At 15-years-old, she was submitted to local modeling agencies in Oregon and started to do local work for Nike, Adidas and some other brands. At 18, she convinced her parents to let her move to Los Angeles instead of going to college. For the past nine years, she has made a successful career out of modeling and acting.
And OnlyFans.
According to Famemass, more than 170 million people use OnlyFans, with 500,000 new users joining daily.
“When COVID happened, I was just bored and decided to make an OnlyFans,” Hailee Lautenbach said. “This was before it kind of blew up and it really helped pay the bills when we were all hunkered down.”
The pandemic saw an increase in OnlyFans creators, with 100,000 creators in Dec. 2019 to 450,000 creators in May 2020. Today, there are over 1.5 million creators.
“People don’t really realize how long OnlyFans has been around,” Lautenbach said. “It’s been around since 2018, and I would get emails from them, but that’s when it was strictly porn. I thought about it back then, but I knew the stigma was bad. I’ve known about it, but didn’t really consider it until COVID.”
She is now in the top 1.9 percent of all OnlyFans creators. Despite finding financial success using the platform, it hasn’t always been an easy ride.
“I definitely got some flak for it when I started it,” Lautenbach said. “I didn’t really want to post about it on my main account because back then, it was looked down upon and even though I don’t post anything too raunchy or anything, it’s just sexy and funny, even when I would explain myself, everyone was kind of making fun of me and my mom was really upset.”
Lautenbach admitted that having an OnlyFans does affect her relationships, both familial and romantically.
“Because I did OnlyFans before my current relationship, my boyfriend can’t really say much about it but we have gotten in some fights about it. Now, he kind of just turns the other way. It’s hard to balance having an OnlyFans and a good family and a good boyfriend,” Lautenbach said.
“The best way to go about dealing with these relationships is just to be honest. Yes, I post sexy content but I’m not doing anything crazy and it’s also paying the bills.”
The content that she now posts on the platform is mainly bikini, lingerie pictures and videos, but when she started out, she learned the hard way what can happen when posting nude photos.
“In the beginning, I got a little too comfortable and some of my stuff got leaked, and that put me in a really bad head space for a month,” Lautenbach said.
She confessed that she was a little out of her comfort zone at the beginning of her career, posting content she normally wouldn’t. Even though that meant she made more money, she regrets doing it because now some of that is out there and she doesn’t want it to be.
“I don’t like that I’ve pigeon-holed myself into this sexy thing, when top creators are also comedians, cooks and so on,” Lautenbach said.
Another downfall of OnlyFans for her has been the growth in the online community.
“When my following got bigger, it was harder to manage and people started to get more aggressive and ask for dirtier things on the messages,” Lautenbach said. “Now it’s a little less fun because it’s a business and there’s a lot more people on OnlyFans and people are getting a little bit more aggressive with what they want.”
She believes that people get more demanding because they see what other top creators are posting and expect her to be posting the same content. She has had to block at least one user because he was far more aggressive than anyone else she had messaged before.
“Some men will say things like ‘you’re just a whore since you have OnlyFans so send me your tits,’” Lautenbach said. “I don’t like how some people will look at me as an object.”
According to Starter Story, two cons of OnlyFans are the time commitment and the way a creator can become an easy target for criticism.
Lautenbach also finds it “tedious” to stick up with creating content for her account and coming up with new ideas so none of her fans get bored.
“You can’t reuse a lingerie set and I do around five looks a week,” Lautenbach said. “Some days I just don’t want to do it. I’m in sweatpants and I don’t want to put on sexy tiny pieces of fabric.”
Despite the challenges she may face from time to time on the platform, there are certain parts that Lautenbach does enjoy.
“People would message me and always tell me that I was different because I would interact with them and message them back, along with being funny about my content and not just sexual,” Lautenbach said.
She has met some “cool” people that she’s stayed in contact with.
“It’s not all creepy people on there,” Lautenbach said. “When I do connect with people that aren’t over bikini pictures, I get into some nice conversations. I’ve also been able to make business connections through it.”
Starter Story describes that two pros of OnlyFans can be the ability to make business connections along with the ability to make your own business from your home.
Lautenbach has found that fan interactions really make it worthwhile for her. She loves it when someone messages her saying that she made their day since she responded to them, and has admitted that posting on her account has helped her with her confidence.
“Everyone worries about their body. Mine just has to be nice to make modeling money,” Lautenbach said.
“Being on OnlyFans and posting my sexy content, I realized that I don’t have to be stick thin because they’ll be times where I don’t eat as healthy as I should and feel gross about what I post, but then people still give me compliments and that has really helped boost my confidence with what I put out.”
“Since my content has gone more towards funny sexy, it has made me feel more comfortable. When I started, I felt like I had to get drunk to do the photos I had put out, but I looked drunk and I don’t think they came out well. Now, once a week, I set up a tripod and shoot photos in new lingerie and I’m comfortable with what I put out there if anyone were to see it.”
Lautenbach hopes to do OnlyFans until she doesn’t need to rely on it financially.
“I will do it for as long as I can or until I get a huge job where I don’t need to rely on it,” Lautenbach said. “My heart isn’t in it as much anymore. Being ‘sexy Hailee’ all the time isn’t as fun for me anymore.”
However, for the time being, she is enjoying the experience.
“I feel like these are the best years of my life and if I can monetize on it, let me do it before the Botox runs out and I’m old.”
