LOS ANGELES—Salena Storm remembers looking forward to the premiere of Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On after the crew spent five days filming her last year.
But after watching her episode—the third in the six-part Netflix docu-series, titled “Owning It”—the full-time cam model and occasional girl/girl porn performer found out what many subjects of documentary films have discovered: A lot of footage ends up on the cutting-room floor, and what does end up on screen may not be what is expected. As a result, she claims the producers misrepresented their intentions from the get-go.
“I was definitely misled,” Storm says. “They one-hundred percent told me this is about women empowerment, about ‘females like you who are owning it,’ and they don’t show any of that.”
The 21-year-old native of San Diego says rather than going deeper into her story about how she takes charge of her career, leads a healthy lifestyle and is successfully building her brand through positive experiences in the adult industry, the producers veered far off from where they told her they wanted to go, failing to deliver what was promised.“I was excited for the doc to come out,” Storm tells AVN, noting she was given reassurances that “Owning It” would depart from the tone of the original Hot Girls Wanted doc in 2015 that generated industry-wide backlash for its less than favorable portrayal of the porn business.
“They told me this time around it was going to be more positive and they were covering girls that actually treat it like a business and care about what they’re doing and not partying every night. But then I watched it and it was the same Hot Girls Wanted—just Take Two."
Instead of developing her narrative, Storm says most of Episode 3 follows the stories of Bailey Rayne and Kylie Page. Rayne at the time of the filming was both a cam model and an assistant agent for Matrix Models, tasked with finding and mentoring newcomers such as Storm and Page. Rayne is no longer with Matrix but Page is.
Storm, who next month will celebrate her two-year camiversary with MyFreeCams, appears on screen for about 10 minutes of the 50-minute episode. She’s introduced as a cam model who was recruited by Rayne into the biz. The footage shows their first meeting as well as her first sit-down with Matrix Models owner John Steven. Storm says she left Matrix about two weeks after joining the agency—something else not addressed in the episode. After we watch Storm’s first porn go-see with photographer/director Jay Rock about midway through the broadcast, we don’t see Storm again and there is no update about her progress.
“I totally drop off. They never say what I’m doing,” Storm says. “It just seemed as though I dropped off and I didn’t want to film for them anymore.”
But that was far from what transpired behind the scenes, she says, adding that most of the footage she shot with the HGW crew went unused.
“They shot inside my house,” Storm says. “They shot my whole process about camming, me doing offline work, shooting my own content, editing my own content. They shot me before I go online, what I do on my off time and living a healthy lifestyle.”
They also filmed her confiding in her close friend about the ups and downs of the profession, none of which made the cut.
“Now I feel my brand is going to be hurt. They’re showcasing me as not true to who I am,” Storm continues. “They don’t show how hard I work at camming. It’s been six months and I’m not doing boy/girl [sex scenes], I’m still camming full time. I have shot girl/girl for DVD and have had pleasant experiences doing it. I haven’t been pressured into doing anything. It’s just absurd that I was promised something else."
Storm says she worked closely with Sandra Alvarez of Herzog & Company throughout the entire process; Alvarez was a supervising producer and also directed the episode. She did not respond to request for comment.
Storm says she exchanged text messages with Alvarez about her dissatisfaction with the episode and “she just tried to pacify me.” It turns out Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On is also using an image of Storm—from her first go-see—as the centerpiece of their marketing campaign. The photo has appeared on numerous websites and in magazines such as Rolling Stone.
“I don’t feel happy to be associated with it, to have my image across all these media outlets—everywhere. It gets me even more infuriated because they don’t finish my story,” she says.
Even after they finished filming Storm, she continued to be in contact with Alvarez & Co.
“They asked for pics of my family and pics of me as a kid. Even during post-production, they were egging me on,” Storm says. “I thought it was going to be some amazing story. They were still lying to me even in post production.”
When Alvarez called her the first time, “they liked the fact I was already successful before,” Storm says.
“I was already a successful cam girl prior to doing any professional porn work and they liked that because I was already established. On top of that they don’t even make it seem like I’m established. They make it seem like I’ve been camming for two days and wanted to do porn,” she says. “Something told me I have to keep repeating what I want them to know so I kept saying that I want to get into the porn industry to cross-promote the cam world. I love camming and that’s why I want to do it.”
Storm’s strategy has paid off as her career has blossomed since the filming in November.
“I’m still doing girl/girl work but I take it very seldom. I do about one shoot a month,” Storm says, noting she has only performed on video for Twistys, X-Art and In the Crack.
Meanwhile, she is racking up other major credits, shooting for Hustler, Penthouse and landing a Playboy Cybergirl of the Month showcase in March.
“I’ve been very selective with what I do. Every move I make has been a good one. I’m very happy with the decisions I make,” Storm says. “I’m still full-time on MyFreeCams doing well. When I found out my episode was coming out I was in Europe enjoying a vacation that I worked very hard for.”
Storm says the main reason she has enjoyed such rapid success is her professional approach.
“I treat it like a business. I truly care about what I’m doing and the moves that I’m making and I look into the future before I’m doing something,” she reasons. “I’m also hyper aware of what I’m doing. I don’t do drugs and just understand the opportunity that’s in front of me and I’m trying to take full advantage of it.”
Storm did sales for a communications company before finding MFC.
“That’s the reason why I started camming because I had just gotten laid off from that job. They moved to Vegas and I didn’t want to go to Vegas. I didn’t want to go back to a cubicle,” Storm recalls. “I stumbled across camming. I think it was made for me. I’ve always been an exhibitionist, sharing photos all day and posting on social media all prior to camming. I thought it was something very attainable. Before I started I studied and watched cam girls religiously for three or fourth months, just seeing what they were doing, their topics, how they were pricing things…
“Since Day One I hit the ground running. I already had a following as Salena. I already had people who were waiting for me to start.”
Indeed, Storm had the savvy to amass 10,000 followers on Instagram before she logged onto MFC the first time. Since then she has only tightened her game.
“I’m always doing things that would benefit my business, whether it’s creating content, editing it, managing my social media,” Storm says. “It’s always on my mind.”
