This feature appears in the April issue of AVN magazine.
LOS ANGELES—Midwest native McKenzie Mae has a smile that’s like Spring Break in a bottle—fun and full of bubbly, blonde sunshine with a slightly naughty tilt to her heart-shaped face. Transplanted to Florida, Mae spent her days bikini-ed on the beach and nights out clubbing with her besties, like lots of all-American girls-next-door. Right after the pandemic, the former college coed told AVN that she was working a regular 9-to-5 and just getting a feel for life after the lockdown.
“Before, I was just doing a vanilla job,” said Mae. “Once the clubs started opening again, I actually went out for my birthday and I met another girl that happened to do OnlyFans. She just won AVN Best New Starlet—Cheerleader Kait.”
Turns out that, at the time, she and Kait lived only 20 minutes away from each other and the pair soon became friends.
“She said, ‘You know, I have this job that gives you a lot of freedom. You can travel. I would really love to take you under my wing and teach you all this stuff,’” Mae recalled. “And that’s what she did. So, we’ve been kind of like growing on this journey on two separate paths, but like still side-by-side as best friends. It’s amazing.”
On OnlyFans, both Mae and Kait started as “faceless creators”—performers who, at first, reveal themselves only from the neck down. By wearing a mask or without showing their face, it gives new models a chance to get experience without revealing their identity completely, while adding some mystique. Working in a safe space like that is like putting your toe in the pool to see if you like the water temperature. As the model’s confidence and follower count builds over time, so does the anticipation of an official “reveal” for fans. Eventually, Mae said, Kait was ready to dive all the way in the deep end.
“So, she decided that she was gonna go do production work, into more of the mainstream pro side, then she started doing that after her face reveal, and I literally just followed about eight months or a year later.”
Mae says the dynamic between her and Kait has been a big advantage. “It was easier with her than what it would have been on my own. It helped because a lot of her fans kind of converted into my fans, too. You have two blondes, kind of like college age—you know, we kind of fit each other’s niches.
“Just in general, yes, it is totally hard to build your own fanbase and to market yourself, but she definitely gave me a boost that other girls don’t have and I was very lucky for that.”
The lives of content-creating cam models can be busy and complicated, when playing every part including producer, performer and promoter on several platforms. Studio work can be a great way to level up on all that effort and stand out to bigger, more diverse audiences.
“It filters in a lot of fanbases that maybe I’m not reaching from other countries,” Mae said, matter of factly. “I’m hoping at the end of that scene, when someone’s watching, [that they are thinking], ‘Man I love McKenzie Mae so much, I want to see more of this girl’s personality. I want to see more of her videos and what she has to offer.”
Mae, who is repped by Elite Talent Direct, also enjoys a little star treatment, on-set. “It’s nice that I can just show up on set, do a fun scene and not have to edit—like yada yada yada. It’s nice that I can just be talent and kind of just have one role sometimes. So, I have a little break and have a little mix of both.”
Until a few months ago, she was only available for solo and girl/girl. Now, her short list of credits includes gigs for Tad Pole, Team Skeet, Adult Time and Private, among others.
So far, there’s been positive reaction to her squirting and anal scenes, which she says she really enjoys doing.
Photography by @kogafoto
