Sydney OnlyFans stars Jade Amber Williams and Elly tell all

While many have struggled financially through 2020, there’s an online community of everyday Aussies thriving. Meet Sydney’s stars of racy subscriber-only website OnlyFans.

It’s been a tough year for many business owners and sole traders, but there’s one industry that thrived in 2020 – and it’s not safe for work.

While you may think it’s just for celebrities and porn stars, users say pay-per-view website OnlyFans is so much more, and Sydney boasts some of the site’s top contributors.

Created in 2016, OnlyFans was inspired by influencers to allow their followers to subscribe to their exclusive content for a monthly fee.

While OnlyFans started out purely as a premium influencer platform, the site quickly became known for its adult content, giving sex workers and models a place to exclusively share their sexier content and make extra cash.

According to reports, OnlyFans has 30 million registered users and more than 450,000 content creators.

To put that into perspective, Netflix had 195.15 million paid subscribers worldwide at the back end of 2020.

Actress Bella Thorne (right) made $1m in just 24 hours. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for GQ)

One of the site’s highest earners is young actress Bella Thorne, who made headlines earlier this year when she made a whopping $1 million in just 24 hours.

Thorne’s exploits on the platform were later the subject of controversy after OnlyFans changed their refund and payout policies when a large volume of her subscribers sought refunds due to the lack of anticipated nude content.

However, with so much cash to be made on the site, it is no wonder people from all walks of life, including mums, dads and businesswomen, are turning to the platform.

A stunning mum-of-two from a suburb south of Sydney who signed up to the site in 2019 said that despite the country shutting down earlier this year, her OnlyFans revenue actually grew.

OnlyFans themselves made a compelling argument for using the platform, saying “as far as we’re concerned, if you use social media and produce your own content, you should be using OnlyFans”.

“Whether you’re uploading tutorials, tips, behind the scenes footage or just endless selfies, a lot of your followers would be willing to pay for them,” the site owners wrote.

We spoke to some of Sydney’s most popular OnlyFans faces to hear their experiences with the site in 2020, and how business was impacted by the pandemic.

JADE AMBER WILLIAMS

Mum-of-two Jade Amber Williams is one of Sydney’s more familiar OnlyFans faces, with her almost 60,000 Instagram followers converting into huge amounts of cash through OnlyFans.

Jade, 29, made her OnlyFans debut in 2019, when she decided to pivot from her job as a model and influencer due to Instagram’s strict guidelines.

“I had modelled for eight to nine years and have dabbled in almost every genre of modelling there is, in particular fine art nude shoots,” she said.

“With Instagram heavily cracking down on their guidelines and preventing creators to post these kinds of shoots or anything showing a female nipple, I made the decision to post that stuff on OnlyFans.”

Sydneysider Jade Amber Williams.

Unlike other OnlyFans users, Jade doesn’t hide her relationship from her subscribers, with her partner Stean featuring heavily on her account.

“We saw an audience for it and a way to make more money and bring in more subscribers, so we just went for it,” she said.

“We’ve previously done modelling shoots together so there was already a comfort there.”

Despite businesses closing and people losing their jobs during the pandemic, Jade said she was getting paid more during the state’s lockdown stage.

“At the peak of lockdown there was a significant boost,” she said.

“I think with people being at home all day and OnlyFans had become so well known during this time that everyone just jumped on board to see what it was about.”

Jade told The Daily Telegraph she earns up to $10,000 a month through the site, making her a role model for OnlyFans amateurs.

While creating for OnlyFans can bring a lot of judgment, Jade said she wasn’t fazed, and that the site was about more than just X-rated porn.

Jade says she isn’t fazed by those who judge

“It’s not by any means, for some maybe, but not all of us – for many it’s a space to post creatively and benefit financially,” she said.

“People are more curious if anything. OnlyFans is spoken about worldwide now and people that aren’t on the site don’t know anything about it or how it works and they are genuinely curious.”

ELLY, LACE AND HAZE

The Sydney woman behind a prominent lingerie Instagram account with tens of thousands of followers has turned to OnlyFans since leaving her job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elly from Lace and Haze once boasted 60,000 followers on her Instagram dedicated to fine lingerie with a special interest in designers suited to bigger busts.

That was before Instagram’s prohibitive content controls saw her account closed.

While Elly has since rebooted her Instagram presence, her sexiest content has been subscriber-only on OnlyFans for more than a year.

“I was getting asked daily by followers if I had one so I thought that there was demand for it so why not try it,” Elly said.

“I was employed when I first started my account and most of my colleagues and my boss knew about it and were very supportive.”

Elly took to the platform after growing frustrated with Instagram

Elly said the money she made changed on a month by month basis depending on the level of promotion and how much new content she creates.

“During the pandemic my online work increased slightly, some months were better than others,” Elly said.

“The main misconception about OnlyFans is that it is an easy way to make money – it is a full-time job and requires many different skills.

“I’m a model, stylist, photographer, social media manager, my own PR person and customer service representative, advertiser and accountant.”

The Sydneysider acknowledged more people had signed up to OnlyFans due to pandemic job losses – but said she did not see other creators as competition.

She says it is a full-time job to make money from Only Fans

“Everyone has something unique to offer and there is enough space on the internet,” Elly said.

“I have found myself a very supportive community of creators and I love subscribing to other content creators where possible.”

Elly said most people had reacted positively to her involvement with OnlyFans, but – like Jade – she was unfazed by judgmental responses.

“There are always a few who are judgmental but those negative reactions are a reflection on the person who is judging and their ingrained prejudices,” Elly said.

“It’s nothing to do with myself or the OnlyFans community.”