MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT

Special ed teacher Courtney Tillia now earns 12 times her salary from OnlyFans

Former teacher Courtney Tilla, who earns 12 time her salary from OnlyFans, said site's decision to ban porn was 'very sudden' and 'vague'

BY BHAGYASRI CHAUDHURY

UPDATED AUG 24, 2021

In the days following the platform's contentious decision to ban "sexually explicit conduct," OnlyFans creators are still grappling with their uncertain future. As is Courtney Tillia, a former teacher, now a model and life coach, who told sources that she is one of the creators who was caught off guard by the new prohibition, news outlets revealed on Monday, August 23.

OnlyFans is allegedly pulling out of the pornography business, but its Terms of Use makes no such claim. Starting October, the company will prohibit users from posting any 'unsolicited and non-consensual sexually explicit content on the site. The new policy was announced on Thursday, August 19. According to the company, the creators will still be allowed to post nude pictures and videos, provided they adhere to the updated OnlyFans' policy.

OnlyFans and racing star Renee Gracie says she could revive 'boring sport'

The site is also used by stars like Blac Chyna, who made a fortune out of a foot fetish, and Bella Thorne, the ex-Disney princess who made $2 million from her account within one week and received a lot of backlash in 2020 for creating a no nudity OnlyFans account.

Courtney Tillia, an OnlyFans model and mother of two, claimed she left teaching because she was struggling financially and felt underappreciated in her job. After her husband, Nick Tillia, urged her to pursue her passion, the 34-year-old model now earns 12 times her previous earnings, The Sun reported last week.

"I was working as a special education teacher for six years when I began to struggle emotionally, mentally, and even financially because I was doing my Ph.D.," Tilla said to The Sun. " was in a dark place, I was so depressed and I was pushing away everything I ever wanted, like my husband, my kids, the life that I was trying to create," she said, claiming that she felt trapped having to spend money on education to simply get paid more."

She added that she was "so miserable and my husband asked me what I wanted to do because I was so disconnected from myself and just so unhappy with my path - so I began working at a gym." The Arizona State University graduate went on to work as a female personal trainer, where she "realized women needed more mental and emotional support to have a transformation that they actually wanted to have." And so, she expanded her services to life coaching.

"My husband was the one who started me in modeling," she said. "It was something I always wanted to do but I thought I wasn't good at that. I didn't think I could do it and he taught me how to pose. He would take photos of me in the garage, bathroom, and parts of our house and he posted me on Instagram. He's always been a huge advocate for me to express myself. And when I approached him specifically about OnlyFans in 2019, he was like 'Yeah, let's do it, why did we wait so long?'"

Of the reason why she chose OnlyFans as her mode of expression, Tilla told the website, "for so long, our bodies have been labeled as shameful and wrong - especially if you're married or a mom or you start a business, your worth in society stops." Tillia and Nick, who have been married for nearly eight years, are now self-producing a reality television program about their lives.

Tilla's Instagram account has risen by 15K followers in the last six months, giving her a total of 291K followers. She is now earning a six-figure salary, according to People. Of the OnlyFans ban, Tilla told People: "It was shocking," Tillia says of the ban announcement, which she found "very sudden" and "vague." "It also leaves us feeling not so great," she adds, "because we were the ones who built that platform and made it into what it is today. We made it a brand that people know, and to go back on the people who built it, it's pretty awful."

"I fell in love with it," explains Tillia. "I fell in love with being liberated and being able to share myself in different ways. I started this for my own expression. I had no idea there was so much money to be made in it as there is." Tillia told TMZ that the money she's gained through the platform has helped her buy a house, pay for her children, and travel widely.