Woman’s racy side hustle led to pressure to leave university

A young woman has revealed how she no longer felt welcomed on her university campus after her lecturer discovered her racy side hustle.

A woman has revealed how she no longer felt welcome on her university campus after her lecturer discovered her racy side hustle.

Nova Hawthorne, 29, had initially entered the world of early childcare after finishing high school but in 2016 she decided to go back to university to study social work – her dream career.

At the start of her master’s degree, students were told about two placements that would take up an entire semester each – around four months – which would see them working in the field full time without pay.

If students wanted to make money, they’d have to work nights or weekends.

“I was in a relationship when I went on my first placement, and I was away from home in a small rural area about six hours away,” Nova told news.com.au.

Nova Hawthorne was studying social work. Picture: Instagram/@nova_hawthorne

She revealed her partner was supportive her during that placement but when the relationship broke down, she needed a quick way to make cash to support herself as she didn’t have a dollar to her name.

So, Nova turned to sex work where she sold pictures of herself and chatted online with people, and also met with clients in person.

She did this throughout her placement before returning to her university campus at the start of 2019, where she also worked in a variety of roles, and decided to keep up with her side hustle along with her existing jobs.

After a class, her lecturer pulled Nova aside and asked her to come into a meeting the following day.

“She said it with a smile on her face. She didn’t say it would be a good idea to bring a support person. She didn’t tell me what kind of content it would be about,” Nova said.

“And this was kind of normal. The lecturers often asked to discuss assignments or classes or topics or things like that. So it didn’t really ring any bells for me.”

In the meeting the lecturer immediately brought up Nova’s secret name and Instagram account she was using to promote her side hustle.

She was on placement with no money so she started in sex work. Picture: Instagram/@nova_hawthorne

The lecturer then started asking if Nova thought this was appropriate for someone studying social work and if it was impacting her degree. Nova felt as though she was being talked to with a judgmental tone.

When Nova said it was because she needed the money, the lecturer suggested she apply for a one-off $300 grant.

“She seemed to think that this was enough for me to survive without having a job or doing sex work,” she said, adding the lecturer asked her to write a reflective piece on what she was doing.

“I think she was in her attempt to make me realise it was a bad choice.”

She said she walked out of the meeting upset, thinking she was going to be asked to leave the university.

“I felt that the lecturers I trusted to support me, who are also social workers, had really let me down during this course and during the placement,” she said.

Nova was called into another meeting with her main contact for the jobs she had on campus, and it went in a similar direction, with the student being asked to consider whether it was appropriate for her to be working alongside the public in the uni jobs.

She was distraught, made to feel like what she was doing – paying her way through university – was immoral. At a loss and feeling like she wasn’t welcomed on campus anymore, Nova attempted to withdraw from her course. But the office saw she was in her final year and told her not to, and instead see the student union. Nobody from the university formally asked her to leave.

She felt pressured to move university campuses when her lecturer discovered her side hustle. Picture: Instagram/@nova_hawthorne

Staff from the student union found her in tears and they organised for a human rights lawyer to come and speak with her. They came up with a plan for her to leave her jobs and transfer to another campus for her to complete her degree.

“I felt like I had beef with the with the uni and I didn’t really want to go to a different campus of the same uni but it was kind of a stupid choice to lose everything over that when I was close to the finish line,” she said.

She graduated her masters in the honour society with high marks.

But, after everything, Nova decided to continue on focusing on her business as a cam girl.

“I had decided that following that I would take a year to just work in sex work, build up some money travel, do what I like, but those plans with halted by the pandemic,” she said.

“I always thought well, at the end of this year, I will go on to look for a social work position. ”But the pandemic ended up going for three years and I started just investing so much more time in my online business, that it was a great success and I’d have taking a huge pay cut to go into social work.”

She said an entry level social work position typically started at $60,000 but at this point she was making between $120,000 and $150,000.

She graduated from another campus. Picture: Instagram/@nova_hawthorne

Nova said her story exposed two major issues — that students weren’t compensated financially while working full time for months at a time, and that prejudice against sex workers was still strong in many aspects of society.

“There needs to be some sort of grant system or government funding people who are completing these, these long placements, especially in the medical field and nursing,” Nova said.

“They’re gonna be such valuable members to the workforce. However, they have to take such a cut and lots of sacrifice [to get there to] the point where ultimately they’re going to be amazing, outstanding individuals to the entire community.”

Nova said while she surrounded herself with people who understood her line of work, there was still obvious judgment about sex work, which she typically saw in the form of social media comments.

She has continued working in an online sex work capacity. Picture: Instagram/@nova_hawthorne

And while she isn’t using her degree in a formal capacity, Nova does feel like she is using her skills she learned.

“Early on, even when I was dancing at strip clubs through uni before I got into the online work, I felt like I was someone people entering the industry could come to for unbiased support with no ulterior motive,” she said.

”I like that I’ve been able to continue that and people recognise me as an ambassador or a figure in the in the adult community that wants to see people achieve and wants to do the best and is able to provide mentorship and support in that way. And I really appreciate that people respect me for doing that and sharing that information.”

Nova said she will likely be able to retire early and with her lived experience and degree, she wants to use it where it counts such as helping create policy when it comes to sex work.