Peta Emery quit the RAF after raking in £10,000 in her first month online – and now makes up to six figures a month online, saying it is the best decision she has ever made.
A heavily tattooed powerlifting star has stopped saving lives, to instead rake in thousands every month as an adult content creator. Peta Emery quit the RAF after raking in £10,000 in her first month on a subscription site and now makes up to six figures a month.
The stunner says what started as a spur-of-the-moment idea during lockdown quickly turned into a life-changing career move and She said it is the best decision she has ever made.
Everything changed when she was working as an RAF engineer but decided to test the waters online, hoping to clear some debt and pay off her car. Within weeks she had earned more than she ever expected and realised she could ditch the military life for good.
Now the self-confessed “pocket rocket” – who has amassed over 460,000 followers on Instagram @power_midget – balances national powerlifting competitions with a booming online business.
She said: “It was during Covid and we were working from home. I had some credit card debt, I wanted to pay off my car, and I was like, ‘F*ck it, I’ll just try it. I did a load of looking at what other girls in the industry were doing.
“I think that’s something I do really well. I ended up making 10 grand in my first month, so I quit my job.”
She says her earnings have only grown since then, with her average month now bringing in around £100,000, while her biggest months can be even higher. But Peta says the industry has changed dramatically since the early boom.
She said: “I think with new laws coming in, like ID verification, it’s swayed people and the whole Covid boom has dropped off now.
“Management agencies have killed it a bit too, because the whole appeal was having that authentic relationship, being able to have a chat with the person you’re talking to. People need to know they’re not getting scammed.
“I think a lot of guys have signed up to girls who’ve disappointed them because it’s just been spammy or deceitful – for example, they’re actually speaking to ‘Barry from Essex’ – and that’s ruined it for the girls who don’t run their pages like that.”
Peta says she had already locked down her username while still serving in the RAF because she always planned to give it a go one day. And despite her military background, she says forces life was never really the right fit.
She said: “It’s just not me. I don’t want to say I have an issue with authority, but if something doesn’t make sense to me, I’m very much questioning why we’re doing something a certain way.
“The military is very much, ‘we’ve always done it this way, so we’ll continue to do it this way.’ I enjoyed parts of the job, but there was a lot of it where I was just like, ‘this is dumb, this doesn’t make sense.'”
Peta says she first joined the military after a boozy conversation with an ex-boyfriend. She said: “My ex was in the military and had just signed up and was in basic training.
“I didn’t want to be following him around in the military trying to find odd jobs, I want a career in my own right. At the time, I was a specialised learning assistant for students with autism and ADHD then decided, ‘f*ck it, I’ll join the military, too.’
“I was a bit drunk at the time, so I just thought ‘you only live once’, and signed up to be an avionics technician.”
While serving in the RAF, Peta discovered a love for fitness, and eventually powerlifting. When lockdown hit, she stocked up on a full training kit, including weights, to keep going at home.
She said: “Lockdown happened so I bought a load of weights and kit. I got into debt because prices skyrocketed and everything was out of stock.”
She now competes nationally as a powerlifter while continuing to grow her online following.
Fans often request sweaty socks, gym shorts and dominatrix-style looks – but one of her biggest viral moments came when she was barely trying at all.
She said: “I had a video of me go viral where I was literally just dressed in joggers and a big baggy T-shirt, very Adam Sandler, no makeup, and it just went crazy.”
Peta says spontaneity has been key to her success – both online and off. She said: “Being adaptable is important in this industry because if you’re not, you’ll get left behind and miss out on opportunities.
“I do everything on a whim. I wing a lot of sh*t in my life, and it usually works out for me. I’ve always said I don’t want to be on my deathbed thinking, ‘oh, I wish I’d done that.'”