A year ago today, I made my first post on OnlyFans. I have to be honest, I was really nervous - I didn't think it would do well, I worried about getting stuck creatively, or getting burnt out on it. I told myself that if I could get 24 subscribers in 24 hours, that I'd give it at least a month.
I got 50 subscribers overnight.
I honestly didn't think I'd get that much of a response, so seeing that many people interested felt really encouraging and was the first time in a long time that I felt energized and excited about the prospect of something. I decided to go all in and create new social media accounts, new emails, etc. Goodbye, boring ol' me - hello Willow Raven!
I've always found it easiest to just be myself instead of trying to curate a specific public image, but I've also often considered Willow as the more adventurous, confident, fun version of myself that's a lot more open and extroverted. But the truth is that really, the account's just allowed me to tap into those parts of myself and become more confident, become more adventurous, and to remember what it's like to have fun again. And for that I'll forever be so grateful that I decided to start a life as a content creator a year ago.
So many great things have happened to me because I started this job:
I've paid off all the debt I had built up over the years
I don't think I'd have ever started going to wrestling shows in the US if I hadn't gotten so into wrestling twitter, which was directly tied to my work socials
I've met some incredible people I wouldn't have met otherwise
I've found a newfound confidence in my body and myself overall
I've been able to explore parts of my sexuality I hadn't tapped into before
I've been able to leave the office life behind and be self-employed, which has truly been one of the greatest things to ever happen to me in my life.
The truth is that the reason I had the time to dedicate to starting an OnlyFans in the first place, was that I was currently on a nearly 3-month stress leave from my office job. I was going on month 2 and getting a little stir crazy, especially because I was isolated so much because of the pandemic. (I live by myself and also live in a place that had very heavy restrictions for a majority of the past 2 years so socializing was heavily frowned upon and at some points, literally against the rules.) So I was able to dedicate time to creating social media accounts and building them up, taking photos, researching tips and tricks for new content creators, etc.
Eventually, my stress leave ended and I juggled both a full-time office job and the OnlyFans, which was quickly taking up more and more of my time. Since I often couldn't spend evenings or weekends with friends, I spent them in AirBNBs and hotels making content. I quickly realized that the anxiety I was feeling at work was coming back, so I looked for a new job that I thought would fix everything.
Unfortunately, the new job only made things worse. I'm almost grateful that I got stuck with the worst boss I've ever encountered, because if the job had just been mediocre, I probably would've never had the courage to go out on my own and take the self-employment plunge.
I had so many anxieties: would I be able to make enough each month to actually live comfortably? What if I failed and had to go back to an office job I hate? How would I explain the gap in my resume? So far, I'm still incredibly happy with my choice to take the leap. It's still early days, and it's still definitely.a daily grind, but I've never found a job I love so much that truly made me understand the whole "find a job you love and never work a day in your life" thing.
I know it might be a bit silly to make this all so sentimental for basically the one year anniversary of putting my tits on the internet, but truly it's changed my life for the better in so many ways and I think that's truly something to celebrate!