Reddit/Mia Khalifa InstagramA 19-year-old says she’s already made as much as Mia Khalifa after one month in the porn industry – just days after the adult film star revealed she only earned $12,000 in her full career.
Khalifa, 26, became the highest-rated performer on Pornhub in 2014 after attracting attention for wearing a hijab during a threesome video.
However, as admired as she became, Khalifa was only in the porn business for three months – and she wants to enlighten people on the reality of working in the industry.
Have a look at the clip Khalifa posted below:
In a tweet linking to a larger interview with Megan Abbott, Khalifa wrote: ‘People think I’m racking in millions from porn. Completely untrue. I made a TOTAL of around $12,000 in the industry and never saw a penny again after that. Difficulty finding a normal job after quitting porn was… scary.’
People think I’m racking in millions from porn. Completely untrue. I made a TOTAL of around $12,000 in the industry and never saw a penny again after that. Difficulty finding a normal job after quitting porn was… scary. Full interview here: https://t.co/xHK7SmhfrY pic.twitter.com/fwJlyzHznq
— Mia K. (@miakhalifa) August 12, 2019
In subsequent tweets, Khalifa said that she wasn’t promised millions, nor did she expect that, but she wanted to help people realise the misconceptions about working in porn.
I was involved in porn so briefly, but my actions spread like wildfire, and I continue to be ranked (truly baffles me) 5 years after leaving the industry. This is why people think I still perform.
— Mia K. (@miakhalifa) August 12, 2019
Enter Stephanie Vixen – a young porn star who started a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread to explain how she made just as much after one month in the adult film industry.
Vixen explained that she wasn’t starting a discussion as a means to brag – she just wants to clarify that people can make money from porn.
On Reddit, Vixen wrote:
Not saying this to brag but [Khalifa’s] only saying she made $12,000 from porn to turn people away. I’m here to say I made that much my first few month making amateur porn on Pornhub… you CAN make good money in this industry.
Vixen cites Pornhub as a huge help in earning from porn – ‘as long as people are clicking on them’, she says she makes money. She even posted a screenshot of her Pornhub account earnings to prove her claim.
StephanieVXXX/RedditExplaining the financial side, Vixen said:
I have filmed for Brazzers and they paid once per scene. When I upload my own content to platforms like Pornhub, I constantly make passive income off of views (ad revenue). Or people buy my videos through Modelhub.
As long as my videos are on Pornhub and people are clicking them, I’m making money. Any job I decide to pickup after will always have the supplemented income of porn. Unless I decide to delete my content after I stop or people just stop watching all my content.
Vixen got into the porn game after her boyfriend asked her if she wanted to make some extra money. ‘We just thought it would be fun, and it has been! I don’t think we will have any issues with it in the future,’ she said.
As much as she didn’t seek out porn as a career choice (she joked with a user: ‘ I think the career field just wanted to be in me’), and considers it more of a ‘side hustle’, Vixen says she enjoys her work, and sees herself ‘doing this for ~5 years or however long it’s making me money’.
PornHub When asked what she’s learned from her short time in porn, Vixen said:
Porn has taught me that I should never compare myself to others. It was very hard in the beginning to not compare myself to the big name stars with lots of work done to their bodies. Before Porn, sex was dull. Now, I have fun learning new thing & being manhandled like it should be.
After she’s done and dusted with the industry, Vixen says she wants to be a nail technician, after becoming obsessed with the process as a youngster.
Due to the nature of watching porn on the web, it’s difficult to nail down just how many people actually do it. In 2018, American researchers found 73 per cent of women and 98 per cent of men had done so in the past six months, according to Psychology Today, – although there’s every chance the figure is actually higher.
With the likes of services like OnlyFans, a social media site designed for sharing sexual content, growing in popularity, wider conversations about the industry are a positive step forward in teaching people the truths of a trade still considered a taboo by some.
You can watch Khalifa’s full interview below:
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.