We Asked An Adult Entertainer The Questions You Had About Her Job, And Here's What She Had To Say
"I know that one day if I decide to leave the adult entertainment industry, I can confidently say I’m leaving with a lot of knowledge."
We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share any questions they had for adult entertainer Chessie Rae about her experience in this industry, in an effort to remind us all that sex work is work. Chessie Rae started filming amateur porn with her boyfriend in 2018 at the age of 18 and can hands down say she has become addicted — not because she’s exposing her body to the internet, but because she has created something out of nothing and turned her passion into a brand. On her home platform of Pornhub, Chessie was ranked the ninth amateur porn star of 2019 and is the amateur model with the 15th most subscribers. She has amassed over 130 million views to date and has 411K subscribers. You can find her on Instagram below and on OnlyFans.
View this photo on Instagram
Chessie's responses to your questions are below:
1. What is one product you cannot live without?
View this photo on Instagram
"Besides my Hitachi vibrating wand (of course), I would definitely have to say my Flex Disc — which is a menstrual disc that (unlike the menstrual cup) sits higher in the body, so you can have sex with it in."
2. How do you deal with having a period and being in the adult entertainment industry?
View this photo on Instagram
"Like I mentioned earlier, the Flex Disc allows me to live my life as if my period is never there, honestly. Being in the adult industry, where you have sex for a living, you have no time for Mother Nature’s weeklong visit. Flex Discs allow me and my partner to continue to film our most intimate moments without the mess period sex usually has to offer. Not only does using a Flex Disc help hide my period, it also helps in minimizing some of the pain that comes with period sex — especially if you’re someone like me, who lives with endometriosis. I couldn’t imagine going through my period without Flex and would recommend the Flex Discs to anyone — sex worker or not, people with heavy or light periods. Having a Flex Disc inserted allows my partner to give me the same level of penetration as he would when I’m not on my period. I am also able to enjoy the same sex positions without any spillage or leakage. Cowgirl, doggy style, even the Amazon position — you name it."
3. What's your favorite thing to get to do doing work?
View this photo on Instagram
"I get paid to have sex with the person I love most. I mean, who wouldn’t love that?! I also love being able to make something of myself. I’ve always considered my identity in porn to be like my very own business. The feeling of creating something out of nothing and achieving success from putting a whole lot of hard work into my business is an amazing feeling. It’s like, 'Hey, I actually did this. I put in the hard work into making what I create and I sure as hell earned it.' As well, I love connecting with our fans. I get a lot of people who reach out to me for advice — whether that be about how to get into the industry or just questions about sex. Being able to help people and give them answers to questions that they may feel too vulnerable or embarrassed to ask others, makes me feel like my profession has a purpose and I love that."
4. How does the whole consent thing work in videos? Is everything you do agreed upon by all parties from the get-go, or are there any flexible boundaries?
View this photo on Instagram
"There really isn’t any concern when it comes to consent between my boyfriend and I in our videos. We both know each other’s boundaries, and that’s what is so great about being able to film with him. However, if I was filming with someone I didn’t know as well, of course I would have to get to know them and go over what they’re comfortable with. My boyfriend and I both agree that if we bring other partners into our videos, the first thing we do is sit down with them — maybe even go out to lunch — and see what they’re most comfortable with, as well as what they’re not comfortable with."
5. How do you set up your business to protect your identity?
View this photo on Instagram
"My boyfriend and I take a lot of precautions when it comes to hiding our identity — mainly by hiding our faces (believe it or not, you don’t need to show your face to make it in the adult entertainment industry). This does, however, prevent us from giving the viewer the opportunity to experience some of our innermost forms of intimacy through passionate kissing and eye contact. Although, we make up for this through our body language, from the way we grab each other, to holding hands during sex. Another way of protecting my identity is by coming up with a stage name, hence 'Chessie Rae.'"
6. How did you get started in this industry, and can you give us an idea of how much money you were making/could make?
View this photo on Instagram
"I’ve always had a passion for porn, but it wasn’t until I was 18 that I decided it was something I wanted to pursue. I remember hearing of women who were making money on the side doing camming, which is what initially piqued my interest. I had no intentions of quitting my job and doing camming full time — I just wanted to dip my feet in the water and see how it went. At the time, I lived in an area where there was no internet, so the only way to access Wi-Fi was from my phone. This prevented me from being able to get into cam modeling, since I needed a computer to livestream and that wasn’t an option. However, what I could do was film videos and post them on Pornhub via my phone. The way this platform works is through ad revenue — models earn 64 cents per every 1,000 views, to be exact. I thought, what the hell! I recorded my first porno and up it went. Little did I know that it was going to take off and become, what you could say now, something I’m really committed to."
7. How do you deal with body confidence?
View this photo on Instagram
"I don’t care who you are, everyone has insecurities about their body, and I myself am no different. Right before I got into the adult entertainment industry, I had the least amount of confidence in my body — I was fresh out of high school and one of the millions of people who lived on social media, constantly being exposed to the stereotypical 'picture perfect' body. It wasn’t until I got into the adult industry that my confidence shot up. Through my videos, I got to see how I could work my body and all the things it was capable of. I also got to see that there’s a niche for everything, and just because you don’t love something about your body doesn’t mean someone else won’t. I realized I didn’t need that 'picture perfect' body to feel pretty anymore — I was not only more confident with myself physically, but mentally too. I used to hate how big my nipples were, but now I love them and no longer feel stressed about them every time I look in the mirror. While there are still days where I feel less confident than others, I’ve learned to just shake my head and move on with my day. As long as I am happy and healthy, that’s all that matters."
