I made £10 million on OnlyFans but I felt like a pimped-out puppet – here’s my warning to influencers like Bonnie Blue

WITH £10 million in the bank, Nala Ray was one of OnlyFans' very top earners. But the 26-year-old "felt like a pimped-out puppet" who traded sex work for a Gucci bag and now has a warning for influencers like Bonnie Blue. Nala was first approached by a man on Instagram at the start of 2020, when she was working in an orthopaedist's office, she revealed on the Deep End podcast.

She said that at the time she was into fitness and posted clips of her working out and in her bikini, leading her to have a following of 20,000 people. “Some random guy messages me on Instagram, and it's when Covid had just hit or was just about hit, and he's like 'You would kill it on OnlyFans'.

"I'm like 'What is OnlyFans bro?'. “At the time I was working for an Orthopedics company like I'm doing like a real big girl job not making any money.”. Nala decided to give it a go in her spare time and was shocked by just how much she was able to make.

She said she went from making £2,770 a month from her normal job to making £68,000 in her first month on OnlyFans. You're literally a pimped-out puppet and your pimps are your subscribers. “It blew my mind, we are not promoting this people, not at all, there's trauma that comes with this okay, way more than you can handle.”.

Nala spent four years making content for OnlyFans and in total made £10 million from her stint. But having now quit the industry to become a fitness coach, she has a stern warning to other women looking to get rich quick. “You can create customised content for them, specifically saying their name and doing whatever they want, you're a puppet you're literally a pimped-out puppet and your pimps are your subscribers," she warned.

Nala was 11 years old when a tornado hit her family home in Missouri, leaving her and her four siblings homeless. Her family lived in a hotel room for 12 weeks before they finally found a new house to call home, but the drama was far from over. Shortly after moving in, her dad was caught cheating and he and her mum divorced.

The family began to make a new life for themselves as her dad flew to Mexico, but just two years later her parents remarried. The turmoil left Nala feeling traumatised as she explained: “As a kid, you don't even know you're going through trauma but as an adult you're like, man I don't even remember how I was really feeling because it was just so much hurt all the time.”.

During that time Nala’s family began to follow the Christian faith and her dad decided to become a pastor, but not everyone was a fan of their new lifestyle. “I just felt like everything was being shoved down my throat and I had to do it cause I was the pastor's kid,” she explained.

“I know my other brothers and sisters feel the exact same way and even my mum in some ways. "I know she feels like that was just kind of forced into this role when she wasn't even healed yet.”. Nala says that her turbulent childhood is one of the reasons she went down the OnlyFans road.

She adds: “Someone doesn't just get on OnlyFans, become a millionaire and then they're just like whoopy do. "I just wanted to try it out, no, and I think that's a big misconception right now with people that they're like 'there's no way she became a Christian,' you don't know how broken I was.

“I had such a void in my soul, not just my heart but like my very being was like chipped away from so much hurt.”. As a teenager, Nala describes herself as stubborn and constantly looking for attention from boys to fill the void. “I got a job when I was like 15 cause I just wanted to get out of the house so bad and then I found I was flirting all the time and I loved the attention," she added.

“What I realised once I went through my love languages was 'oh I love physical touch and I don't get that at home.'. "No-one's saying you're my sweetheart I love you, all I see is my mum being depressed and my dad is not there mentally.”. OnlyFans is a subscription content service based in London.

As of 2023, it is thought to have more than 220million registered users and over three million content creators. Sex workers charge monthly fees for access to pictures, videos and more. While popular for porn, the site isn't exclusively designed with that in mind - anyone who wants to build up a fan base and charge them for it can set one up.

Celebs like Katie Price and Kerry Katona are popular personalities on the platform. "Whether you’re uploading tutorials, tips, behind-the-scenes footage or just endless selfies, a lot of your followers would be willing to pay for them," the company states.

For every subscription that's sold to a viewer, performers get 80 per cent of the cash while OnlyFans gets the rest. It isn’t limited to adult content, as it has become popular with physical fitness experts and musicians. At the age of 20, Nala started her career on OnlyFans but says it didn't immediately lead to sex work.