Brazilian writer rakes in money by appearing nude on OnlyFans service.
Brazilian writer rakes in money by appearing nude on OnlyFans service.
RIO DE JANIERO — Ana Brnjarchevska
A Brazilian writer has found a new career on a U.K.-based subscription app that predominantly offers soft-core porn.
Marina Barbieri, 33, originally made her name writing about relationships. She is the author of the acclaimed book, “Fique com Alguem que nao Tenha Duvidas” (“Get with Someone Who has no Doubts”) and boasts a large social-media following.
However, the journalism and marketing graduate recently decided to branch out, opening an account on the London-based service OnlyFans, where she goes by the handle “Bad Abigail.”
Barbieri told Zenger News she heard about the site, whose users include soft-porn models and sex workers, “completely by chance.”
“I saw a post on Twitter about a young woman who bought her first home working on OnlyFans for less than a year. I was shocked. And then I thought, ‘Why not? If she can do it, so can I.’”
But first, she researched the platform.
“I came up with a strategy. I defined exactly what I wanted to do, what kind of content I was going to share, how I would do it.
“I started talking about it on social networks even before I made my account on OnlyFans, to engage my followers and pique their interest.”
Barbieri, who has been married for six years and has a 2-year-old son, says her new source of income has not caused any marital tension.
“My husband supported me from the beginning. We have a great relationship, based on a lot of dialogue and trust. He was never jealous, and this was never a problem for us.”
The Rio de Janeiro native opened her OnlyFans account in October and made 8,000 reals (roughly $1,500 U.S.) in her first month. She told Zenger she “absolutely loved” the experience.
“I never saw my body as shameful or sinful. I always approached nudity as something natural and beautiful. So this experience has only brought good things for me.
“My self-esteem is higher. I’m learning new aspects about myself and others every day. I am also happy to see other girls setting themselves free of those feelings of shame and embarrassment, as well as the much uncalled-for hypocrisy around the female body.”
Barbieri has been equally frank with her family and friends about her new venture.
“It’s a running joke that I’m the black sheep of the family and all of my friends. So those who know me are not surprised. Quite the opposite. All the great people in my life, who truly love me the way I am, have given me a lot of support.”
The tattooed writer, who has 17,100 followers on Twitter and 11,800 followers on Instagram, where she posts more family-friendly content, revealed her new audience is slightly different from her established one.
“Ninety percent of the OnlyFans audience is male, no doubt. But on my personal social networks, it’s about half-and-half.
“I talk a lot about relationships, self-love and acceptance, so I speak directly to women. But I like the idea of having a true and honest exchange with everyone, regardless of gender. And that goes for all my enterprises.
“I don’t just show my body. I lay my thoughts, feelings, my heart and my soul on the internet. There is no bigger nudity than that.”
Barbieri also had advice for anyone starting out on OnlyFans, which has 30 million users.
“Be very specific about your own limits, as I did, and never go beyond what feels comfortable. No amount of money pays for a clear mind. What we do online will be there forever, we will carry this for the rest of our lives. So we must do things we will be proud of for the rest of our lives.”
Subscription apps such as OnlyFans are exploding, since they let content creators monetize their influence, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub.
Given its pay wall, “OnlyFans lets people post content that would get them banned on other social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, it’s also widely used by sex workers and amateur pornographers who upload videos and images, and who interact with their fans using direct messages,” Influencer Marketing’s profile of the app says.
The app was also the subject of a high-profile flap earlier this year involving actress Bella Thorne, who “made headlines with her splashy debut on OnlyFans, an online platform that allows the fans of individual performers to pay for access to subscriber-exclusive content,” Los Angeles magazine reported. “Charging $20 per month for subscriptions, Thorne raked in $1 million in her first day on the platform, and a total of $2 million in less than a week.”
(Edited by Matthew B Hall and Fern Siegel)
