Why These Porn Directors Won’t Hire Teen Models
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Big-name adult directors like Stormy Daniels and Axel Braun of Wicked Pictures won’t work with talent under 21, making them outliers in an industry on a ceaseless hunt for the next new 18-year-old.
“It is not a popular decision, but it is the right one,” Daniels told XBIZ in November.
“For two decades now, I have witnessed the disturbing pattern of girls coming into the business too young and for the wrong reasons, then regretting their decision and trying to move on to other careers only to be shunned and forced to return, and I just want to do what I can in order to prevent that from happening.”
Her age policy dates back to 2004 after Daniels began directing at Wicked Pictures, she clarified to SexForEveryBody.com on Twitter.
Director Axel Braun, Head of Production at Wicked Pictures, also began enforcing a 21-year-old age minimum for performers in 2013. “It was not a crusade, a PR stunt, or a political move,” he told XBIZ. “Just a personal decision dictated by my own feelings and experience.”
Ex-performers want the minimum age of entry raised to 21
While some porn producers choose not to work with models under 21, a group of 20 former adult performers signed a petition in August calling on the adult industry to raise the age limit for talent formally. The campaign is sponsored by the Christian anti-sex work and anti-sex trafficking group Exodus Cry, and has received 9,881 signatures at the time of writing.
Led by ex-performer Brittni De La Mora, the open letter at BeyondFantasy.com shares the stories of several young women under 21 whose experience in porn involved high-pressure, unsafe working conditions, and catering to underage and pedophilic fantasies.
“Before we began shooting porn scenes, we had no understanding of the extreme physical, emotional, or psychological trauma that awaited us. Some of us weren’t even old enough to drink alcohol, and, as brain science reveals, the decision-making part of our brains wasn’t fully formed.”
The letter also shines a light on the prevalence of drug overdoses and suicides among female porn performers under 21.
“In 2017-2018 alone, young porn performers Olivia Nova, August Ames, Turi Luv, Yurizan Beltran, and Shyla Stylez all died within just months of each other. All of them were under 21 when they entered the porn industry.”
“The implications of appearing in a pornographic film are significant, with potential lifelong consequences. For many, it has destroyed their lives. We are asking you to end this injustice by raising the age of entry into porn from 18 to 21.”
Abella Danger on entering porn at 18
Not everyone who enters porn at 18 recalls bad experiences. Yet even Abella Danger, one of the most famous porn stars in the world who began filming with Bang Bros at 18, said the age for entry should be raised.
In a June 2020 episode of the podcast Holly Randall Unfiltered, erotic photographer Holly Randall spoke to Danger about her career and views on a minimum age for entering porn.
“A lot of performers believe that the age should be raised to 21, which I can understand,” Randall said to Danger.
“But then I also do tend to cite that there are certain girls who have come in at the age of 18 and have done really well for themselves and I feel made the right decisions from the beginning,” she added, specifically referencing her guest and the retired adult actress Sasha Grey as positive examples.
“But what about these two?”
Danger acknowledged her personal and business success as a teen in the porn industry. She also thought it was unfair when she was under 21 and couldn’t get work with a certain unnamed director.
But at 24 years old, her perspective had shifted.
“I definitely think the age should go up to at least 20. But I don’t see it happening in the foreseeable future just because the teen category is so extremely popular. I know it did well for me, being a teen,” said Danger.
“I’m not going to say 21, but I would say 20 when you’re past those teen years. Just because even looking back from when I was 18 years old to when I became 20, how much I matured.”
Danger was also signed early in her career by agent Mark Spiegler. She credits Spiegler for giving her guidance and making her aware of all the potential negative outcomes of being in the adult industry.
“He made it very clear: all your parents are going to find out, all your friends are going to find out, you know, all the things that could happen,” she said.
“But unfortunately, all the 18-year-olds that do come into the industry, they don’t have that sense of guidance. Some of them do; some of them don’t. I don’t believe that all of them are fully aware of all the negative things that come with the good things.”
Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech industry expert. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sex For Every Body®.
Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), haptics, immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.
A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.
