Two TV dramas are exploring the life of an OnlyFans model

The new season of HBO's Euphoria, and Apple TV's series Margo's got Money Troubles, both feature lead characters who are adult content creators. But they don't tell the whole story.

Sex workers have long been narrative fodder for TV shows, from The Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Harlots to The Deuce and The Girlfriend Experience. But with the rise of social media, a new 21st-Century variant has come into play, adult content creators in the form of the OnlyFans model, and a slew of series are beginning to grapple with the ups and downs of that career choice, producing and uploading pornographic material for paying subscribers.

HBO/BBC drama Industry saw hotshot young financier Sweetpea Golightly (Miriam Petche) engage in an OnlyFans-inspired side hustle in its third series, while the much-hyped, returning Euphoria has introduced an OnlyFans storyline via Sydney Sweeney's Cassie, who joins it to help pay for her expensive wedding.

And the platform is central to Apple TV+'s new comedy-drama Margo's Got Money Troubles, based on Rufi Thorpe's 2024 novel of the same name. It offers what director Kate Herron describes as a "helpful" exploration of OnlyFans through the story of a college dropout (Elle Fanning) who signs up because she has a baby to care for and is struggling to make ends meet.

Some of our audience will know about the website, but some won't," Herron, who directed episodes three and four, tells the BBC. "They're going into it, seeing someone who decides 'I am going to make content for the website', but also the reasons why.

These TV shows are wrestling with the complexities of undertaking this career, inviting audiences to learn what might make these female characters make these choices. "There's so much happening in terms of what it means to be a woman, and how you can be a woman," says Herron. "People aren't simple."

Euphoria has been criticised for what some viewers describe as a degrading portrayal of Cassie's sexually provocative efforts. Margo's Got Money Troubles, however, takes a more empathetic approach to its female lead's OnlyFans journey, engaging from a position of depth to challenge perceptions around the reality of being a performer. "That was always in the back of my mind," says Herron. "Wanting to present everyone who uses the website, with respect and integrity."

Founded in 2016, OnlyFans is an online subscription-based video-on-demand service originally intended to connect musicians and influencers with their fanbase. In 2017, however, it lifted its pornography ban. While it still features all kinds of people, from fitness trainers to chefs, it is adult content creators, both part and full-time, that have driven its growth. During the Covid-19 pandemic, between March and April 2020, OnlyFans experienced a 75% increase in new creator registrations, with people flocking to the platform to monetise themselves during a recession.

However, with its rapid rise has come several controversies: last year OnlyFans' parent company was fined just over £1m (£742,495) by UK media regulatory Ofcom for giving inaccurate information about its age-verification checks, while in 2021 BBC News reported that it was failing to prevent underage users from selling and appearing in explicit videos. When interviewed by the BBC in 2022, the company said it had taken firm action following the reports and transformed the platform into the safest social media site in the world.

As demonstrated by these series' contrasting storylines, OnlyFans models' motivations for signing up are varied. In Margo's Got Money Troubles, Fanning's eponymous lead resorts to the platform after her baby's father, her college professor, refuses to be involved, and she loses her waitressing job. Looking for conventional work proves fruitless, so she sets up an account under the pseudonym "The Hungry Ghost". Money floods in as she offers male fans pithy reviews of their penises and creative nude videos shot by her roommate Susie (Thaddea Graham).

Margo loves writing, and it was very important to us to embrace the playfulness and the fun of that across the whole show and particularly in terms of how she approaches OnlyFans," says Herron, while acknowledging that Margo's driver for signing up is financial despair. "It's hard to find work [at the moment], and that was what was realistic about her being a parent [too]. It's expensive… and it's like, 'where do I get this money from to support my child?'

Margo's story as a single mother needing to provide for her child is mirrored by that of British OnlyFans creator Rebecca Goodwin. She is the sole provider for her two daughters and set up her account in 2019, having previously shifted between part-time retail and service jobs, as well as care work.

"It was hard to find something to work around the school hours," Goodwin tells the BBC. "This is the beauty of OnlyFans – the money's great, but the thing that has given me the most is the freedom to do every school run." That feeling of autonomy is one of the reasons why women, especially, have set up accounts. They can create content from their own home or a studio, enforce a digital distance with their fans and take home whatever money they make – minus OnlyFans' 20% hosting fee.

The people I know who have had OnlyFans accounts, [flexibility] is the thing that partly attracted them to it, as well as it being very lucrative for them," says Angela Smith, a professor of Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland in the UK, who has researched the platform. "The characters in both Euphoria and Margo are doing it because it fits in with their lives.

