Lil Tay says being an OnlyFans model is “genuinely one of the hardest jobs in the modern economy,” arguing that critics of such work “fundamentally misunderstand” what all it entails.
In a lengthy update shared to X, where she’s nearing half a million followers as of this writing, Tay detailed the ins and outs of leading a successful presence on the platform. For those somehow unfamiliar, OnlyFans, first launched in 2016, is a subscription-based social platform that enables creators to monetize their content in a variety of ways. Though not exclusively a NSFW platform, the bulk of its headlines attention comes from such material.
“It is not ‘posting a few pics and getting rich,’” Tay, who was 18 when she launched her OnlyFans account and bills herself as “the youngest flexer” on the platform, wrote in an X post on Thursday (Jan. 15). “It is running a full-scale digital business where we are the product, the brand, the marketing team, customer support, PR, legal risk, and emotional labor all at once.”
Tay went on to specify what all falls under her purview as an OnlyFans creator, with stated responsibilities ranging from conceptualizing content to marketing “nonstop” to prevent being rendered virtually invisible by the algorithm. She also pointed out the lack of paid time off or traditional benefits, much less guaranteed income.
“And unlike most jobs, our work follows us everywhere,” she said. “It is permanent, searchable, and endlessly judged by people who will never meet us but feel comfortable forming loud opinions about our character, intelligence, and worth. Calling this ‘easy’ says less about the work and more about how quickly people dismiss labor once it becomes sexualized, stigmatized, or financially successful outside traditional systems. If it were actually easy, everyone would be doing it successfully. Most don’t last.”
Closing out her statement, Tay spoke directly to critics of OnlyFans creators at large, arguing that denying the difficulties of the job is an example of “willful ignorance.”
Tay has seen success on OnlyFans. In August of last year, she claimed to have brought in over $1 million shortly after launching her account.