Listen Now: OnlyFantasy

0:00Gracie Canaan:I'm Leon Neyfakh, best known as the co-creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco. I'm a 41-year-old writer, podcaster, and dad. I had, of course, heard of OnlyFans, but always with a distant and quiet skepticism. A silent judgment, you could say. Who was actually using this platform? So when I found out that my own sister had started an OnlyFans account, my journalistic curiosity got the best of me. And to my surprise, it led me down a year-long reporting journey. Luckily, I found the perfect co-pilot for this wild ride.

0:33Leon Neyfakh:Hi, I'm Gracie Kanan, OnlyFans creator and comedian. Not Leon's sister, I might add. Let's just say I had a different POV on OnlyFans and why people use it. Our podcast, OnlyFantasy, is a show about the changing nature of adult content, sex work, and human intimacy itself.

0:51Gracie Canaan:We're about to play a clip from OnlyFantasy. You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts, and Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of Only Fantasy ad-free right now. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts.

1:07Leon Neyfakh:Oh, it's definitely that house. Which is funny because it's like all the houses around it are just regular ranch homes.

1:14Gracie Canaan:Last summer, our team flew out to Los Angeles, the home of the adult entertainment industry.

1:19Leon Neyfakh:Look at that. Whoa.

1:20Gracie Canaan:It's all black.

1:21Leon Neyfakh:That is not discreet. And in this moment, we were pulling up to a huge house in the middle of an unassuming neighborhood in the valley. To anyone not in the know, it might have looked like any regular old mansion. But to me, it was the modern Playboy mansion. We're here. Creators, Inc.

1:41Gracie Canaan:When we walked up to the house, we were greeted at the gate by a woman in California casual attire. Pink jean cutoffs, Doc Martens, and a Creators, Inc. baseball cap.

1:51Leon Neyfakh:And don't forget the most important LA accessory of all, a dazzling perfect smile. Welcome to Creators, Inc. I'm Kayla Parcells, co-founder and COO.

2:01Gracie Canaan:Where are we, Kayla?

2:02Leon Neyfakh:We're at our content house here in Encino, California.

2:06Gracie Canaan:Creators, Inc. is an agency that represents some of the most successful creators on OnlyFans. And this was their content house.

2:13Leon Neyfakh:Imagine a WeWork, except it's a mansion with photogenic lighting and a pool.

2:17Gracie Canaan:A pool that no one was actually swimming in, by the way, which was telling because more than anything, this place was a set designed so that every corner, every room could serve as an attractive backdrop for photos and videos.

2:30Leon Neyfakh:We can kind of do anything in this space and just having it be that canvas for what our creators want to do and use their vision and ideas and we make that come to life for them.

2:39Gracie Canaan:We were here to get a glimpse of the day-to-day operations of elite creators and the teams of professionals who support their careers. We wanted to see how the business of OnlyFans was conducted.

2:50Leon Neyfakh:I've never been one to covet the glamorous influencer life, but in the weeks leading up to this trip, we'd been reading about and talking to creators who were bringing in wheelbarrows of money each month. And seeing those numbers made me hungry. Not just to make money so I could pay the bills, but for real wealth, like prosperity. Because as an OF creator, it actually felt within reach for me for the first time in my life. So stepping into this house, I was like Eve looking at the apple, which I guess made our girl Kayla the ultimate creator. I never do interviews. I am strategically the person out of the picture, you know, I hide in the background.

3:29Leon Neyfakh:It's not about us. It's about our creators and letting them shine and making sure we give them the best opportunity.

3:35Gracie Canaan:Kayla, a former gymnastics coach at MIT turned entrepreneur, presided over the scene kind of like a benevolent RA. She gave us the grand tour of the place, where on any given day you can find young women from the Creators, Inc. roster, and a few men, working out, shooting videos, and lounging.

3:52Leon Neyfakh:This is our spa. So if you're into the cold plunge and the infrared sauna, this is your place. The cold plunge is a very popular spa, especially today when it's 100 degrees.

4:02Gracie Canaan:I couldn't help but notice Gracie's eyes light up every time Kayla showed us another amenity at the house. A few feet from the cold plunge, there was a pop-up shop of Creators, Inc. bikinis, because apparently it was L.A. Swim Week.

4:15Leon Neyfakh:I thought you were coming to shoot for CI Swimwear. I thought you were like someone from the arts. I mean, I don't need to ask him. You want to? Since you're here, we'd love to have you, but I really thought that's what you were going to want. If my co-workers weren't right here, I feel like it would be so, like, do you guys want to go away for 45 minutes? No, but I'll be literally, like, I'm here often, so I'll hit you up. and also... Maybe you want to work with us. Yes.

4:40Gracie Canaan:Okay, Gracie, be honest. How badly did you want to do this photo shoot when Kayla asked you?

4:45Leon Neyfakh:Oh my God, could you tell? Yes. I was... I couldn't help it. I was so embarrassed how badly I wanted it because it was like one bikini away from being a Creators Inc. girl.

4:54Gracie Canaan:That's right. Ten feet from stardom.

4:56Leon Neyfakh:Yeah, ten feet pics from stardom. Sorry.

5:00Gracie Canaan:Not to ask a good question, but like, do people film sex here too?

5:03Leon Neyfakh:No.

5:04Gracie Canaan:Okay. Is that a roll?

5:07Leon Neyfakh:I prefer it that way.

5:09Gracie Canaan:It was funny how awkward it felt to bring up sex, as if it wasn't at the center of the Creators, Inc. business model. Though, honestly, walking around the house with its pastel color scheme and ample nooks, you wouldn't know porn had anything to do with it.

5:23Leon Neyfakh:I mean, ample nooks sounds pretty porny to me. But to be clear, I don't think Kayla meant there was no nudity allowed in the house, just that actual sex on camera was frowned upon. They definitely keep the creators' ink house clean on purpose. Kayla told us she regularly invites family members of creators to come see the house so they can be reassured that their daughter or sister isn't being forced to work out of some shady brothel. There is a dark, scary place that women can fall into, and this is a really wonderful, safe, supported fifth-wave feminism is what I like to call it. Fifth-wave? Yeah, where we're kind of flipping that, and you are making this something much more positive.

6:03Leon Neyfakh:I'm going to be honest, this house wasn't really giving me Audre Lorde vibes. And much like those parents Kayla mentioned bringing to the house, we were definitely getting the shiny, rosy version of OnlyFans. But still, I believed Kayla when she said she wants more for her clients than just being famous as OnlyFans creators. She told us Creators, Inc. has helped women launch skincare lines and fashion brands. She even introduced us to one woman who had used her OnlyFans income to start a trucking company back home in Texas. The way Kayla sees it, OF is simply the best way for these women to bankroll their ambitions, whatever they may be.

6:40Leon Neyfakh:This is the new Hollywood. And basically, you know, if you're going to set yourself up for the rest of your life, like this is your opportunity.

6:47Gracie Canaan:Hollywood felt like the opposite of what I thought OnlyFans was supposed to be. Instead of focusing on building one-on-one genuine connections between creators and subscribers, here was a factory churning out hyper-curated and highly produced images of so-called authentic living. Of course, that didn't mean Kayla was wrong. It just made me think OnlyFans' stardom was more complicated than I'd realized. Binge all episodes of OnlyFantasy ad-free right now on Audible. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts.