This feature appears in the June issue of AVN magazine.
LOS ANGELES—Before her meteoric rise as one of 2014’s most exciting new porn starlets, Yhivi was selling underwear—not for Victoria’s Secret, but very much on the down low, to men in Starbucks parking lots eager to pay for freshly worn panties. She was 19, a bagger at a grocery store, fronting a punk rock band, and following sex workers on a once-unfiltered Tumblr. When the opportunity to sell her unmentionables on Craigslist arose, she shamelessly seized the moment.
“I had been following people on Tumblr who were doing sex work for a while, and it made it more familiar to me,” Yhivi said. “Also, being in the subculture that I was in, radical punk, gave me this reference point that was more open-minded to sex work and the idea of being sexually open as a woman. Being not just okay with sex, but having it be something you can be proud of, not something to be ashamed of. So, I had a way of viewing and navigating through the world that made sex work an option to me.”
Selling her used panties on Craigslist proved to be a lucrative venture for Yhivi. “I was selling panties that I bought for $2 for like $75 to $150—or more if I took them off in front of them,” she recalled. “I would meet them in a public place, usually outside of a Starbucks or something, wearing a skirt or dress, and I would quickly pull them down and just hand them over.”
But when the panty lovers gave way to the creepy van guys, it was time for Yhivi to move on. “I would get people asking how much more for this and how much more for that? And for, like, fucking me in their van. It was too much to filter through.”
With the parking lots in the rearview, Yhivi headed to cyberspace, where she started camming on MyFreeCams and creating content on Clips4Sale. She even joined a site in 2012 she feels may have been a precursor to OnlyFans.
“I was on this website called MyGirlFund—it was like OnlyFans before its time. You had a profile, and people could tip you through messages. You didn’t do anything you didn’t want to; you could monetize however you wanted. I don’t think the world was ready for that.”
Having slowly built a community of support on Tumblr, Yhivi was soon networking with sex workers, models, and adult performers. “Eventually, I reached out to someone I had followed who was in the industry, and asked her, ‘Hey, how did you do this? I’m curious about it.”
Yhivi made her debut with BDSM giant Kink, and her penchant for hardcore quickly became a calling card. “I’ve had a lot of rough sex and played with power dynamics, but it was mostly within the context of work—which I liked because it gave me a framework to stick to so I wouldn’t go off the rails.”
Yhivi added, “That’s what I’ve always appreciated about working in the industry—it gives me a container to explore my curiosities. Not just with BDSM but also my femininity, my sexuality, and my desires outside of that. I was pretty much a new adult when I started, and the industry prompted me to explore my femininity and the way I express my sexuality because that’s part of the job…or should be.”
Represented by the Spiegler Girls agency, Yhivi’s dynamic performances quickly made her a favorite among fans and studios. But in 2016, she said goodbye to the limelight and returned to civilian life, eventually buying land in the Pacific Northwest and having a child in 2020.
“I hadn’t figured out how to sustain my well-being in a way that was sustainable,” Yhivi said. “I love engaging with people and having new experiences. But ultimately, I need to recharge. Even if it’s the most fulfilling or exciting connection—whether sexual, intellectual, on camera or off—I need to ground myself and have time to process and integrate, or not integrate, what that experience brought into my life.”
While away from porn, Yhivi worked a range of jobs, including dog walking (which coincidentally is what she told people she did when she didn’t want them to know her porn identity), receptionist at an auto shop, and as a cultivation manager for a mushroom farm—an interest she briefly pursued before her adult career gained traction.
“I wanted to work with mushrooms; I was really into mycology,” she said. “I interned for a few different people at the beginning of my career in the industry. But then, I focused on performing. So, when I left porn, I found a grower who provided mushrooms to restaurants and farmers markets, who needed someone to set up their cultivation department.”
The pace of civilian work was a welcome change for Yhivi. “I needed to release myself from the vision that I had of being in the industry,” she said.
Unfortunately, mushrooms don’t pay the bills. “I think those adventurous sorts of ideas are easier to pursue when you’re not responsible for another human, who is completely dependent on you,” she revealed. “Going back to sex work made sense to me. It wasn’t an abrupt idea. I didn’t feel like I was risking anything that I hadn’t already decided to risk before. If my work is going to limit me from opportunities or relationships with people, then those are opportunities and people that I don’t want to have in my life.”
Yhivi returned to sex work in 2022, producing content exclusively for two years on her OnlyFans platform. This year, she signed a limited performing contract in March with Brazzers and rejoined the Spiegler Girls.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making decisions based on financial needs, including sex work—money provides time, space, and power to live our lives with agency,” Yhivi noted. “Over the span of time that I was out of the industry, especially after becoming a parent, I had the opportunity to tap into what it is I need to be well. It’s not just the things that I receive, but the way I spend my time and the people I spend my time with.”
Photography by @kogafoto
