Only fans are now like porn. So much so that, a few years ago, when the platform announced it was banning explicit content, it received such a backlash that it reversed course.
But not all OnlyFans models have sex on camera — and some don’t even go nude. Sophie Annaston is one of these creators, and has built a six-figure-a-year business on the platform. (Annaston shared a screenshot of OnlyFans’ monthly earnings with Mashable for confirmation.)
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“There’s nothing nude in my diet,” Annaston told Mashable. “I share tries,” or videos of her trying on different clothes. “I’ll share toys – but my panties are always there.”
Annaston spoke to Mashable about how she grew her OnlyFans to such a high level while also making softcore her many other sources of income.
From TikTok to fans only
Annaston’s boyfriend got into content creation before she did. He started YouTube in 2017, and when the pandemic hit, he quit his full-time job; YouTube matched his previous income, and he started making more.
“That really inspired me,” Annaston said.
At the time, he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do. During the bankruptcy of the COVID pandemic, he dropped out of school and quit his job to do his work on TikTok. While building a following, he began offering eBooks, such as the IBS Trigger Checklist, and eventually launched crowdfunding campaign to support a health journal.
About two years later, she started posting on YouTube, where she had a Shein brand deal and tried on the site’s bikinis. He was so surprised by the response (100,000 views in two days, according to Annaston) that he deleted the video.
At the time, her friend told her how much she was making on OnlyFans – so she asked her boyfriend if it was okay to do it for herself, then set up her OnlyFans as a “call to action” for future YouTube videos. He has been uploading tryst videos and received millions of views, which only established his fan following.
Annaston continued to write on social media, maintained a health magazine business, and independently published a book, called A Book on Good Healthin 2024.
“I want to have a lot of different ways,” he said. “Only My Followers […] it allows me to fund art projects,” he said.
On top of all this, Annaston has a Patreon page where she teaches other women the ins and outs of OnlyFans. “I have a female audience that really trusts me and appreciates my advice on Patreon,” she said, finding her on YouTube and even on Reddit.
There, he writes in-depth articles about the logic behind his OnlyFans strategy – topics include why posts work or not, how to create a risk strategy, and how he can do this without crossing his boundaries – those boundaries are nudity and sex on camera. So what exactly is Annaston posting on OnlyFans?
Mashable Trend Report
Posted by Annaston on OnlyFans
“I’m ridiculous,” Annaston joked, “which, for a lot of my fans, is what I’ve heard, actually. [more fun] there is complete visibility. So I focus on sexual content, partial nudity.”
“I’m really funny.”
She’ll post stripping jokes and get her fans to buy what she’s wearing — like a $450 calendar from SKIMS. Annaston did a fundraiser on OnlyFans for fans to buy it; they did it “quickly,” and he was satisfied with that for the whole month of December.
Annaston posts PPVs (pay-per-view videos) several times a week, and her fans can request videos, but she doesn’t sell 1-1 custom videos.
He also doesn’t use an agency or management like many top OnlyFans creators do; she is a one woman show. So he answers messages on OnlyFans, but insists that fans need to tip if they want his attention.
“Fortunately, it really works,” she said, “and my subscribers love the fact that they know they’re helping me. […] in all my creative projects. I’m not here to buy a sports car or something.”
Why nudity?
Porn and its creators are highly scrutinized in our society. Project 2025, the far-right blueprint for President Trump’s second term, calls for porn to be banned and its creators jailed. And although no laws to this effect have been passed, several have been introduced in the United States.
And online censorship of sexual content has been going on longer than the release of Project 2025. Online sex sellers (as well as LGBTQ creators, erotic artists, and other non-sexual artists) have told Mashable over the years that their social media accounts have been banned or blacklisted (privileged, unsearchable).
And starting in 2022, age verification laws will sweep the United States and the Western world. These laws often require proof of age such as a government ID or face scan to view websites that host a certain amount of graphic content. This has led to a decrease in the income of prostitutes.
Between the public shaming of sex and legal regulation, it’s no wonder that the creators of OnlyFans might not want to delve into sex. Even on YouTube, where Annaston has amassed millions of views by struggling, she rejected this kind of content last year. YouTube policy on nudity and sexual content states that even clothed private parts, breasts, or buttocks “intended for sexual gratification” cannot be sent on stage.
Annaston has deleted several videos of the attempt with millions of views and discussed it in a separate YouTube video, calling it “the end of an era.” (Annaston is divorced try the YouTube channel (has been loaded into it lately, but usually sticks to trying on pajamas.)
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Annaston said that if she starts posting graphic content, she’ll lose other opportunities – which is probably true, given our society’s fantasy. In addition to Fans Only, Annaston has brand endorsements, her own health journal, and her own Patreon.
“Working with brands, it’s really satisfying, being able to work with big brands and have a media kit and then have a book and a journal, and maybe down the road, I can have my book in bookstores, all these different things where it’s like, if I, if I connect to the obvious content, the extreme content, like, all those things will disappear out of my reach,” he told Mashable.
There’s a niche for everything, and while his non-nude softcore niche is small, it’s there — and he’s strong in not posting nudes, he said.
“It’s just a very slippery slope, because once you set expectations, your audience will feel entitled to a certain type of content, and then you lose that type,” he said.
However, Annaston does not shy away from obvious creators. “We’re all on very different lines,” he said. “I’m not trying to compare myself to those kinds of creators, older creators, celebrity creators, who have these big built-in audiences.”
Business success from the creator of OnlyFans
Annaston views her OnlyFans success the same way she views her social media success. “I think they are holding hands,” he said. “Fans are just an extension of my social media.” And he believes that success is determined by social media, not how extreme one’s content is.
In business, he continued, the best way to learn is hands-on experience and trial and error. “There’s been a lot of things I’ve tried and failed,” including the lash business, “and then I just found something that works.”
“I just found a way to communicate and not be limited to OnlyFans or product deals,” she said.
And Annaston doesn’t mind spilling her secrets, as she does on her Patreon. He said, “Since I think that I am a very unique creator, I think that, to a certain extent, anyone can imitate my strategy.”
