Alex Henderson

Former porn star Savanna Samson (above) is retired from adult films but has created other sources of income for herself, including a wine vineyard in Italy. Photo by Glenn Francis. 

The Adult Entertainment Industry

Porn and Beyond: How Young Adult Entertainment Performers Can Plan for the Future



By Alex Henderson
RealmNoir, July 17, 2012

Critics of the adult entertainment industry—whether they are radical feminists of the Catharine MacKinnon/Andrea Dworkin persuasion on the far left or Christian fundamentalists on the far right—love to portray erotic performers as lost souls who are destined to live tragic lives. But the truth is much more complex and nuanced than that. While the adult industry has had some tragic figures, it has had plenty of success stories as well—and the adult performers who made wise decisions are the ones who are more likely to be prosperous and comfortable as they age.

Some of the adult industry’s riches-to-rags stories are described in the 2010 documentary Exxxit: Life After Porn, which takes a candid look at the lives of former porn stars. For example, former adult film star Crissy Moran (who is now 36) is quoted as saying that although she once made 15 grand a month, she quickly went broke after retiring from adult films in 2006 because she hadn’t been saving any money. Those who have spent a lot of time around the adult industry have heard the horror stories about former porn stars who went from making six figures in their twenties to working for minimum wage in a dollar store when they were 45 or 50. But other adult stars will have much more comfortable lives as they age, especially if they have planned for the future.

How does a porn actress or porn model go from making six figures to being broke? There are different possibilities. Some adult performers spent too much of their money frivolously instead of saving or investing it, and when they got older, they had nothing to fall back on. Other adult performers did too much partying, smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and prematurely ruined their looks; they didn’t stop to think that not taking care of themselves would make them less marketable as performers. But on the other hand, the adult entertainment industry can be quite empowering for performers who save, invest, develop strong business skills and take good care of themselves physically.

Los Angeles-based sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals, who publishes the adult industry-oriented website Porn Valley Vantage (PVVOnline.com) and has spent ten years studying that industry, stressed that failing to plan for the future is hardly unique to young adult entertainment performers; it’s true of youths in general. Nonetheless, Tibbals said, porn stars need to remember that they are in a very youth-obsessed business—and continuing to earn a living as adult performers is something they cannot take for granted.

“Certainly, there are all kinds of iconic women performers in the adult industry who are into their thirties and forties,” Tibbals told RealmNoir.  “There are many women who pass 30 and pass 40 and are still working as adult performers. But they are a small number compared to the glut of women working in adult who are in their early to mid-twenties. And sometimes, it seems like people who should be thinking about the future more are the last to realize that they need to be planning for the future. I would say that at 21 or 22, most adult performers aren’t thinking about how things are going to play out in five or ten years. But that isn’t specific to adult; it’s that way across the board. When you’re 20, the idea that you’re going to be 30 or 35 someday is mind-boggling. I remember thinking, ‘I’ll never be 30 years old’—and here I am at 34.”

For porn stars, getting out of performing doesn’t necessarily mean getting out of the adult entertainment industry altogether—and Tibbals pointed out that there are many people in adult entertainment who have jobs that don’t involve taking their clothes off. Tibbals noted that porn companies not only hire performers; they also employ everyone from sales and marketing reps to accountants to makeup artists. And Tibbals said that the adult industry is full of former porn stars who acquired skills other than performing and are now employed at porn companies in some type of behind-the-scenes capacity. Some adult models retire from performing and end up on the production side of erotica as directors or webmasters.

“In the adult industry, you do see a lot of people who are no longer performers but are doing other things in the industry,” Tibbals observed. “A lot of women in the adult industry are operating small businesses and have highly developed skills. So if she has sales and marketing savvy, she can use those skills in the adult industry even if she is no longer a performer. She can start working in production; she can do make-up or set design. There are a vast array of jobs in the adult industry other than performing.”

Another option for porn stars who retire from performing is working in one of the non-porn areas of adult entertainment. Porn is not the totality of the adult entertainment industry; adult entertainment also includes professional domination, BDSM events, stripping, swing clubs, sex toys, erotic apparel (including BDSM/fetish attire), phone sex and adult sex education. Former porn stars who have a taste for kink and really understand BDSM might become professional dominatrices; a skillful pro-domme can continue to have a loyal clientele at 40, 45 or older.

Selling sex toys is another possibility for either former porn stars or porn stars who are still performing but wish to diversify; Jesse Jane, for example, continues to appear in San Fernando Valley porn films at 32 and has her own sex toy line.

Philadelphia-based Veronica Bound is an example of a woman who has done quite well for herself in the adult entertainment industry without focusing on vanilla porn. In addition to being a professional dominatrix, Bound teaches BDSM-related adult sex-ed classes and has been spanking submissive females for the Philly-based PunishedBrats.com website; on top of that, she has been a guest speaker at the University of Pennsylvania and Haverford College and has been the curator for the Aphrodite Gallery (an erotica art gallery in Philly). Bound, now 42, is perfect example of the fact that a successful career in the adult entertainment industry doesn’t have to involve vanilla porn.

Some female adult performers are making money from porn’s cougar/MILF niche, but according to Tibbals, a porn company’s idea of a cougar or MILF can differ from what the general public regards as a cougar or MILF (which stands for “a mother/mom I’d like to fuck”). While the words cougar and MILF are generally used to describe attractive women over 40, Tibbals pointed out that she has heard women as young as 27 described as MILFs by people in the adult industry. Tibbals explained: “When I hear the word ‘cougar,’ I think of Samantha Jones from ‘Sex and the City.’ I think of a woman in her forties or even her fifties. But in adult performance, the time dilation skews very young.”

