OnlyFans has quite the collection of adult content creators. The platform has definitely grown its fanbase due in large part to the wide range of 18+ images, videos, and audio that are available there.
However, the platform is also a key source of financial support for many athletes as well.
Take, for example, Alysha Newman. Newman is an Olympic medalist who competed in pole-vaulting events for Canada, and scored herself a bronze medal this summer in Paris.
That medal wasn’t the only thing she scored.
The vaulter operates an OnlyFans page. When she completed her jump this summer, she knew she’d nailed it, and celebrated by faking an injury and then twerking. She claims this was to cut the tension in the air for her coaches, as they were— understandably— taking the event quite seriously. As a result of her little victory twerk, her OnlyFans page experienced so many views that it temporarily crashed.
Since this summer, Newman has acknowledged publicly that she is an OnlyFans content creator. What’s more, she claims that title proudly, stating that she is just as proud of her work as an OnlyFans content creator as she is of her prowess in track and field events.
States Newman, “I am proud of what I am achieving on the platform. It’s empowering… I can connect with my fans, I can inspire people and my fans can support me… This way they get to see almost every aspect of my life.”
Instead of allowing the media or public to control her narrative, she chose to monetize it and engage with her audience on her own terms.
The track and field star has actually been operating the page since just prior to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. She wanted a way to share her Olympic experience, and with COVID precautions, there were no live spectators there to cheer for her, so she took matters into her own hands.
More than just sexy images, Alysha made sure to share things that her track and field followers would want to see. Her meals in the Olympic village, her exercise routines, her struggles when injured, what she chooses to wear when training and competing; all details that athletes and fans wouldn’t get to see without Newman inviting her audience behind the scenes via her OnlyFans page.
But wanting to share her experience with an audience isn’t the only reason Newman created an OnlyFans page.
As a female athlete, Newman has been sexualized without that being her intent. OnlyFans has given her a way to reclaim that aspect of her life as her own, and to be the one who reaps the rewards.
When women are going to be sexualized regardless, OnlyFans offers a way to flip the script and demand payment for services rendered, while allowing them to reap the protections and benefits of being safely tucked away behind a screen. The platform also gives control back to those whose image is being used, whereas in traditional modeling or brand representation deals, women have historically been exploited, and not compensated fairly.
While many still view OnlyFans as a platform that degrades women, Alysha Newman disagrees. Says Newman, “I know I won't get everybody to change their mindset, that's not my goal.”
And it seems that she’s accomplished one thing, at least.
Other Olympians have followed in her footsteps and have launched OnlyFans pages of their own. Elise Christie, Liz Cambage, Verona van de Leur, and others now successfully operate OnlyFans pages.
As the platform continues to grow and evolve along with the world, people should expect to see more and more profiles of athletes— and other public figures they know and admire— pop up on OnlyFans. Given the platform’s ability to protect its creators, and allow them the capacity to make a living off of what is being done to them anyway offscreen, can you blame them?
