I’m Puck … I’m from the Northwest United States … I’ve been a sex worker for … for a long time … probably almost seven years … Growing up in the Pacific Northwest … it was beautiful … nature is amazing and astounding out there … I was really lucky to have lived in small towns where there are … forests … a lot of water everywhere … but the culture was … very stifled and restrained … and very conservative where I was … so that was kind of a barrier for me … growing up there … but it was beautiful … My dad was in the military … and we traveled for work … so we were in Texas … Florida … and Maine … and Washington … Maine … I remember the most … I was pretty young at the time … I remember the intense … the intensity of the seasons … Fall was fall … winter … you couldn’t escape through the door (laughter) … because you would get six feet of snow … it was great … I was little … so … everything was exaggerated … The summertime was so hot … and drained you … and on the west coast … it’s not the same really … it’s a little bit more temperate … I grew up in a very Christian … very religious environment … I didn’t know about … I wasn’t allowed to listen to rock music … or alternative music … like … oldies were the furthest I could go … Most of the music I listened to until I was seventeen was … Christian … Christian pop … women's groups … gospel … I love gospel … But … I remember in high school I was in an English AP lit class … I’m like … alright guys … I need to know what music’s is out there … can you give me a list of stuff to listen to … I don’t really know … and they’re like … Oh … you have to listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers … I’m like … All right … write it down (laughter) … I didn’t know much about other stuff that was out there … I was really sheltered … So … that was really interesting … and I found out about the music … in the world (laughter) … The stuff that really started bringing me out of my very sheltered upbringing … I was in a Christian private school for all of elementary school … I was in Christian home school for middle School … When I first went to public school … it was high school … which was an intense experience enough by itself … but when you’ve never been around … a bunch of kids … all at once … who don’t believe in god … it’s just like … Whoa … My world started changing … I was in Jazz band … choir … and the drama department … which … were all a bunch of freaks there … So … that’s when stuff … started … Did my family notice these changes? … They had an inkling because of the people I started hanging around with … and they weren’t exactly comfortable with kids in the drama department … because … so many of them were queer … and I started exploring my identity … as not a heterosexual … being … and my family started to realize that something was up … and were not happy with it … They’ve started to get used to it now … a decade later (laughter) … I lived in Seattle for five or six years … I had another huge … crazy shift happen … with my political belief’s … because Occupy Seattle happened … I laugh about it now … but it was a shit show … But it was also an amazing experience … and it fucked my world up  … intensely … I realized that a lot of the stuff … that I had been brought up to believe … was just like … not cool … my world view started expanding again … because I was coming face to face with people I never would have normally … I had known that I had grown up sheltered … but its crazy when another layers been peeled off … and you’re like … Oh yeah … there’s so much more going on … because my upbringing had been …  very … very … politically conservative … Cigarettes were bad … Premarital sex … was obviously a no no … You’ve got to be a heterosexual … The objective of a woman is to find a husband and serve him … and the lord … That’s the epitome of your life … have kids … My family … They voted for Trump … even though he … There’s just so much wrong with him … At that time … I was getting arrested for political activities … I was aligning myself more with anarchism … I started going to a lot of punk shows … doing a lot of punk shit … I shaved my hair … I had a lot of piercings … I dyed my hair a bunch … I was getting into fights with people … I was in it … deep … That was when I started breaking apart more form the family … really finding myself … finding different communities … that I felt I connected with more … And the punk scene was that … The queer scene … The anarchist scene … and that’s kind of carried with me even till now … I had a lot of burnout from being so politically active … I just went so hard … every day … After I came to Chicago … it’s funny … Actually … the reason I came to Chicago … there’s this girl I went to school with … we were roommates … randomly placed together … she called me up and told me she was having a baby … the guy was not in the picture … I was like … It’s time to move … I’m going to come to Chicago … I’m going to help you raise this kid … lets do this … And I came here … and my very first experience … in Chicago … was going to the NATO protests … and within the first couple days of being here … I got punched by a cop … I had a black eye (laughter) … I was like … The girl I was with … I was telling her all about it … and just the look on her face … she was just … this is not the kind of activity I want around my kid … and so unfortunately … like I understand where she’s coming from … she’s a mom … you’ve got to be safe … I get it … I had to find a different situation very soon after that … And now … It’s been almost six years … and I came to Chicago … I went to Phoenix … for a bit … and then moved back to Seattle … So there was like a breaking period … but I did come back … because I found a lot of people that I … really … really … love here … And that’s the only reason I’ve stuck around this long … It’s because the community here is really great … I have really good friends … Also … my partner … who’s born and raised … It’s very hard to get them to want