OnlyFans just got even hotter. No, a new celebrity hasn’t joined the party. No one’s even getting naked! OnlyFans is launching its own business school, giving creators the opportunity to learn the basics of running a creator business. Apparently there’s more to it than knowing you can expense a ring light, and more and more creators are wanting to transition from full-time content creation, so OnlyFans is rolling out a curriculum that will allow them to do just that. According to WIRED, OnlyFans hosts more than 4 million creator businesses, so the pivot is one that already has a student body ready to hand over tuition money.
“Meet the Teacher” looks a little different when you’re going to school on OnlyFans. Rachael McCrary is the entrepreneur leading the charge by teaching the inaugural course, and her résumé is perfect for this exact gig. If Elle Woods and an angel investor had a baby, it’d be McCrary. She’s a lingerie designer, a former SuicideGirls model, and a fashion entrepreneur who knows how to raise venture capital because she had to do that in order to build her own brands. She’s intimately familiar with what it feels like to be dismissed for having a spicy past and wants to make a difference for content creators who face the same struggles she’s had to deal with. Says McCrary, “I had to prove I was serious… because people see lingerie and assume it’s frivolous.” She’s now back in the realm of creator empowerment and is ready to teach people how to pitch to potential investors, grow their brands, and own their narratives — regardless of whether those narratives involve showing up naked on camera or not. She’ll be teaching via video masterclass, and true to OnlyFans format, the first few will be free and then the rest will require payment to access. Reel them in, then monetize the curiosity — it works for more than just feet pics!
The “why” behind McCrary being so eager to take on the role of teacher is… heavy. She’s said that creators, especially women and sex workers, frequently struggle to be taken seriously when they try to pivot. It’s a bit like showing up to church in a latex catsuit and hoping to be seen for who you are rather than what you’re wearing — not everyone is going to look beyond what they see. She’s hoping her classes will help bridge that gap and make the path forward a little easier for others than it was for her, so no one has to apologize for being both sexy and strategic. According to McCrary, she’s already hearing from creators who want to start fashion lines or build brands that go beyond adult content — all of which ties into OnlyFans’ continued commitment to building their SFW offerings.
To understand what OnlyFans is up to here, you have to look at things through a corporate lens. In 2021, OnlyFans announced a ban on explicit content that they very quickly had to rescind due to the creators who pay their bills making a mass exodus to other platforms. OnlyFans remains everyone’s favorite naughty corner of the internet but has stayed committed to expanding its reputation beyond adult content. Says OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair, “We’re home to creators of all genres who can reimagine how they engage with fans and monetize their content.” Translation? They’ll still host the naughty stuff, but they’re working on being a platform known for monetized creativity instead. The company is backing more and more SFW creators (musicians, athletes, podcasters, chefs, etc.) as part of their effort to diversify their offerings and distance themselves from being known exclusively as a hub for all things spicy.
While OnlyFans is continuing to move away from keeping the explicit aspect of their money-making machine in the spotlight, the pivot to offering business classes is less about sanitizing the brand and more about giving creators options they can utilize after they hang up their g-string for the last time. OnlyFans isn’t running from its roots — it’s just continuing to grow where it’s been planted. Per McCrary, she wants creators to “think of themselves as entrepreneurs, not just entertainers.” Giving sex workers and adult creators access to the tools they need to build real-world businesses, both within and outside of spicy content creation, is some powerful stuff. The same way creators taught themselves to sell a fantasy will now give them the chance to build something that lasts when they decide they’re ready to be done charging for that fantasy.
For a site that’s made literal billions off of its creator-driven subscription model, it’s more than a little poetic that their next move is creating accessible educational resources that teach creators how to own their subscriptions rather than just sell them. OnlyFans has shown in the last few years that they’re more than just a hub for the horny, and now they’re moving to be practically Harvard-adjacent. The courses are set to drop soon. Are you ready to learn?
