How a 58-year-old single mother went from $30,000 a year to $1.5 million

Before becoming one of Onlyfans The most successful creators, Elena St. James A single mother in Wisconsin was making just $30,000 a year in an insurance job that barely paid the bills. Then one frigid January night in 2021, everything changed.

Standing outside under a subzero sky, she looked up and made a plea to the universe, “Please, just give me an idea.” Weeks later, that idea arrived in the form of a People Magazine story about a mom named Ms. Poindexter who makes six figures a month on OnlyFans. Now, just four years later, Elena has built her own empire, earned over $1.5 million and changed her life, her confidence, and her future, all before she turned 60.

when Elena St. James She found the article and was desperate for direction. “I was making $30,000 a year, no benefits, and trying to raise my son on my own,” she told The Blast. “I just remember thinking, ‘How am I going to retire? How am I going to take care of him?’

The story of Ms. Poindexter, a mother who reportedly makes $100,000 a month, seemed like a sign. “I thought if I could make a tenth of that, $10,000 a month, it would change my life,” she explained.

She spent a month researching how to get started, learning everything she could about marketing, content creation and social media, even though she was barely using Instagram at the time. “I was like a sponge,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about algorithms or hashtags or reels. But I had one thing: persistence. I said: Please, just give me an idea.” And the universe did.”

Elena did not dive in recklessly. She built a plan. “I called it a calculated risk,” she explained. “I still had my job, so I wasn’t going to blow up my life right away.” She started out without a face, showing only lips, legs and silhouettes while blocking co-workers and acquaintances from finding her page. But when I learned how Instagram’s new Reels feature could increase reach, things started to take off.

Within her first month, she reached 10,000 followers on Instagram and gained 60 paid subscribers on OnlyFans. Her first month also brought in about $2,000, which is roughly what she earned in an entire month at her insurance job. By the second month, she was making $5,000. “One letter paid more than a home insurance form,” Elena told The Blast.

By the spring of 2021, Elena was juggling both jobs, working 40 hours a week during the day, then creating content late at night. The exhaustion was real. At her job in insurance, her younger boss criticized her for a simple mistake. “I sat there listening and thought, ‘I’m done,'” Elena said. “In my mind, I was already writing my resignation letter.”

Two weeks later, she came out smiling. “I felt like Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale,” she laughed. “You blew up my life and I didn’t care.” That same month, she made $10,000, her first five-figure month.

By the end of 2021, she had multiplied her previous annual salary several times over, proving her leap of faith was correct. “Your best days may be when you’re 55,” she said. “I am living proof.”

At first, Elena assumed that her age meant she needed a niche, perhaps a strict dominatrix or a “mature model” angle. But the opposite turned out to be true. She revealed, “I started talking to the subscribers, and they were telling me: Your smile, your warmth, this is what we love.” “They didn’t want an act. They wanted a real person.”

By mid-year, she dropped the filters and started showing her face. The response was overwhelming. Her following exploded, and her brand became synonymous with authenticity and confidence. “I realized I don’t have to be perfect,” she said. “I just had to be myself.”

As Elena’s bank account grew, her social circle shrank. She lost friends and family members who disapproved of her new career, describing it as “one of the most isolating experiences” of her life.

“It’s funny. You’d think the hardest part would be creating OnlyFans,” she said. “But the hardest part was the governance. The people I thought would support me were gone.”