Adult star Ella Hughes recounts how she was bullied out of law school for doing porn
While it is common to be broke in college and resort to menial jobs to support living expenses, one student took up a rather uncommon gig.
Hailing from Southampton, Ella Hughes, 24, was all set for a promising career in law and was studying at Southampton University when she was introduced to porn, and eventually dropped out of her course to pursue a life in adult entertainment full time, LadBible reports.
After being crowned the best porn performer in the country last year, she has now opened up about her career trajectory in an interview with Channel 5's 'Student Sex Workers'.
Ella's career in porn started early on in university when she was just 19. Due to the hours she had to put into studying, she found it difficult to get a part-time job -- which meant her student loan wasn't going away.
While she first started off posting fully clothed photos of herself on social media, she was later approached by a porn company and began posting lingerie shots online. Ella eventually went on to become a "spanking model" before doing full videos, she said.
Ella looked back fondly back on her first 20-minute clip that garnered a whopping four million views.
"I loved it," she says. "It was the best 20 minutes of my life. In my head, I realized, 'This is what I'm going to do, with my life.'"
But soon people who attended lectures with her in university started recognizing her face. She carried on going to class like nothing happened, but the hate didn't stop coming. Ella was ultimately subjected to online abuse and death threats by a number of men.
"People start calling you names, they start threatening you, I got a lot of hate, even though they were watching the videos," she told the Channel 5 documentary. "To watch it and then judge somebody based on their actions, I think, is so snide."
What's more? Her teachers also chimed in with their opinions. Some told her that "porn and law don't mix" and would frequently denigrate her for her side-hustle. She was eventually forced to leave the school and finish her degree at the Open University instead.
"I feel like I was being crushed more and more," she told the producers. "I decided for myself it wasn't the best environment to be in."
Now, Ella does full porn. According to her, it's quite safe, but she still takes an STI test every fortnight.
"You're not allowed on set without a health certificate, and obviously it'll always be negative, like nothing wrong," she said. "I'm pretty sure people that I went to uni with will be shocked that I kept up with this career for so long."
"Not everybody is going to be OK with what I do, but it's just the way the world works," she added.