EDISON, N.J.—Stefanie Joy compares coming to conventions such as Exxxotica to going to “church camp.”
“I was raised religious and I would go to church camp and I never felt quite like I was meant to be there, so this is in a way my church camp,” Joy told AVN Saturday at the MyFreeCams booth inside the N.J. Convention & Expo Center.
“I feel like I fit in completely when I’m here. I’ve always felt kind of out of place growing up. So to be able to feel like you fit in somewhere that’s a really refreshing feeling.”
Indeed, reuniting with her friends in the MyFreeCams community is like coming home for Joy, the 22-year-old native of Arizona who is hosting MFC TV this weekend at the 30th nationwide Exxxotica show.
Joy spent much of the afternoon and evening interviewing the diverse group of models that gathered at the prominent MyFreeCams booth situated near the entrance of the convention hall.
Dozens of cam girls from across the country made their way to suburban New Jersey to meet their members in person and connect with other models in what has become a tradition for MyFreeCams, the live-cam heavyweight founded in 2004 that is the Presenting Sponsor for Exxxotica.
Models armed with laptops lined the perimeter of the green-and-white booth, going live for their members in various states of undress—many were scantily clad in fresh MyFreeCams-branded gear that was available in bundles backstage.
On Saturday more than 10 of the models received custom body-painting that was applied in the center of the booth by two professional artists from Manhattan that used a colorful combo of theatrical and liquid-based makeup to airbrush the girls.
It marked the second time MyFreeCams has hired body-painters to give its models a splash of color after trying it at the Everything to Do With Sex Show two weeks ago in Toronto. It’s part of an ongoing evolution for MyFreeCams, which adds more to its repertoire at each show, making subtle changes and improvements all designed to optimize their models’ experience.
“I love the environment,” Odd Rosebud, a 21-year-old model from Columbus, Ohio, told AVN. “I love socializing with the girls. Because camming is very isolating you don’t get to have that social interaction. I love getting to meet great girls. They provide for us. Obviously they can’t pay the way for every single person, that’d be crazy. They provide and they want to make us as comfortable as possible.”
Sporting pink hair, purple lingerie and black stockings Saturday, Odd Rosebud said she has also traveled to Sydney, Australia, Chicago and Toronto in addition to her native Columbus to hang with the MyFreeCams team.
Now one year into her camming career, Odd Rosebud gets online every day at 8 a.m. EST.
“I love it. It was life changing for me. It was the most positive impact of anything I’ve ever done,” Odd Rosebud said. “I was working a job before where I didn’t have self-expression. I didn’t have socialization. I was a nanny, so there was not a lot of adult interaction and I’m a very expressive, very sexual person. So I think camming has allowed me to express that.”
Odd Rosebud, whose unique cam name was actually her ex-boyfriend’s WiFi password, said in her room “we talk a lot.”
“We’re still a sexual room for sure. We still do full-on cum shows and stuff, but we have a lot of very intelligent conversation which I really enjoy,” she added. “We get down to deep stuff, too, which I think is important. You wouldn’t always expect it on a cam site but I think being with the same people every day you need to talk about more than just butts. You need more substance. I have some really, really educational conversations with the guys.”
Back on the cam floor, the body-paint artists have just wrapped up a 45-minute session on SmartyKat314, creating a bright pink halter top with black trim on the fit brunette who is wearing a pair of brand new, white MFC slippers. Naturally, Stefanie Joy grabs her for a sit-down interview with the MFC TV crew.
Before she found camming, Joy worked at a casino, among other odd jobs.
“And I was miserable,” Joy admitted. “I worked at Starbucks, which was really nice but not enough money. I was a personal assistant for a little bit. I went to school for billing and coding.
“I’ve worked at McDonald’s. I’ve worked as a waitress. I’ve worked my dream job in an animal shelter, so I’ve actually had like my dream job. I’ve done so many things.”
But now she chooses to cam full time and gets to set her own schedule, but she noted despite that freedom it’s still important to treat it like a business.
“I treat it like more than a 9-to-5,” Joy said. “I have girls who come up and ask me, ‘can you teach me how to do it? How do you do it?’ And I’m like, ‘honestly, I take it incredibly seriously.’
“Sometimes I’ll do a morning and then a [midday] shift and then a nightshift if I’m having a good day. I love being on there. I always tell the girls camming is my distraction because it’s all I do.
“I love my members and I want to be there and hang out instead of just sitting in my house by myself. It’s fun for me. It’s fun to have a place where I can go and everybody accepts me.”
Now a cam girl for a year and eight months, Joy considers being asked to host MFC TV this weekend “an honor.”
“It really is,” Joy said. “I’m sure you’re familiar with Aspen Rae who typically does it. I just feel completely grateful that they allowed me to step in while she’s away to do this. I think it’s a great opportunity for me. Also for my public speaking to get better.
“I did a Snapchat takeover and [the MFC management] were all just blown away with it. They were like you have to do this, you’re perfect for it. I doubt myself all the time, so I was like you know what, if they think so then hell yeah, let’s go for it.”
Now wearing a short rose-colored cocktail dress for her interviews, Joy finds the energetic Harli Lotts, who’s dressed in a green MFC cheerleader outfit, for a quick Q&A while a crowd gathers around them.
