"I earned $2000-$3000 a month on OnlyFans." A Belarusian woman tells how she started making adult content and why she still lives without sex
In 2024, content manager Nastassia Antaniuk made a peculiar coming-out. "I haven't had sex for two years, despite the number of people willing to sleep with me," she stated. At the time, she told "Nasha Niva" about her forced prolonged period without intimacy due to unsuitable candidates around her.
Nastassia Antaniuk. Here and further — photos from personal archive
We contacted Nastassia almost three years later to ask what had changed in her life. Spoiler: she is still searching for a partner, but her primary concerns are everyday problems. As it turned out, Nastassia left the IT company where she worked previously and currently cannot find a new job, earning a living by creating 18+ content.
Read: "I haven't had sex for two years, despite the number of people willing to sleep with me." A Belarusian woman explains why she lives without intimacy
"Initially, I thought about earning money from beautiful nude photographs, but over time I realized that without a large audience, it's difficult to make good money that way. So I had to switch to creating much more adult content. At some point, I realized that I was constantly going against myself. On one hand, I understand that I don't want to do this, but on the other hand, I need to pay for my apartment, buy groceries, and have something to live on," Nastassia candidly admits.
"At my peak, I was earning about $2000-$3000 a month"
Nastassia lives in Gdansk. A sociologist by education, like many Belarusians, she left her home country after participating in the 2020 protests against electoral fraud and violence by security forces. The apartment rent alone costs her over $800 each month, and this wasn't a problem until she lost her main job.
"Overall, I've always liked the aesthetics of nude photography, and in 2021, I decided to do such a photoshoot for the first time. At that time, I was going through a breakup, and it became one of the ways for me to feel better and simply keep beautiful photos as a memory," the girl recalls.
"In 2024, already living in Warsaw, I started participating in similar photoshoots again. At some point, one of the photographers suggested I create a page on OnlyFans. He said I could earn money from my photos, and he would help me regularly shoot new material. I thought: why not? Especially since I was already publishing many of my photos on social media anyway. It seemed perfectly logical to try to earn money from it as well."
However, Nastassia emphasizes that she never intended to shoot adult sexual content (especially videos); she only wanted aesthetic nude photographs.
"But in the end, what was planned as an experiment turned into my main source of income. Now I truly continue to do this primarily for financial reasons. I want to leave the industry."
At her peak, Nastassia could earn $2-3 thousand a month, but only until she burned out. A year ago, she started getting the first warning signs: she forced herself to shoot adult videos and participate in erotic streams. Recently, her nerves finally gave out, and she burst into tears almost during a stream.
Due to internal conflict and discomfort, her income dropped several times.
"Now I earn significantly less because I am gradually reducing my activity on OnlyFans and want to completely leave this field. I would like to dispel the myth that you can easily earn a lot of money on this platform.
If you weren't a celebrity before registering on the platform, you need to prepare for an enormous amount of work, and such employment can be even harder than a regular office job. Primarily because the line between work and personal life gradually blurs. You constantly think about what needs to be filmed, published, how to attract new subscribers and retain the interest of those who are already subscribed to you. Added to this is the psychological burden associated with public condemnation. And it's not just about insults on the internet. Even if no one condemns you in everyday life, you still understand that your work is considered something shameful in society."
"My mother initially disapproved of my choice"
Nastassia herself has only faced hatred on social media, in Twitter for example, where she has over 20,000 followers.
"In real life, I have practically never faced condemnation. Perhaps my mother initially disapproved of my choice when she found out what I was doing. But over time, she better understood why I came to this work and became calmer about it. Now she sees that I am trying to find another source of income and supports me in every way. Friends and acquaintances also never condemned me."
As a sociologist by education, the girl even analyzed the stigmatization of sex work on her YouTube channel, which she wants to develop further.
"From an economic point of view, sex work can absolutely be considered work. Because a person provides a service or creates content and receives money for it. However, prostitution, filming in porn, and selling erotic content on OnlyFans are very different activities. Working conditions and associated risks also differ, so one cannot judge the entire sex industry by any one part of it," the interviewee believes.
Nastya has also never encountered condemnation from men who showed interest in her.
"I have been invited on dates numerous times by men who already knew that I had an OnlyFans and were calm about it. Of course, I met various men. Some immediately made it clear that they were only looking for sex, but there were also those who wanted serious relationships, respected my boundaries, and did not allow themselves anything excessive. It's just that none of them truly captivated me, so nothing came of it."
Nastassia says she perfectly understands that not every man will like the fact that his potential partner is or was involved in creating adult content.
"But if for someone, this single circumstance is enough to refuse to get acquainted — it means we simply aren't right for each other."
Over the past few years, the girl had one fleeting romance.
"Unfortunately, the person broke my heart, and nothing came of it. As for my intimate life, nothing has changed there either. I still live without sex, because casual relationships don't interest me. For me, sex is not just physical pleasure. It's important for me to feel a strong mutual attraction, passion, emotional closeness, and have some feelings for the person. And as long as such a person is not around, I see no point in settling for anything less."
"First and foremost, I am looking for vacancies related to my previous professional experience — content management and copywriting"
The main goal Nastassia has set for herself now is to find a new job to stop being an adult model. She has posted her resume.
"First and foremost, I am looking for vacancies related to my previous professional experience. I worked in content management and copywriting for about six years, so I am considering positions such as content manager, editor, copywriter, content marketing specialist, and SEO specialist. But I am not limited to these. I also apply for vacancies in customer support, administrative work, recruitment, and workflow organization. I am also interested in working for non-profit organizations, especially those involved in social projects and helping people."
However, so far she hasn't been offered anything, not even at McDonald’s.
"For some time, I can still afford to look for work that matches my experience and interests. But if nothing works out, most likely, I will have to consider options that do not require special qualifications, for example, warehouse work," Nastassia reflects. "If needed, I am ready to consider such employment as a temporary solution until I find something better."
Nastassia has additional protection in Poland and a travel document as a replacement for her Belarusian passport.
"I have always been against Lukashenka's regime"
Despite all the difficulties of an emigrant's fate, Nastassia says that in 2020, she would still have supported the protest.
"I have been interested in politics since I was 16 and have always been against Lukashenka's regime. Therefore, the mass protests of Belarusians brought me immense joy. I had dreamed for so many years of seeing people openly expressing their disagreement with what was happening in the country, that it was simply impossible to stand aside. For me, it was a matter of my convictions and conscience."
However, some of her decisions, if she could go back in time, she would reconsider.
"If I had known in advance how my work as an OnlyFans model would turn out, perhaps I wouldn't have done it at all, or at least would have refused to shoot adult videos."
Nastassia says that if not for personal matters, she dreams of a free Belarus.
"Of freeing all political prisoners, stopping the persecution of people for their beliefs, and finally creating conditions for democratic changes. Whether I will ever want to return to Belarus permanently, I don't know yet. For me, it is much more important that the possibility of such a choice finally appears."