At first glance I’m just like any other 20 year old woman- I’ve just finished my second year of university, I’m renting an apartment in the city with my two friends, I enjoy reading, I have pet guinea pigs… The only thing ‘different’ about me is my job- I’m a camgirl. What exactly is a camgirl? I stream live performances via a webcam and I do various forms of entertainment or sexual acts in exchange for money.

What made me decide to become a camgirl?

I was lucky enough to be raised in a home where my parents encouraged both me and my older sister to do anything we wanted in life. Pairing that with social media lead me to becoming a particularly feminist, liberal, sexually curious, and self-aware young woman. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be self-employed and that I definitely didn’t want to be stuck at a desk all day. I also grew up in an age where pornography was particularly accessible and where everyone lived on the internet. When I turned eighteen and began researching sex work as a possible career choice I found that there are so many different types of sex work, but the one thing they all had in common was that you could be completely in control of your own work.

As I was heading to university at the time, becoming a cam model was a great option for me for many reasons, such as the fact that I could fit my work around my studies, and that I didn’t have to do a grueling shift of packing bags at a checkout for minimum wage just so I could afford lunch money. I could work as and when I wanted, charge my own rates, and I could instantly ban anyone who was rude to me or made me uncomfortable. So with that in mind, I signed up to my first webcam site just after turning 18.

How I got into cam modeling

I had a friend who was a few months older than me who became a model, specialising in fetish modeling, and then progressed to a professional Dominatrix. I thought that was the coolest thing ever and seeing how happy working in the adult industry made her, as well as the freedom it gave her, gave me the final push I needed to become a camgirl. In September 2014 I signed up to my first cam site as a model. I had to fill out a profile and submit documents so they knew I was of legal age to be doing so. Within 48 hours I was verified by site staff and ready to stream. I made various social media accounts to attract fans and I spent hours watching how other models ran their shows and acted on camera. The rest, as they say, is history.

What do I get out of camming?

When people ask me why I do what I do for a living, I always tell them that I do it for the money. Just as I would if I worked in a restaurant or in retail. Being a camgirl is a job, but it’s a job that I happen to truly love. To put it into perspective, if I were doing a two-hour shift in a retail job I would be going home with around £12. After a two-hour shift on cam I can take away anything between £30 and £100, depending on the time and day. Camming is allowing me to be financially secure and independent where a typical ‘vanilla’ student-level job wouldn’t. One of my flatmates works as a waitress and often does six-hour shifts three to four times a week as university permitted, and she still struggles to pay the rent. I knew that I didn’t ever want to be in that situation.

In the last two years that I’ve been a camgirl my self-confidence has drastically improved. When you have hundreds of people every day telling you that you’re beautiful or that you have a good body, it eventually starts to sink in. I wasn’t comfortable with my looks at all before I started camming but now I can safely say that I am. I think it would’ve taken me a lot longer to come to terms with my body if it weren’t for webcamming.

Additionally, what a lot of people don’t realise about the cam world is that it’s so easy to make friends. There are several models that I call my friends and many more who I get to network with. But not only that, you get to become friends with your regulars. A regular is someone who frequents our shows and who is always there to tip or talk. From an outside perspective it might seem as though the friendship is forced or fake - that these men pay us for friendship, but that isn’t true. When someone comes into your room so often and you get talking, you usually find that you have a lot in common. That you share similar interests or have the same sense of humor. I have several regulars who my heart absolutely leaps for when the enter my room because I know that we’ll get to know each other even more during the show and that they’re still sticking by me.

Even camming has its bad points

Like any job, of course camming has its down points. There are days where I spend two hours getting camera ready only to sit online for an hour and not make any money. There are days where I don’t earn anything, or I earn very little. It all depends on the time and day, as well as the time of year. Christmas, for example, is the worst time for me as a camgirl. While I’m putting in more hours and trying to earn more for the holidays, members are saving their money for the holidays. There are days where I have to come off of cam because I just want to cry, but a good day on cam can leave me on a high for days. Those days are what you need to focus on.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Those days are what you need to focus on” quote=”Those days are what you need to focus on”]

Another bad point is freeloaders. There are so many people who have no intention of paying for your content or in supporting you, and it’s incredibly annoying. Freeloaders are usually the people who will ask you for free content or discounts and then insult you when you say no. They sit in on your cam shows without ever tipping or talking to you. Summed up, they’re just the worst part of being a camgirl.

Camming and relationships

I’m lucky enough to have a boyfriend who supports my work one hundred percent. He knew that I wanted to work in the adult industry before we started dating. We have set limits on what he isn’t comfortable with me doing and if I’m planning on doing anything new we’ll discuss it beforehand. All he cares about is that I’m happy doing this. My friends are all cool with it, too. When I moved in with them I had to tell them because it would be a little awkward otherwise. There’s never been an issue with it.

My family, on the other hand, isn’t okay with any form of sex work. I think to them it’s a little embarrassing when people ask what your daughter is doing for work. My older sister is a biomedical scientist who is currently completing her Masters in biomedical research, and while I’m going to be a business graduate in a couple of years (hopefully with honors!), I’ll probably keep working as a camgirl after I graduate. To them, I’m somewhat of a disappointment because I’m ‘wasting my brain’. Stigma around sex work has created these issues but things are slowly changing. I hope that in the future my parents will be able to proudly tell people that I’m a camgirl because they’ll further understand the hard work and skills behind it. I’ve learned so much from doing this job- HTML & CSS coding, accounting, creative writing, make up skills, and video editing to name a few.

[clickToTweet tweet=”If people take the time to look behind the stereotypes then we can help to end the sex work stigma” quote=”If people take the time to look behind the stereotypes then we can help to end the sex work stigma”]

Conclusion

I’m proud to be a camgirl. I’ve learned so much from being in adult entertainment and I always keep myself safe, healthy and happy. If people take the time to look behind the stereotypes then we can help to end the sex work stigma. We, as a society, need to learn not to judge others based on their employment. We’re all just people at the end of the day. Some of us are just more sexually open than others.

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