REVEALED: The Secret Life of a Student Cam Girl

Many female – and some male – students have been trying out sex work to fund their studies. One of my friends was enjoying her job as a low-budget Internet porn star and she wouldn’t be able to fund her post-grad if she wasn’t, and being very low on cash myself (and hearing that she made £300 in one night!), I thought I’d give it a try.

If I liked it, I could carry on and be able to live comfortably at University, and if I didn’t, I could always try to find a job in town. So, clad in a push-up bra and wearing enough makeup to make a drag queen cry, I went to my friend’s house for ‘moral support’, and she said that if I did some very mild stuff on camera, I could have a cut of her earnings. It seemed to be a relatively innocent, easy way to foray into the dark underbelly of the Internet.

I was advertised as a ‘young virgin’ because I look  much younger than I actually am, so men old enough to be my dad were wanking over the fact that they thought that I was an inexperienced (but legal) teenager.

It already felt awful, thinking that old, sweaty men (and perhaps some people I knew) were leering at their computer monitors and imagining me naked, with their hands groping for their hard-ons.

I started to feel scared, a terribly uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach. What had started as something lighthearted was suddenly giving me second thoughts- what if they recorded it? What if someone I knew saw me like this? I certainly don’t want anyone to think of me in this way in real life. I needed the money though, so I didn’t chicken out; I downed a bottle of wine and then felt better about it- sensible, I know. Forcing my conscience and sense of dignity to the back of my mind, I switched the webcam on.

We started off cheap, to ease them in. Me and my friend kissed for a tenner. We make out all the time anyway so it was just like living life but for money. With 1,000 people wanking over us. Oh. The punters pay with credits. They buy a certain amount of e-money online and ‘tip’ the camgirls if they like what they see.

I was getting pretty drunk and was starting to hardcore get with this girl. It all gets a bit hazy after this point. The punters were pleased with this; writing in; “Haha, wine turns virgins into sluts…” which obviously made me feel great about myself. But they were tipping a lot. We’d already made over £200.

They said that they liked the fact that we seemed “real”, not like the plastic porn you get on RedTube. The credits were rolling in and we were making quite a bit of cash.

I lost all inhibitions somewhere along my second vodka cherryade and ended up getting my tits out. Quite a lot. I also let my friend spank me. The explicitly degrading act, now I think about it sober, really brings home what I have done to myself. I don’t really think about myself in the same way anymore. Having 3,000 people wanking over you is definitely very different to sending a Snapchat of your tits to your significant other.

Oh, I also got asked to eat a banana. Who knew that eating a piece of fruit would be so lucrative?

I hope it doesn’t end up preserved on the internet forever or my future boss’s desk or it will have defeated the point of funding my studies. It’s a bit fucking scary that someone could have print screened me with Thelma and Louise hanging out and be sending it to all of my friends and future bosses and colleagues.

Would I do it again? I made a lot of easy money. I’ve lost a lot of my self-worth and dignity as it’s not something that I would choose to do, organically. I doubt people who knew about my secret life would date me.

I’d really like to think that I wouldn’t do it again – but it’s not something that I thought I ever would have done in the first place.

I say that now, but if money becomes tight again, who knows how far I’ll go?