Yet, where the story of Margo resorting to OnlyFans is a reflection of the financial hardship facing low-income, working mothers, the affluent Cassie's OnlyFans career is depicted as far more about the pursuit of fame and money. Euphoria's third season is set five years on, with Cassie now engaged to Jacob Elordi's Nate. Lonely in their California mansion, she gets their housemaid to capture her saucy content to grow her TikTok following. Cassie wants to spend $50,000 on floral arrangements, but given Nate's precarious financial situation, he doesn't want to foot the bill. So she delivers an ultimatum: "Let me chip in" by starting an OnlyFans account, she implores, or the engagement's off.

Goodwin argues that even though she has enjoyed significant financial success on the platform, the reality for the majority of OnlyFans creators is not as lucrative as many might think.

Everyone assumes it's just a get-rich-quick scheme, but you never really hear about the average income," she explains, which is in fact around $108 a month (as reported in 2024). "So you have to think about how many people are just doing this as a side hustle to top up their income from their normal job, or people that are just doing it out of desperation, and it's considerably a lot more of those people than it is those that are making their millions.

Then there is the social prejudice that OnlyFans models can encounter. Goodwin's family was accepting of her career change, and in the northern England town where she lives, she often gets stopped by women asking for photos. "The mums are all nice," she says. "But would they have completely different views of me if I didn't own a Porsche and a house?"

Certainly, some performers have to cope with more mockery or hostility, as these series reflect. In Industry, Sweetpea's images are shared amongst her male banking colleagues, and she's ridiculed. Goodwin uses her own name because she didn't want to live in fear of her identity being revealed, but some OnlyFans creators who use a pseudonym have suffered this – a plot point in Margo's Got Money Troubles.

In Euphoria, Cassie's disturbing photos of her dressed as an "adult baby" are derided by a friend and become a source of contention for Nate. However, there has been heavy criticism over the show's sensationalist choices in this respect: one social media user said "this isn't character development, this is fetish content. Disgusting", of Cassie's baby-style outfit, which in fact would be banned under OnlyFans safety measures. OnlyFans model Sophie Rain told Complex she thought the extreme outfits the script puts Cassie in, which also include a dog costume, were "damaging" to the community.

Then there's the reported exploitation of a number of women who appeared on OnlyFans. OnlyFans says these reports don't "reflect the extensive safety measures” in place on its site.

In the recent Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, influencer Harrison Sullivan (who goes by HSTikkyTokky on TikTok) reveals he manages female OnlyFans stars, but deems that women who create adult online content are "disgusting".

Yet, as Theroux points out, he still profits from their content. "When you step into the line of management [within] OnlyFans, that's when you start wondering if it's exploitation and brainwashing," says Goodwin, who briefly worked with a management company "out of desperation" in her early career, but left when she realised their 20% cut of her earnings was unfair. "They went on to exploit other people before getting closed down completely. Some [managers] don't have respect for these women whatsoever."

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Smith also points to the way in which the sex trafficking industry has broadened from traditional pornography to some online content platforms. "Particularly young women from Eastern Europe are either trafficked into Britain, or they are made to generate this kind of content [in their home country]," she says. "This is a huge problem and not at all empowering."

OnlyFans told the BBC it has "a zero-tolerance approach to illegal activity" on its platform and it employs "robust measures to protect" its users, "including extensive onboarding processes and moderation of 100% of content". They said their Terms of Service make clear that it does not affiliate with, facilitate or endorse any third party or agency. It says it "takes all reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that there are no modern slavery or human trafficking activities taking place on our platform".

So far, at least, no show has really zoned in on this grim aspect of the online sex industry. Still, as much as the relatively light and comedic Margo's Got Money Troubles doesn't paint a full picture of the OnlyFans experience, it does reflect specific real-life experiences – Thorpe introduced the show's writing team to the OnlyFans creators she had interviewed for her novel for authenticity.

As for Euphoria, its creator Sam Levinson has defended his lurid approach to the subject, telling The Hollywood Reporter of Cassie's dog costume scene that he wanted to present "a layer of absurdity… so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion… We wanted to capture what she’s trying to show the audience and be inside of it, but then also pull back wider and see how depressing it is."

By contrast, Goodwin hopes more nuanced depictions of OnlyFans will help normalise her work, even as she is conflicted about its sexualisation of women. "Men sexualise us regardless, and as much as I hate the idea that [OnlyFans] encourages it," she says. "I don't think we can ever stamp it out."

Alongside those who find material success on OnlyFans, there will always be horror stories, and in between, the unsung experiences of those from many walks of life. Hopefully, in taking on this subject, TV and film will bring these fully into the light.

New episodes of Margo's Got Money Troubles premiere internationally every Wednesday on Apple TV.

New episodes of Season 3 of Euphoria premiere in the US on Sundays at 17:00 on HBO/HBO Max and in the UK on Mondays at 02:00 on NOW/Sky Atlantic.

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Source: BBC
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