Pictured: Wendy Williams After-Before-After
Wendy Williams has been in the adult business for nearly 18 years—and that's one hell of a run for a trans performer/director/webcammer/publicist/cosmetician, so now she's thinking about calling it quits.
Well, not entirely quits; the 2009 Transsexual Performer of the Year just wants to stay behind the camera in some way(s), plus she's created a new cosmetics company that she'd like to spend more time with.
"I think, in order to retire, especially in adult, you should start setting things up for the next chapter of your life," Wendy told AVN, "and the reason why I came to this is because of lack of work. I think it has a lot to do with aging starlets in the porn industry as a whole, not just the transsexual market, but I think it's a lot worse in the transsexual market because of the younger girls coming in. You've got Aubrey Kate and Natalie Mars and Chanel Santini and all those ladies who seem to be the core group that every major company is shooting; it seems like they're only shooting them, so there's not a lot of opportunities for the aging girls like myself."
Well, perhaps not in front of the feature cameras, but Wendy's become quite a success in the camming world—and she has no plans to give that up anytime soon.
"I'm not on a lot of mainstream production DVDs or sites; I'm not on TransAngels, or TransErotica or those news sites, but I'm one of their featured stars on IMLive, and I've cammed on numerous places: Chaturbate, Cam4, primarily on ImLive and NightFlirt," she stated. "Let's not forget NightFlirt. That's one of those websites that goes under the radar but I make an amazing income from the phone sex and phones on NightFlirts, so I've done that for 14 years.
"You've got to remember, there's a whole new group of guys out there that have no idea who I am. Then they go onto these cam sites, and there's a variety of entertainers that are not porn stars; they're cam models who make a living camming, and I hear literally on a daily basis, 'Ohmigod, you are one of the first transsexuals that I ever saw!' or 'I remember when you did this scene for Evil Angel,' or 'I remember when you did your gangbang'—you get that so much, which is nice to see, plus, camming is a nice way for those of us who are not getting booked on a regular basis to have income."
In addition to doing cam shows, Wendy's also shooting a lot of content for her OnlyFans and ManyVids stores.
"That platform has completely changed how you can make extra income in the industry," she noted.
But camming, which she has no plans to give up, is still in front of a camera, and nowadays, Wendy wants to spread her wings in other directions—like, f'r'instance, cosmetics.
"The other reason is I'm giving up features is because I've started a makeup company called Painted By Wendy cosmetics, which is a company where I have a warehouse in Canada and it's starting to take off really well, and I really would like to focus on working on that, and still do work in the industry.
"I've been involved in drag shows—yes, transgendered women are still called drag queens because we're doing drag—for almost 25 years. I perform every weekend in clubs, doing the shows, the drag brunches—I just did one at Hamburger Mary's Las Vegas—I've noticed that there wasn't a big voice of independent LGBT makeup owners out there. I mean, there's a few, but not many, and an opportunity came—I met a gentleman—actually at AVN, funnily enough—who is an investor into several large private label makeup companies, and one thing led to another and next thing I know, I was developing the colors I wanted and I make most of my money from my Facebook Live shows that I do three to four days a week of putting on makeup and just sitting around and chatting, and it's taken off."
But the thing of it is, Wendy is already incredibly busy, and that seems to suit her personality just fine.
"I have a degree in marketing PR and that's how I've become successful," Wendy stated. "It wasn't because I was the prettiest or the biggest dick or the most popular model; I've just used my marketing and press for myself in order to keep myself relevant. I started my website Wendywilliamsxxx.com in the late '90s, and at that time, there was only Foxy Angel, Tanya's World, Meghan Chevalier and then maybe another girl from Ohio; I can't remember her name. We got most of our traffic from these little groups online that—not newsgroups; I forget what they were called—but after going through three webmasters who didn't understand the business, in 2004 or '5, I finally took over my website myself with the help of Joanna Jett and started running it myself.
"So I still want to remain in the industry in some way, whether it's doing PR or doing sales. I'm moving to Vegas in September to make that process easier, because living in Tennessee, you know, I understand why companies would be like, 'Uh, she's all the way in the Midwest'—I understand that. So this is part of my planning for retirement: Moving closer to where I can drive to L.A."
To help the relocation along, she's on the verge of selling her LGBT-friendly Roadhouse Bar that's nestled between Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee because, "That way, I can move and focus on my makeup and preparing for life after porn. That should be a Netflix special. But the thing is, I don't want to give all that up. I don't want to go to obscurity and be like, 'Oh, I used to do porn,' because I still enjoy the adult industry, plus you meet so many people, it's kind of hard when you've done it for this long—Can you imagine waking up one day and going, 'Uh, what to do now?' I mean, it's the only thing I've ever done consistently besides drag.
"Fact is, I'm very good at promoting; I know my industry; I know which models are selling because I've worked with companies and hear from them all the time, I have a great relationship with Grooby, I have a great relationship with Trans500, so I know that these relationships are available; I just don't know if these companies are listening."
But it's not just trans-related companies that she's targeting.
"Do you know there are no transsexual directors in any mainstream company except for Grooby, which itself is a trans company?" she asked. "Evil Angel doesn't have a transsexual director. Devil's Film doesn't have a transsexual director. All these new companies, they will hire genetic females to direct our porn but why are they not hiring us? I know more about my genre, respectfully, than most other models do, so why are mainstream companies so scared, or why are they so worried about hiring us to direct our own genres? Besides watching and enjoying us, what do those straight male producers know more than a transsexual model would know? What insights do female directors have that a transsexual model wouldn't? I just don't understand why it's not happening. It's 2019 and there's not one transsexual directing for a mainstream company!"
Actually, she does give Evil Angel credit for giving transsexuals just as much spotlight as their counterparts (read: cis-women) in Evil's female-on-TS features, but that doesn't mitigate her concern that transsexuals are not getting the same promotion as cis-females.
"Even though it is happening somewhat, it's not happening at the rate that you'd think it would, especially considering how much money our genre makes for companies," she noted. "I'm not naïve enough not to know that we're one of the top-selling niches there is, so why are companies still holding back? The answer is, most of them are owned by heterosexual white males who are using the same formulas that they've always used."
And Wendy's a bit bummed that she's not getting nominated for awards as often as she used to, which she attributes partly to her not appearing in as many features, with almost none to her credit over the past couple of years. Nonetheless, she was nominated in trans categories for both the YNOT Cam Awards and the Urban X Awards, though it turned out that neither trophy was in her future.
"There were several years I was nominated every single year. I've not been nominated for a performer award in quite a few years," she lamented, "so one of the reasons I'm amping up my work schedule and being more vocal about working for companies and that kind of thing is, I started on such a high, I want to end my career on a high, so I'm working hard to get ready for award season which is literally a couple of months away."
So, adult industry, what will you do with this multi-multi-talented woman that will both challenge her and keep her involved in the work she loves? The ball's in your court now!