to leave … I’m working on it … I’ve lived all around Chicago … I’ve lived … Bridgeport … Pilsen … Back of the yards … super far north … on the west side … like all over … I was still doing a lot of the queer shit … punk shit … But … in the past four years … I’ve really become more reclusive … I’ve really focused on my sex work … my career in sex work … I’m a homebody … hardcore … I will leave the house … not for errands … three times a month … I like hosting stuff in my house … and throwing activities for sex workers … and communist friends of mine (laughter) … So … I’ve been performing most of my life … on the stage … I’ve done music stuff … I’ve rapped … I’ve done slam poetry … Spoken word … Choir … Performing with pianists … Accompanist … I’m really used to being in front of people performing … and my performances became more and more … sexual … more sexually expressive … and I was following these girls on Tumbler … who were cam models … they would get on cam … and they would do fun stuff … and sexy stuff … and get paid for it … I was … this sounds like … I could definitely do this … I really love showing off … I feel I’m a good conversationalist … and it’s a performance … and I really enjoy performing … at the time I was in Phoenix … I was really desperate for money … I was having a really hard time in my living situation … and my romantic situation … So I needed to get out … and I had kind of wanted to play with this … cam model … thing … for a while … It seemed like a really good opportunity because I was home a lot … and I needed … to make money … quickly … and have some security … and to be able to make my own hours … be my own boss … It made the most sense to me at the time … So … There were a lot of factors in my reason to start sex work … I needed money quickly … I needed to get out … I started … five or six years ago … In the beginning … I was doing it just to make quick cash … I wasn’t trying to make a career … It was just something I needed to do … to get money for the day … for transportation … or to buy weed … That’s all I used it for really … But … as I started to mature a little bit … I realized I needed to … maybe start a saving account …  maybe have money for beyond just today … and tomorrow … if I’m lucky … and so … the past three years … I’ve really buckled down … and it’s pretty dope … to be able to buy whatever the fuck I want … when I want it … because at the time I couldn’t afford … groceries … you know … I would split a Caesars pizza … with my friends (laughter) … That’s what I was doing … Money was really really tight … So now … I’m eating healthy … and I love it … I love talking about the fact that I can eat food … like real good food … and go out and eat … It’s so nice … I was living in living rooms and stuff … curtained off living rooms … smoking a lot of weed … and not doing shit … Now I’m working twelve hours a day … So … I’m running a crazy ass business … I’m designing my sets … my props … I’m editing and shooting my own videos … Sometimes I have a photographer … which is really nice … Buying all of my own equipment … I’m running five different social media accounts … I have clip stores that I’m constantly maintaining … I have a cam-ing job … There’s so much behind the scenes involved with the work that I do … I’m just so constantly busy … It’s also millennial culture … it’s this gig culture that you have to be hustling constantly … to make it … a lot of us are doing freelance work … setting our own hours … we’re drawn to that … because it’s nice … but also because we kind of have to … The thing that sets about running this business … and if you want to be really successful … you’re on the clock always … because as soon as I wake up … I’m on my phone … I’m answering emails … I’m trying to update all of my shit … and it really taxes you … and you have to be sure that you’re taking care of yourself … Self care is so important … or else you’re going to burn out hard … But … I will never have a boss again … that’s just not me … I love being on top of my shit … I just got incorporated … I’m my own CEO … It’s really nice … So … The culture I came from in Seattle … the queer and the punk scene … The people that I’ve surrounded myself with for the past decade are very open minded and chill … I have just naturally fallen into relationships and friends … with sex workers … who are already part of this community … and we have a very strong network … Because of that … our lives can become very insular … and we don’t really interact with people who would disagree with what we do … because we are already cutting ourselves off … for a bunch of reasons … for queerness … for political reasons … for everything … So … The times that I do interact with people who would have something to say about what I do … I’m already maintaining my guard … So I have to be careful when I’m in the car with Uber drivers … I don’t want them to know what I do because … you can’t trust … men (laughter) … who have your address … who are strangers … that you don’t know … I have to be careful when I go banks … Certain banks will close down your account if they find out you’re a sex worker … even … if what you’re doing is legal … they can seize your money … and take it from you … There’s so many things … you just have to be very very careful about who you tell … I’m lucky … I feel very safe in the communities I’m a part of … A lot of people know that I’m a sex worker … It’s just in interactions at the grocery store … or at the bank … I will maybe say that I work on Etsy … or I’m a model … or take a step back … I haven’t had any particularly fucky experiences or stalkers or stuff yet because I’ve been … careful … as much as I can be … There are risks with this job … So … I think … a lot of social media fucked us over (laughter) … There’s a lot of reasons that social media is great … it’s so much easier to connect with people who else wise would have dropped out of your life … It’s fostered a lot of creativity … a lot of funny shit … but … there’s