Della Dane is 33.

Six weeks ago, she entered the adult movie business.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, she lives in North Hollywood, the closest thing the San Fernando Valley has to Brooklyn.

Dane has an undergraduate degree in English and a master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, specializing in sex therapy. ("You go to a therapist to talk about sex," she explains. "It's not like I have sex with clients or give them hands-on instruction.")

In the past, she'd worked in publishing and medical device marketing. After graduate school, she moved to San Francisco and worked as a stripper to supplement her income as a pre-licensed therapist.

Then she moved to Los Angeles with her husband and began building her therapy practice. It took longer than she expected.

She started dancing at Dames n' Games, a topless sports bar in Van Nuys. She ended up doing a cage match performance with an adult actress and met others in the porn industry. She identifies as queer ("I'm attracted to people, not genitals") and had an open marriage, but she didn't "even know that much about porn."

Her marriage ended. Her interest in being a therapist waned. "I don't know what it was," she says. "I started really considering going into porn." So far, she's only done half a dozen or so scenes.

Like other performers, she has an agent, but on social media, she's "making Della Dane into a brand. If you want to be known, that's the route you have to go. You have to promote yourself. " She uploads content that she creates -- some racy, some not; it depends on the terms and conditions of the platform -- to Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. ("[Facebook] is restrictive," she says, as far as sex work is concerned. "You have to be really careful.") On other adult content-friendly platforms, subscribers pay to access her explicit content. On another platform, fans pay to text with her or talk to her on the phone.

"You have to promote yourself," Dane says.

Being an adult performer requires maintenance. She goes to the gym. She gets her hair done. Sometimes she buys outfits for the scenes in which she appears. She gets manicures and pedicures. She buys tans. She pays for laser hair removal treatments, Botox, fillers, and facials. Every two weeks, she gets tested for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV; that costs around $150.

She's planning on hiring a publicist, and this afternoon, she's strategizing with another performer, Eddie Jaye, for next month's AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and AVN Awards, the adult industry's version of the Academy Awards, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Eventually, I want to have my own production company," she says, "because I want to be my own boss."

Her phone lights up with another male performer's name. An actress didn't show up for a scene they're shooting today. Does she want to fill in? It's a boy-girl scene. It'll pay $700.

"I need to shave my legs," Dane says.

"For me, sex is a hobby," she tells me, getting ready to shower. "It just happens to be my job, as well." This is how it goes, when you're working in Porn Valley's gig economy.

(original article)