8. Is there anything you wish you had known before getting started in the industry?
"I wish I had a little more experience in filmmaking and editing — in the beginning, these skills would have helped me improve my content and do a better job about being less sloppy in staying anonymous. Looking back with the experience I have now, I would have been able to catch and edit glimpses of myself that I didn’t want the world to see. However, you learn from your mistakes and it only helps you to improve in the future. So, to anyone who is thinking of joining the adult entertainment industry, all I will say is, do your research and make sure it’s 100% what you want."
9. Can you speak to how the Bella Thorne/OnlyFans situation may have impacted you personally?
If you don’t understand why every sex worker hates Bella Thorne’s stinky guts and how she endangered the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of creators, let me explain it for you! First, Bella Thorne made an OF & made $1m in her first day. This isn’t the bad part.
"Personally, the OnlyFans situation hasn’t affected me that much. Mainly because I have other things to fall back on when it comes to earning an income, like Pornhub and selling merchandise. I do, however, feel that the situation had a huge impact on the content creators who use OnlyFans as their only platform for income. I agree with others saying you can’t go from a weekly payout to having to wait 30 days in between your next paycheck, and still expect to manage comfortably. Getting paid weekly allows for a safety net — 'Oh, I didn’t earn as much as I was hoping this week. There’s always next week' kind of thing. Someone who is getting paid monthly can’t say that, or expect to make it by with a whole month in between. With that being said, the next resort would be to raise PPV posts. This currently has a max payout of only $50, which is sad and unacceptable."
10. Do you get actual physical enjoyment/pleasure out of sex even though it is also your job?
"Yes! Since I see having sex as my job, I treat it like a job. Meaning, if I don’t like the outcome of my content, I will do it (film it) again. I also get to experiment sex positions with my boyfriend over and over again until I feel that we’ve got the right angle or shot. I like having fun with it. If you don’t have fun with your job, you’re not going to get any physical pleasure out of it. As well, I want my content to be real, which includes my orgasms too. Who wouldn’t enjoy their job if it meant you got to have an orgasm every time?!"
11. What kind of personal sacrifices have you needed to make since deciding to do sex work (e.g., do your friends/family treat you differently? Are there certain places you feel you can't go? If/when you decide to leave sex work, are there industries you feel will be off limits to you for employment?)
"I did have to accept the reality that my little secret — doing homemade amateur porn — could get out in my area. This brings me back to my earlier point about asking yourself before joining, 'Can I handle this industry if people I know find out I am a part of it?' Even if you hide your face. I handled this better than my boyfriend did at first, and realized that if I’m happy and being safe, I shouldn’t worry what others think. My boyfriend, on the other hand, feared that this would affect his future and his career. I asked if he felt like he couldn’t get a certain job based on fear of being judged for what he does at home (sharing harmless videos of him having sex with his girlfriend on an adult site), then does he really think that’s the job for him? He has grown to accept this reality as well, and we are both content now. The friends that have heard this secret are more than supportive, some even asking me how they too can get into the industry. The ones that don’t support it...well, could you really even consider them a friend?"
12. What’s the weirdest request you’ve had from a fan?
View this photo on Instagram
"I have had some requests that were really out there on the lines of being weird. Out of respect for my fans, I’m not going to name any specific requests, because I really don’t judge people — especially the ones who realize their requests may be taboo, yet still gain the courage to ask! I will say that a common request I absolutely refuse to do is sell my used condoms. I enjoy selling my used panties, but I will not sell used condoms."
13. How well thought-out was your decision to do sex work?
"Like I mentioned earlier, it was kind of a spur of the moment idea which turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. However, I did put a lot of thought into if I would show my face or not, along with what parts of my sex life and fantasies I would be happy to share with the internet."
14. In your opinion, do you feel that shows such as Hot Girls Wanted (on Netflix) portray sex work fairly or unfairly?
"I feel like that show in particular portrayed sex work more negatively than it did positive. The show seems to revolve around girls working in professional porn, not amateur. Reasons being the girls are hired for shoots where they show up, do what is being asked, and leave with a paycheck. I personally don’t have much knowledge in how professional porn works, but I speak for myself and what I think the majority of girls in amateur porn would agree with when I say amateur porn is nothing like that. Amateur porn is content you produce yourself. You are in full control of your content and have all the say in what you’re doing on camera. Us amateurs are in charge of everything from the filming and editing, attire, and script, to even running our own page. In Hot Girls Wanted, you can tell that the girls had little to no say in the scenes they were shooting, and it was more than obvious that some of the girls were not happy to be there. What I got from the show was that it came off like the girls chose this line of work as a last resort in making money. For amateurs on Pornhub, we get into the adult entertainment industry for different reasons — whether it be to make money, get off via sharing our sex lives with others, or simply because we just enjoy having sex. I would say a movie that better portrays sex work is Cam. In this movie, the main character, Lola, plays an amateur cam model who produces her content by herself. This movie portrays the industry better because viewers are shown all the work Lola puts into making a name for herself, even seeing the reality of how caught up one can get in the industry. She spends what seems like every waking minute attending to her job and takes what she does seriously."
15. Do you ever have second thoughts about or regret choosing to do sex work?
View this photo on Instagram
"One thing I will always swear by is 'everything happens for a reason.' I choose to revolve every aspect of my life around this saying. So, to answer the question — no way. Even if I did have second thoughts about choosing this line of work, I would never regret it. I know that one day if I decide to leave the adult entertainment industry, I can confidently say I’m leaving with a lot of knowledge. This may seem like a surprise, but I’ve learned many skills that I can use to my advantage in the future. I learned basic accounting from filing my own taxes as sole proprietor. I’ve also learned skills in entrepreneurship, communication, cooperation, marketing, and how to edit and film my own videos."