The near end of stimulus benefits and massive unemployment due to COVID-19 has thrown many college students into a cash crisis. It could take years—perhaps even decades—to get back on our feet since there’s no hope that the pandemic will end soon enough. Students are forced to get creative, finding other ways to pay for rent, car insurance, student loans, and even food. 

Stories of young women paying their way through school with sex work isn’t new, but ever since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic about a year ago, online sex work has become an increasingly recognized facade of the gig economy, alongside food delivery and ride-hailing services. 

Save the Student’s annual money survey showed in 2020 that 10 percent of college students would consider sex work in a financial emergency. In a separate study, 7 percent of students say they turned to sex work during the pandemic. About 22 percent of those students use OnlyFans. The survey discovered that the majority of students turned to sex work during the pandemic to pay for essentials, such as rent. 

For Lynn*, a criminal justice student at San Francisco State University, OnlyFans and sugar dating have been lifelines during the crisis. She turned to sex work after she lost her job as a budtender due to the lockdown. 

Lynn started sugar dating a couple of years ago when she first started college because her living expenses were not fully covered by her student loan and part-time job. Soon after downloading Grindr, she locked in a wealthy 40-year-old sugar daddy from Corona del Mar, who frequently picked her up in his Lamborghini. 

“At first when I saw him on the app, I didn’t know if he was real. I thought I was being catfished,” Lynn says. “Next thing I know, I’m in the front seat of his bright yellow Lamborghini.”

 Lynn explained that her BDSM-loving sugar daddy wanted strictly sexual meetups, paying $100 to spank her and $200 for oral pleasure. The kinkier she was, the more money she earned. 

“One time, he paid me $150 to let him n*t in my face,” Lynn says. “I felt like I was wearing a face mask, you know, really good for the skin and for the bank account.”

Soon after, she began searching for a sugar daddy who was only interested in platonic love. Her new client was a 70-year-old man she met on OkCupid who would drop $50 for every foot or ankle picture she sent. For meetups, he would pay $300.  

“I met up with him on his yacht in Newport Beach, and we just chatted, nothing sexual except for a back massage,” Lynn says. “But I felt it wasn’t right. I was taking advantage of this old man. This made me realize I didn’t want to do sugar dating for a while, so I stopped.”

Once the pandemic hit, she was strapped for cash and decided to pursue sex work again, this time openly as a member of the transgender community. Prior to 2020, Lynn struggled with being open about her gender identity as a woman, masking her femininity in men’s clothing and pronouns to blend in. She explains that although it’s a breath of fresh air to be openly trans, she still struggled with the idea of having to reintroduce herself as a trans person to her new sugar daddy: a 40-year-old man she met on Taimi, an LGBTQ+ dating app. 

Unlike her other clients, he asked for uncomfortable services, such as offering to pay $300 to have her excrete feces on his chest. She also says he was a trans chaser, which made her feel unsafe and uncomfortable. 

“For anyone looking into being a sugar baby, I highly recommend doing the research before committing because sugar dating isn’t always the safest environment. Never let someone make you do something you are not willing to do,” Lynn says. She also recommends sharing your location with a close friend or someone you can trust.

On top of this encounter, she is also classed as high-risk for COVID-19, so she decided to join OnlyFans, charging $5 a month, because working through a subscription website was safe and financially easier. Lynn posted an array of kinky videos of her dancing around the bedroom in fishnets and red lace panties, making sure to show off her cleavage.  

Millie, another college student who wishes to not use her last name for privacy reasons, was in a similar position earlier in the year. Her job laid her off, and she needed another source of income to pay for bills and university costs, so she turned to OnlyFans, charging $10 a month and making it in the top 5 percent of creators. She markets her brand on a private Snapchat, as well as doing shoutouts with other people.

She mainly posts pictures of herself in lingerie and occasional videos of her twerking on her bed. Despite her undeniable self-love, she sometimes feels embarrassed because some men automatically label her as a whore or other derogatory terms. 

“For a while I would let it get to me, but then I realized it’s my body, my choice. There’s nothing wrong with loving yourself and your body,” Millie says. 

Clarah*, another college student who wishes to keep her identity private, spent the summer during the pandemic selling used panties on Sofia Gray and posting daily on OnlyFans.

“OnlyFans is not as easy as people say it is. It’s very time-consuming and if you don’t post something every day, people start hounding you,” Clarah says. She sometimes spent up to five hours a day taking videos and pictures, editing and applying filters, and then uploading them. 

“Sex work is work,” Clarah says. “Period.”

 Lynn explains that through sugar dating and OnlyFans, she became more knowledgeable about the adult industry. She continues advocating for ending the stigma around sex work and how it’s only for cisgender heterosexuals. 

“Anyone can do sex work if they want to or need to. We need to bring more awareness to the trans women victims that are murdered during their shifts as sex workers, while also teaching how to identify potential predators to keep everyone in the sex work community safe,” Lynn says. 

 *Fictional names were used for the privacy of the interviewees.