“The main thing that we’re really focusing on is the girls themselves with questions like what unique talents do you have? How do you like to run your room? What’s a typical day like in your world on MFC?” Joy explained. “And then also asking models who have been doing this for a while if they have any pointers or advice or just anything they want to say about themselves and MFC.
“So really just focusing on each model individually because they’re all so unique and different and amazing.”
Girls like PeachyLiv, a 19-year-old native of New York who started camming a year ago and recently found out about Exxxotica and decided to attend her first show Saturday.
“I’ve seen so many beautiful people,” PeachyLiv told AVN. “I have met so many people that I watch on cam. I feel at home here. It’s weird because I get jumped a lot for doing what I do and then everyone’s OK with it here. Everybody’s cool with what you do. And I really like getting positive recognition for things rather than ‘you’re a slut’ or something.”
Decked out in a tight green cut-off shirt, white booty shorts, knee-high green MFC socks and even dark green glasses (her own), PeachyLiv said what she loves about camming is “that I get to be myself.”
“I love it. I wouldn’t rather do anything else. I love that everybody in my room always thinks that I’m nerdy and goofy—they love me for it,” said PeachyLiv, who is @elfwhiskers on Twitter. “It’s just being accepted. I never really liked my body and being on cam helped me accept my body. And now I fucking love myself. It’s cool I’ve opened up to a lot of people.
“I’ve made some really cool friends in the community. Most of all I think that I wouldn’t have started doing this if I didn’t have the support of some of the other models.”
The Exxxotica N.J. event also brought out up-and-coming adult performer and cam girl Pocket Sins, the native New Yorker who started out as a cam girl in 2014 and made her porn debut earlier this year exclusively with Johnny and Kissa Sins’ studio, Sins Life.
Turning heads Saturday in an olive-colored lingerie set at the MyFreeCams booth, the Puerto Rican/Peruvian model told AVN she cams from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday.
“I really like MFC as a company but being here it’s really great. You can tell that they’re very powerful. I’m in good hands,” Sins said.
A former legal recruiter, she said the adult industry so far has been everything she could’ve imagined.
“I love it. I don’t believe that there’s any other industry in the world that accepts anyone and everyone. Honestly, I think this is the only industry where there is no limit. If you can think it, you can dream it, you can make it and then you can make money,” Sins said.
“I’m a creative person at heart and it’s allowing me to get back into my creativity, which I kind of lost when I was trying to be a normal person.”
While camming is her primary focus, Sins will still do select porn scenes with Sins Life, noting she’d prefer to only do boy/girl with Johnny Sins.
“I know many people would say that’s kind of career suicide but that’s my personal choice and I’m going to stick to it because I know it’s very easy for people to get taken advantage of in any scenario in any industry,” Sins said.
“But I’m definitely open to doing girl/girl and eventually anal. I’m kind of picky sexually, so I really need to have good chemistry. I need to be attracted to the person.”
One of the seasoned models spotted at the booth was the sexy and mysterious “AAPL_”, pronounced like “apple,” whose been a popular draw on MyFreeCams for more than four-and-a-half years.
The sultry resident of Chicago said Exxxotica N.J. was her eighth convention for MyFreeCams, pointing to “the members” as the reasons she keeps coming back.
“The fact that the people who are tipping me can hug me,” AAPL_ said. “I said that a lot today. I was like, ‘look guys, this is why you want to come to the convention, I can come and kiss you for your tip.’ You get to actually meet these people and the truth is even the girls are members, too. We all watch each other.
“You’re not in this world if you aren’t a pervert. It’s just some of us are girls and some of us are guys. I came here to meet people, to actually put a face to the name. There’s a lot of people that I know and I’ve never seen.”
She said the MyFreeCams community has evolved into something special.
“Not only am I a part of this website—when it says ‘No. 1 webcam community,’ they’re not joking. [MFC] throws down to make the girls want to be here, so we can all get to know each other. No other site does that.
“Every time it gets bigger. It gets bigger and better.”
AAPL_, looking sophisticated in a dark blue dress, noted the MFC management team “listens” to its models and is present at shows, which is important. A media professional for more than 10 years who specializes in vector art and does a lot of work creating graphics for mobile apps, AAPL_ chooses to keep her mainstream work life separate from camming, which she does about 10 hours a week.
“I don’t have a website. I can’t sit here and say this is something I’m going to do forever,” she said. “I’m telling you the shit I tell my members but it’s true. Guys don’t talk to me. It’s just frustrating, I think most guys are intimidated or they just assume ‘she has a boyfriend.’
“It’s not like I need attention every day but sometimes you just want someone to tell you you’re pretty. I don’t have anyone in my life to dress up for. And these are things that I enjoy doing. I like to be sexy, to feel sexy. There’s just no one worthy in my personal life to do that for.”
AAPL_ continued, “And I used to be so much sluttier and now because of MFC I’m not making as many bad choices because when I’m in the mood I know where to go. I’m more wifey now than I used to be… That’s it. I don’t get to feel pretty in my day-to-day life. It is just nice to have someone tell me that I look pretty today. It really is that basic. It feels nice.”
Pictured from left: Odd Rosebud, SmartyKat314, Stefanie Joy & AAPL_
