This article appears in the September issue of AVN Magazine. Click here to view the digital edition.
LOS ANGELES—Julia Ann sums up her new website, WomenbyJuliaAnn.com, with one line.
“It’s from the heart,” she says.
Indeed, the site embodies many of the ways she has led by example during her AVN Hall of Fame career that has spanned more than two decades.
“I’m not trying to fake anybody out with anything. I’m hoping eventually it’ll push me out. I want it to be bigger than me,” Julia Ann tells AVN. “I want to be able to say this far exceeds my name, who I am, what I have to offer. That it’s gone beyond that—it’s all about you. I’m just going to sit back and push all the other girls to the front.
“I want it to take on a life of its own.”
It’s safe to say it’s already on its way.
Julia Ann launched the site during Valentine’s Day weekend, but this month will mark the site’s first big milestone, when it rolls out its first WomenbyJulia.com full-length, all-girl DVD in a new exclusive distribution deal Girlfriends Films.
“Technically, there’s already three movies in the can if you wanted to go by what is needed as far as a movie goes,” Julia Ann says. “With the first one I’m trying to make sure it really encompasses what I want as far as the sex part of the website.
“I want it to represent what the site is about, which is every woman is beautiful regardless of size, race, age or status. There’s not a labeling. We’re all just women.”
Julia Ann set out to create a site free of judgment and profiling, a sex-positive destination that fosters community for its members. The foundation of each scene is an intimate interview with the performer in the scene conducted by Julia Ann herself. Among the first women coming to DVD are Ana Foxxx, Karla Lane, Missy Martinez and Jenna Sativa.
“I’m trying to show the different ages, the different body styles, the different races, whatever it is,” Julia Ann says.
“I just want to simplify it. I just wanted to do very heartfelt interviews that show these women for who they truly are, without the persona, without the patent answers. I wanted to give women something to watch where they can relate to the women they’re watching on a human level as opposed to on a fantasy level. Because we already are just flooded with the fantasy. And I tend to think what we don’t have is enough of the humanity of the women.”
She says her questions are “very much about their biggest fears.”
“And talking about what makes them happiest in the world and what makes them the saddest in the world and what they love about themselves and what they hate about themselves and just really humanizing them,” Julia Ann continues. “Because I want every woman, every person who picks this up and watches it … I want them to go ‘oh my god, she’s so beautiful and I never would have thought she had all these things going on. This is crazy. I so relate to that.’ We’ve got so much of these ‘what the guys want to hear answers.’ These are go-to, patent answers that are said because that’s what we think they want to hear.”
Moose, the president of Girlfriends Films, adds, “she gets them to spill their hearts, their soul.
“She’s getting the best out of these girls instead of making them objects,” he says.
“Mercedes [Carrera] started crying,” Julia Ann recalls of a particularly emotional interview.
“She said I fear that my friends and my family will die and leave me here alone [and] I also have this fear that there’s this nothingness when it’s over and what was it all for? Just like these deep-seated fears that I think runs really rampant.
“I think there’s a lot of perception that we’re just freewheeling people that are high or drunk or schizophrenic or whatever it is, and we’re just taking from society and running through life willy nilly like we don’t have a care in the world. And it’s so not true.
“At the end of the day we’re just women that are expressing ourselves and are finding the happiness that we can find in the world. Putting roofs over our heads and the people we love and trying to take care of our families and our friends. Just doing the best we can and I don’t think that that’s seen.”
Julia Ann adds, “So with my site I wanted that. I wanted it to be seen. I wanted the people out there, the viewers to be able to really relate and find a different relationship with the women that provoked their sexuality. I wanted the relationship to be on a deeper note, on a more feeling note and less surface.”
The star of more than 625 adult films since 1992 says her site has two major rules, starting with “you have to be 21 and over” to be featured.
“I want you to be able to have experiences, true woman experiences. And I think there’s a big growing period between 18 and 21,” Julia Ann reasons. “Eighteen to 25 is like ridiculous. I really wanted them to have a few years under their belt where they got to know themselves a little bit better. I wanted them to be able to have a little more life experience. Whether you have a few extra battle wounds or you’re making a few extra decisions you’re more liable for your life. And I think that that helps you.
“My second rule is you have to like boobs.”
Julia Ann’s community forum is already gaining an identity—it’s becoming a special place where people respect and support one another.
“My dream is to have an environment where everyone is safe, where everyone feels they can express themselves. They can get help,” Julia Ann says.
“It is a huge, huge thing for every woman or every guy that opens that site to feel completely safe and to be able to speak their mind without fear of harassment, without fear of being judged, being profiled, whatever it is. And that’s some of the feedback I have right now. The members tell me, ‘I’ve never felt that I could be a part of something like this and be safe. For the first time I feel safe.’ There’s a really incredible support system that’s been happening there. That’s huge because that’s really everything it represents.”
WomenbyJuliaAnn.com includes beauty tips, shopping guides, audio erotica, cooking shows, health and well-being and more.
She is also promoting her third annual vacation to Hedonism in Jamaica, scheduled for April 29-May 6, 2017.
“So far it’s been female-dominant. The first time one guy came; the second time two guys came,” Julia Ann says. “The majority are women who have not necessarily felt kindly about themselves physically or emotionally.”
But rest assured, she says, on this tropical escape “everybody’s perfectly imperfect.”
“I want them to feel safe,” Julia Ann says.
She gave thanks to industry veterans such as Mike Quasar, Scott Wallach and Miles Long who have helped her capture so much of the footage for WomenbyJuliaAnn.com.
“They’ve all been wonderful,” she says. “Quasar has really taken it upon himself to be my backbone in helping me create this content and teaching me how to at least do some of the technical stuff, and obviously Vicky Vette going with this and supporting this dream really sits above and beyond what they generally do.”
It’s Vette’s VNA Network that is powering Julia Ann’s site.
“So being able to trust and put money into this and partner with me is a huge risk,” Julia Ann says. “This is a completely different animal so there’s been a lot of patience.”
She says in short, “I’m trying to do what we don’t do already” with WomenbyJuliaAnn.
“I want real life. I don’t need the rest. You get to know somebody and you decide whether you want to have sex with them or not and that’s sort of how it goes,” Julia Ann says. “My thought was this site isn’t all about sex. It’s about community. It’s about support. It’s about health. It’s about fun. Sex is a quarter of the site. This is for the person who wants to actively engage with these women.”