so much negativity … so much finger pointing … so many people developing these identities that are  … they’re brands … we’re becoming brands … because that’s how you grow a business … that’s how you make money … you’re putting a face out there to the world that’s like … maybe not how you actually interact with people on a daily … You feel more comfortable saying some outlandish stuff that you would not … if you were face to face  with the person … having the conversation … So those are some drawbacks that people are more … inclined to … what’s the word … outcast … I’ve had a lot of great experiences on social media … and I’ve built up a following and stuff … but … the deeper I went into it … the more evil I thought it was (laughter) … And I’ve really taken a step back from it … And that’s helped … my soul … I do use it for work … strictly now … My personality is part of my work … so there’s me in there … I’ve taken my personal self … and stepped back … and try to make money with work that I do … I use Twitter … I feel comfortable on Twitter … It’s still now … cross your fingers … acceptable for sex workers to be on it … Instagram will shut down your account … even if … if your a sex worker … and you’re not posting scandalous shit … It happens everyday … multiple accounts from sex workers will be shut down … even though they’re operating within the guidelines … because people hate when you sell sex … even though sex sells everything … around you … And it’s interesting … platform social media … media platforms … they will … in order to grow their audiences … in the beginning … a lot of them will be friendly with sex workers … It will be ok for us to use their stuff … because we draw people … we draw the numbers … As they switch over … and become more family friendly … They’re like … No … Bye bitch … You’re out (laughter) … You can’t be here anymore … They tap into our resources … people amassing things … and then … they push us to the side … but we still do what we can … figure out the different ways that we can belong on different platforms … I’ve been on Twitter … for a long time … I found everyone on Twitter … because it’s like the sex worker platform … If you’re a sex worker … if you’re a full service … if you’re a cam model … If you’re a non nude model … a clip model … all the different aspects of being a sex worker … you’re on there …  So … It’s really easy to connect who are going to different conventions … or are on the same sites … because then you’re swapping advice … we have our own little private groups … to help each other find pirated videos that are out there … We have clothing swap groups … There’s information groups … It’s been really nice for me … Sometimes … I use Snapchat … even though you’re not supposed to … on the down low … I use that … Instagram … I use some … So … the great thing about my job … is that I can go anywhere I want and still be working … everything I do … every vacation I take … is a work vacation … I am not … I don’t have the time to go fuck off and have a good time … Unless my phone … and my computer are with me … because … I’m maintaining my presence … constantly … But … I love working … so … it feeds into that … I’ve been able to go to Vegas multiple times … for conventions … for work … My partner … They have a job where they can … They’re their own boss too … Whenever we go somewhere … we get a place … and then we’re both working … and it’s nice … because they need to travel for work … Vegas has been a place … I’ve filmed with different people in California … for this job … I have … I’m going to be in Miami in a couple months … for a convention … and just recently I was in Barcelona and Iceland … that was for my partners job … but … I got to work over there too … so … It is so nice to see the world and … and not have … like a week … once a year … to be able to leave … you have to be careful with the different countries that you visit … obviously … if you’re a sex worker … and the United States really doesn’t like escorts who travel across the borders … I don’t do full service … so that’s not really an issue with me … but I hear about really bad shit happening all the time … from other people I work with … my compatriots … cohorts … a lot of the media we’re fed … a lot of the stuff we grow up with … from our parents … our communities … and from our schools … because history books will always favor the nation state that the history book is coming from … you don’t really see … what the perspective of other culture is about … your own culture is … until you’re actually there  … talking with people (laughter) … When you asked … where are things heading … My mind immediately went to … Oh … you mean the state of the world and global warming … because that is how … so many of us our feeling … Oh … Where are things headed? … Catastrophe … The apocalypse … We’re already planning for it (laughter) … We all know … shit is fucked massively … It’s not good … It’s almost become a joke … I meet at my friends … and we’re … where do you think the best water reserves are going to be … Where should we be living … The other day I had an anxiety attack … where I was … ok … as stuff starts shifting … and the weather patterns are getting different … Where is the best … Where food is going to grow? … Oh … Canada … So I’m doing research about Canada … and how I’m going to need to move there in forty years … We’re getting fed all this information all the time … but our culture … and our society … is not catching up with it enough … we just reject this information that’s right in our faces … we still don’t believe in science … believe in science it’s a weird thing to say … but we’re still operating … in our government … in our majority culture … from this puritanical viewpoint … not catching up to how things actually are … But for me personally … in the future (laughter) … I’m just going to keep making money … keep strengthening my connections with people and keep thinking about water … and growing my own food (laughter).