from her, taking enjoyment in the randomness of it all.

'It’s crazy what people are willing to pay for, but also incredibly interesting,” she laughs. “It has pushed me well out of my shell, and I’ve actually really enjoyed some of it.'

She does most of her work while travelling. She makes sure her hotels have good Wi-Fi, bonus points being added if there's an impressive bathtub or an aesthetic bed to use as a backdrop for her videos. On her normally solo trips, she grabs her phone and tripod to make content in some dream-worthy spaces. Often these consist of empty beaches, waterfalls, or lakes with a view.

She says: 'I dedicate at least 5 hours to creating content and interacting with subscribers while travelling. They have given me the life I dreamed of, so I like to make sure they are getting the content they pay for.

'Though, it does also seem like sometimes I can’t do anything right…'

She describes how, while men may enjoy seeing her body online, she is often demonised for asking for something, a small subscription fee, in exchange. Expectations are high and unfair. However, she states that this rarely gets her down because it is overpowered by the good. They complain, but still pay regardless.

They pay her for her with clothes on, clothes off, dressed up and down. They pay her around £9k a month, actually. They paid her £5k in six days, her highest amount made in the shortest time, a few weeks ago.

So, how does she make money?

'That’s something I’m asked every time I mention my job,' she laughs.

She explains that it begins with a subscription fee, hers being £15 a month for her 340 subscribers. Then, with a subscription, her fans have the option to message her directly, her responses she charges between £20-£65 depending on the context. Pictures again range, with her non-explicit being charged around £3, and more revealing being about £7. Then, there's videos. She charges £3 for short, GIF-like videos, and £4 per minute for longer videos. For her personal voice notes she charges £2 per minute, and for generalised £1. Subscribers also have the option to tip, which is limited to £100 for the first four months, and raised to £200 afterwards.

'The money doesn’t sound like much on its own', she says, 'but my god it adds up.'

With all this money, she travels worldwide, creating content to make more, an online entrepreneur absolutely smashing the game.

'The Netherlands, Poland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Iceland, Turkey,…' she lists off. 'I travelled to some amazing countries in Europe in 2023, and I’m off to the States in early 2024. God knows where’s next, I’m just enjoying living life freely for right now. Teaching will always be waiting for me when I’m ready, I'm making sure of it.'

Of course, Evelyn has funds put away for when she’s ready to start the life of the average, enough for a house deposit and adding more each week. OnlyFans has essentially set her up for life, her work on the platform giving her the opportunity to travel the world as well as a safety net to fall back on afterward.

Though it has not come without hardships.

While it feels empowering to challenge the patriarchal norms in the sex industry, Evelyn has felt just as vulnerable. She faces societal stigmas, potential professional consequences, and the emotional toll of combating sexism and negativity in her comment sections. It seems exhausting, the constant need to justify her value to her subscribers.

Yet, she perseveres, as while she is experiencing this negativity, in some idealistic hotel in an exotic corner of the world, the negativity is sitting at home, being yelled at by his wife or in his mother’s basement, wanking.

Women like Evelyn are turning patriarchy on its head, making money off a majority male audience, who have historically objectified their bodies anyway. According to a Gitnux study, these women are making 78% more than men are on the platform. What a turn of events…

OnlyFans claim a focus on 'empowering creators to own their full potential,' exactly as Evelyn has.

We are watching women take ownership of their bodies, fight patriarchal ideas of womanhood, and build the lifestyles they have dreamt of.

What a time to be alive.

*Evelyn’s name has been changed for confidentiality, protecting her identity so that her future job as a teacher is not affected by her work on the platform.