The night Aria Carson finally mustered the courage to enter the adult industry, the 19-year-old redhead fell flat on her face.
Literally.
Carson remembers the incident well. Bashful and still wearing braces, she’d just completed her first-ever topless dance at Deja Vu Showgirls, a popular gentlemen’s club near Seattle. As Carson prepared to exit the stage, she tripped over her high heels and … splaaattt!
“I completely ate it,” says Carson, chuckling as she recalls the incident nearly two years later. “It was one of the most embarrassing things ever. I literally fell off the stage and toppled down the stairs.”
Carson’s tumble that evening was hardly a signal she’d entered the wrong line of work. On the contrary—beginning with the moment she rose from that floor—Carson’s career has been on a rapid ascent ever since.
After spending about year building confidence as a stripper, Carson transitioned into porn and shot her first studio scene in July of 2019, just a few months shy of her 20th birthday. With cascading, auburn hair, braces and an innocent school-girl demeanor, Carson became an instant hit, landing shoots with luminaries such as Mike Adriano while earning a contract with Foxxx Modeling.
Despite the industry-wide challenges presented by COVID, Carson shot more than 20 studio scenes in 2020 while also enhancing her brand on multiple social media and content platforms. This year is shaping up to be even better.
“This is definitely the right job for me,” Carson tells AVN. “When I look back on things that happened when I was growing up, it all makes sense.”
Born and raised in Seattle, Carson said she lived a sheltered life as a child. She attended daycare until the sixth grade and wasn’t even allowed to walk to the end of her street with friends—much less leave her neighborhood. Accomplished on the clarinet, Carson said she was a “band geek” in junior high school and also spent a few years playing right field on her school’s softball team.
By the time she reached her teenage years, Carson’s interests changed.
“I was a very anxious child because of all the sheltering,” Carson says, “but I was also very sexually-charged. I was always making sexual jokes and I lost my virginity at a young age. Even in elementary school, I was so curious. I had so many words in my head: dick, vagina, pussy. I’d say ‘penis’ and laugh about it. I was just a hypersexual kid.”
In high school, Carson said her boyfriend snapped her picture when her locks were extra long and curly.
“He told me I had porn star hair,” Carson laughs. “And my friend told me I had a porn star vagina. I guess I’ve always had it in me.”
Carson graduated and enrolled in college, but she dropped out after only a few months and moved back in with her family. During the day she manned the customer service desk at Home Depot, filling out order forms, coordinating deliveries and scheduling installations. After a short break she’d drive to Deja Vu, where she worked as an 18-year-old cocktail waitress.
The money was decent initially, Carson said. But following the death of her grandmother, a breakup with a longtime boyfriend and a gnarly automobile accident that left her without a vehicle—all within a month—Carson suddenly found herself in dire need of cash. As she slumped in her chair at the Deja Vu bar before a weeknight shift, crying because she couldn’t pay her bills, her manager approached and asked what was wrong. When Carson explained the situation, he pointed across the room.
“Well,” he said, “you’re welcomed to get on the stage.”
A few days later, Carson began stripping, which forced her to confront some insecurities.
“Growing up I was a very small, slim girl—110 pounds,” Carson says. “But I started eating too much gluten when I was a senior in high school and I gained about 40 pounds. I was up to 155 when I was dancing. I was not comfortable on stage. I had the sexual energy inside of me, but I didn’t know how to let it out. The girls at the strip club had to teach me how to use my hips. I really came into my own as far as sexual energy and confidence.”
Eventually Carson launched an OnlyFans account and also started dabbling in camming. A self-described “porn addict,” she made her studio debut for Team Skeet in a scene entitled “Orthodonic Pleasures” in July of 2019. Carson’s co-star, Rion King, was involved in a separate scene immediately before the shoot. She said watching King perform before their own encounter helped calm her nerves.
“I watched him fuck this chick,” Carson said, “and then he comes over and he was complimenting me and he was so sweet and the girl was so nice. I had a ball, because I wasn’t nervous anymore.”
At least not until afterward.
“To this day, I still get nervous with pictures,” she says. “I just feel very awkward. What if my smile looks funny? What if my eyes were closed? What if there’s something on my face? I’ve had times where the shoot comes out three months later and I think, ‘Oh my gosh. My face was orange!’”
Nearly two years later, Carson is getting more and more at ease in front of the camera—and the demand for her services continues to grow. Along with Team Skeet, Carson has shot for company such as Cherry Pimps, Private Society and Spizoo.
Carson, who moved to Los Angeles just before the start of COVID, says she feels lucky that porn has enabled her to travel the country for shoots. New York, Las Vegas, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, Iowa … she even shot a scene in her native Seattle.
Cason’s publicist, Erika Icon, calls her the “Queen of Selfies” because she always documents her trips by taking pictures.
When Carson isn’t traveling or working, she said she likes to “chill at home” with her three cats. She also enjoys shopping, smoking weed, eating sushi and hanging out with close friend and industry veteran Daya Knight.
Now 21 without braces, Carson also spends a large chunk of her time producing content for her individual platforms. OnlyFans, ManyVids, PornHub, Reddit, SnapChat, SextPanther …. Carson is on them all. She’s even featured on a foot fetish site.
“I try to be personable with my fans,” Carson says. “I want them to know and see the real me, and not just the Barbie they see on screen.”
Carson says she hopes her future includes shoots with companies such as Brazzers, Nubiles and BangBros.
“I love my job,” she says. “I love the (adult) community and how everyone has each other’s back. It feels like a family and that’s perfect for me.”
Photography by Scott Fritz (photos 1-6) and peggyshootsfilm (7-9)
