Broke artist began doing one thing daring on Reddit – now she earns six figures a yr
Hazel Paige, 31, says she went from posting nude photos on Reddit “for fun” to building a loyal fanbase and turning it into a six-figure adult career, later moving into studio adult films
She began sharing nudes on Reddit (Image: David Rivers)
A woman who began sharing nudes on Reddit has turned her hobby into a six-figure adult star salary. Hazel Paige, 31, shared her first racy photograph in the online community in 2019 “because I like attention”.
But she soon found a following of loyal fans in the chatroom style site, which brings together millions of users who talk in subreddits. And Hazel, then working as an artist, quickly found her intimate snaps were earning more than her paintbrush.
Hazel, from Boston, USA, but now working in Las Vegas, said: “I got into the industry about six years ago. I started posting nudes on Reddit just for fun because I like attention.”
She continued: “I’ve always been sort of an exhibitionist. It’s always been a part of me.
“I was working a job in the arts that didn’t pay very well and had a really funky schedule. I would work a lot for a couple of weeks and then have a tonne of time off.
“I was super comfortable with sharing nudes on Reddit, it was super fun, so I thought, why don’t I start monetising it?” Soon Hazel took her fans over to other adult platforms, including a popular adult content platform, and found her loyal fanbase were prepared to part with hard-earned cash to see her in the buff.
“When the pandemic happened, I lost my job”
This wet her appetite even further and she soon took up studio adult movies. Hazel continued: “So I started [popular adult content platform] and other fan sites.
“I did that for a couple of years. I moved out to LA and started doing studio [adult movies].
“When the pandemic happened, I lost my job, totally gone. It was a public-facing arts job so I pivoted to sex work full-time.
“I felt really lucky that I had it pre-pandemic and didn’t have to figure it out when everyone else was figuring it out. When I moved out to LA, I split time between there and Vegas, and started doing studio [adult movies].”
Hazel, who also works as an escort at Sheri’s Ranch in Las Vegas, now earns a six-figure salary that dwarfs the earnings she made as an artist. Along the way she met a male adult star she is now in an open relationship with, and they even shoot together.
She added: “We started doing sex work together, we’re still together, we have a production company together and we’ve been together seven and a half years. We’re open about our relationship.
Boyfriend-girlfriend movies
“For a while, you balance being a female performer with a partner on the internet, because part of the fantasy is that they can date me, meet me, and do all of those things. We went back and forth about being open about it, and at the end of the day it’s hard not to be.
“I don’t like having to curate things on the internet. They don’t get everything about my life, but we’re in this together.
“We shoot so many things together, we own a company together. It would be hard to pretend we’re not together.
“He’s also a performer. It’s interesting, we have an inverse relationship compared to most.
“The content we produce together, he is the on-camera talent and I am the producer. We hired other girls to come in and perform with him.”
And how do they make it work? Hazel says open communication is key.
“We’re poly”
She said: “The boring answer is communication. We were poly when we started dating, and we’re still poly.
“That helps with the realities. We’re both exhibitionists, and we both like watching the other person with other people.
“There’s no jealousy or judgment. It’s always us versus the problem.
“I feel really grateful we started together. I’ve heard horror stories where people meet a partner who says they’re fine with it, but then they fetishise it or get weird when faced with the reality.
“You have to be okay with the fact that sometimes the sex is great and it doesn’t reflect on the relationship.” On working at Sheri’s Ranch, she said it’s a good way of protecting herself from AI.
There she works as an escort at the venue, one of the only legal brothels for prostitution in Nevada. She added: “I talked to a friend who was working here, who said, ‘Hey, I really love it.
Money making career
“‘I’m making a lot of money, clients are really great’. I said, “Okay, I’ll try it.
“I did my first tour here two years ago and just loved it. I love the work, I love the people that I get to meet, the sort of money that I make is great, and I’m here once a month now.
“It’s important to distinguish between different kinds of sex work. There’s in-person work like strip clubs, brothels, independent workers, and online work like studio [adult movies], fan sites, webcamming, sexting, calls.
“They’ll all be affected differently. The more the consumer is connected to the producer, the less it will be affected. Studio [adult movies] is most at risk, brothel work least.
“I don’t think what I do here will be replaced. I think it will become more valuable.
“AI is coming, but it’s important to define what AI is. Humans personify things.
“AI is fundamentally a calculator. It processes input, identifies patterns, and produces output.
“It doesn’t create the way we do. For things involving creativity and human nuance, it will struggle.
“It can’t replace the intimacy I offer.”
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