By Ariana Erickson —
She got in to OnlyFans for the money — to live in a $6,000 a month apartment, to travel to Europe all summer and to have free time. But when Taylor Brazinsky tried to get out of OF, she had to get a lawyer and fight her manager.
The trouble: she signed a two-year contract. She argues the contract is for the manager to outsource text response from fans, not to force her to do “sex work,” she says.
“I work with like one of the most amazing lawyers ever who’s very called to this mission,” Taylor says.
OnlyFans says it’s safe and empowering ladies. Taylor says none of that is true. OnlyFans is one ingredient in the witch’s cauldron of seething depravity of the most unimaginable kind, she says.
“It always starts with something that’s simple and then it always escalates to something more and something dangerous,” Taylor says. “And you know, that’s really what escalates all of these, other things like pedophilia and trafficking… This content is fueling how others are being harmed.”
Taylor says that sex traffickers recruit models on OF.
Natale Parker, who hosts the Fight the New Drug podcast, also warns about the dangers of pornograpy.
“Porn is fueling the demand for sex trafficking and sexual violence and sexualized racism and objectification and the slew societal issues that that so many people are dealing with today,” Parker says.
If quitting OF is hard, the issue of getting stalked by your fans is worse. Because its direct message feature provides fans the illusion of direct communication with the creator (it’s outsourced to the Philippines by the manager), men feel like they have an actual relationship with the girl.
Many men want to take their relationship offline. In one case, the lover showed up in the living room of the creator.
In a world where you can look up everything, these men are finding addresses and sending flowers. When she gives him the cold shoulder, he threatens her life and stalks her.
“You kind of retreat into your home because you’re like, I don’t know who knows me. I don’t know who’s seen me. You start to just hide… the thought of somebody out there stalking you, watching you, these obsessive people who believe they’re dating you. That’s really scary.”
Taylor’s experiences are ahead of the social science. There aren’t many studies on OnlyFans yet. A ResearchGate study says depressed girls are more prone to doing extreme content but may get more depressed for doing it.
A Springer Nature study exposed the underage users are accessing OF despite precautions to keep minors out. A UseNix study looks at the dangers for content creators.
But because OF is a relatively new phenomenon, not much research has been done, say, into linking online platforms with trafficking. In the absence of research, eyewitness accounts are worth something.
Taylor Brazinsky originally got into OnlyFans in 2020 after Covid. She reposted her Instagram bikini photos and did videos about vegan cooking. At the time, OnlyFans wasn’t exclusively sex; since the early days, the sex content is almost 100%.
As an early adopter, she made decent money (with 1.5M content creators now, it’s harder to make money unless you do explicit content). Then she dropped it. OF was supposed to be a stepping stone for her to start her business.
In 2022, a manager started reaching out to her and promised her $50,000 a month, provided that she fulfill obligations to show more daring content. The illusion of money seemed to eclipse the stigma, and she bit the bait.
Taylor says she didn’t promote herself on her regular social media. In fact, she lived with “identity dissonance.” There was the Taylor with dreams of a legit business, and there was this girl who supported her lavish lifestyle by undressing publicly.
Not a lot of people shamed her for being on OF, she says. They were wowed by her enviable opulence.
“Money really is I think the main source of people convincing themselves that maybe it’s okay,” Taylor says. “I don’t think there’s anything empowering of having to take off your clothes.”
Taylor made bank. But WHO really made bank was her manager, she says.
“My manager was living in a $50,000 a month mansion with his Lambo and his Maybach and all his cars,” she says. “People get confused: at least half your money is going to be taken from you off the bat. That’s every contract.”
When Taylor wanted out, she had to get a lawyer — and a therapist. The fight is still not over, she says.
She hopes that one day the courts will hold OnlyFans accountable for its part in destroying girls lives, being a platform used by traffickers to recruit and stirring up spiraling depravity (it’s the story of gateway drugs leading to harder drugs).
“Hopefully that reaches the court system soon,” she says. ” I think it’s their responsibility to deal with what actually happens on this platform.”
When Taylor deleted her OF account, she needed a therapist to readjust her mental and emotional perspective to “undo all the lies (I) told myself,” she says. “Healing has really been like uncovering all of the lies.”
When Lily Phillips slept with 100 men in one day (to boost her OF page), Taylor was horrified. She felt she must speak out. She posted on her TikTok and got invites to share elsewhere. She’s become a resource for girls who want out, including recommending lawyers.
“I was so scared to talk about it,” she admits. “I’ve definitely gotten stronger… They want to silence me… I feel called to do it for a reason.”
Sources: Fight the New Drug podcast, others.