Like mainstream entertainment, the adult entertainment industry has no shortage of male and female performers who lie about their age—and the adult performers who are more likely to do so convincingly are the ones who have taken care of themselves. Tibbals observed: “I know adult performers who look a lot younger than they actually are, and I would say that those are the more business-minded, savvy performers. I know a woman who is currently in her late 30s, and you would not know that she is a day over 25. This is a woman who is very business-savvy and has approached adult as a long-term career; she’s still performing but realizes that there are things she can do in the adult industry other than perform. Maybe she’s blessed with really good genes, but she’s probably made a conscious decision to take care of herself—which is probably not the norm in the adult industry. But it’s not the norm in general. People in general do all kinds of cruel things to their bodies on a daily basis; that isn’t specific to the adult industry.”

Tibbals added that she doesn’t think porn stars are any more prone to hard living than performers in mainstream entertainment. Tibbals cited one young mainstream film star as an example of someone who “looks like she hasn’t lived a very healthy life” and “looks like she lives on the edge and lives hard,” noting that on the other hand, there are women with porn backgrounds who still have a youthful, healthy appearance at 45 or 50.

Las Vegas-based erotic webcam model Natalie Star (NatalieStar.com, NatalieStarEnt.com) told RealmNoir that unwise decisions made by young porn performers are not a reflection of the adult entertainment industry, but rather, a reflection of youth. Star is young herself; she is in her twenties, but she acknowledges that she won’t be young forever—and she has been planning for the future in different ways. For one thing, Star said, she has learned as much as possible about the business side of running adult websites and thinks like an entrepreneur as opposed to strictly thinking like a performer. And on the mainstream side, Star has been using some of her earnings to make real estate investments.

“Treat yourself like a bill,” advised Star, who has been an erotic webcam model since 2009. “We all have bills and we pay them every month. Whether it’s a cell phone bill or a car note, we all are used to having to pay these. I personally treat myself not only like a bill, but I buy property and rent it out. There is no 401k in the adult industry. I also believe in learning the business. We are all making the companies we work for a lot of money. Learn to become your own company and find talent to work for you.”

Star said that in 2011, she grossed $300,000 from her webcam platform NatalieStarEnt.com (that is in addition to her earnings from the live webcam shows that she did last year). Star, who has worked with TheWCMA.com (the Webcam Modeling Association), pointed out that while many young performers in the adult industry are bad about planning for the future, many youths outside the industry are guilty of the same thing.

“Fast money spends even faster,” Star asserted. “Therefore, to blow a week’s worth of earnings to many is easy because they know they can make it back the following week. I don’t think anyone my age really thinks about the future. So they buy clothes and cars and party without ever really thinking about the ‘what if’ factor. My first year (in webcam modeling), I too was bad about spending. Now, I spend with caution and save as much as I can while investing here and there along the way.”

Star added that some porn performers make themselves less marketable as performers by doing too much partying. “I think it is very important to take care of yourself,” Star stressed. “If your income is based on what you look like, then I would hope you would want to look your best. The owner of the company I work for at TheWCMA.com just turned 40 recently, and no one would ever guess he is a day over 30.”

Star continued: “In the cam modeling field, I see a common trait of models letting themselves go. They start off sexy and athletic, and as they get more popular, they earn more—so they eat more, party more and take care of themselves less. I am bad about eating healthy, but I do exercise often, I do not smoke, I rarely drink and I'm not a party girl. I get paid to be in shape.”

Sometimes, former porn stars can have a hard time finding or keeping high-paying jobs in the mainstream business world. Exxxit: Life After Porn describes the misfortunes of former adult film start Kimberly Halsey, a.k.a. Houston, who pursued a career in real estate after retiring from adult films but was fired from a real estate job when, in 2008, her boss found out about her porn background. However, Halsey (now 43) earned a degree as a medical assistant in late 2011 and is now a phlebotomist (someone who draws blood).

Christy Canyon, who was one of the top adult film stars of the 1980s, has had a lot to say about life after performing. Canyon, now 46, retired from performing in 1997 but has continued to make money with activities ranging from becoming a radio personality for Sirius XM (which hired her in 2005) to investing in mainstream companies. Canyon has stressed that the porn world’s tragic figures didn’t become tragic figures because of porn companies—many of them, sadly, were dysfunctional to begin with. In 2010, Canyon told ABC’s “Nightline”: “It’s all about taking control of your life in this business. If you don’t use it, it will use you.”

Another former adult film star who planned for life after performing was Savanna Samson. Now 44, Samson is retired from performing and has done everything from writing a sex advice column to owning her own wine vineyard in Tuscany, Italy (her wine company is called Savanna Sampson Wines). Samson created income streams outside of porn that were both sex-related and non-sex-related; others can do the same.

“So many girls (in the adult industry) make fast money and keep spending and spending and spending,” Star asserted. “Then they wake up at 40 and are like ‘WTF, I'm broke and have nothing to show for all my hard work.’ I don't want to be one of those girls.”

Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, Billboard, Spin, XBIZ, Creem, Skin Two, The Pasadena Weekly, JazzTimes, Cash Box and a long list of other well-known publications. He can be followed on Twitter @alexvhenderson

Sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals (above) and erotic webcam model Natalie Star (below) stress that young porn stars need to plan for the future.