Confession Of A Teenage Cam Girl

Undressing the fastest growing field of the digital sex industry with Natasha Grey

- Devon Preston

In 1998, David Letterman had Jennifer Ridley, who created a 24/7 livecast of her daily life, as a guest on his show. In that interview, he made a bold statement about Ridley’s site JenniCam—saying ‘I don’t care about the internet, but this is the perfect idea for [it].’ Although this wasn’t a profound statement at the time, twenty years later it highlights the unexpected explosion of the digital sex industry. Although JenniCam is a primitive example of what camming is today, Ridley paved the way for cam girls world wide. Internet users could have never predicted the rise of cam girls, not to mention the way the business has evolved to suit new technologies, cultural expectations, and generational kinks.

Camming, which generates an estimated $2 billion annually, is one of the fastest growing facets of sex work, with more women working from their bedrooms than on porn sets or in a strip clubs. Today, almost everyone in the western world has encountered a cam girl in their daily life, but most would never know it. Not all, but many cam girls strive to create personal, intimate, and unique content that you can’t get from watching porn. By interacting with an online audience in the comforts of their own home, they establish an authenticity that is refreshing for many consumers. Sure, it can be as dirty as any other medium of adult entertainment, but the most successful cam girls offer an extension of themselves in addition to the striptease.