Adult film star Mia Khalifa left the porn industry behind a few years back but has returned to the spotlight as one of the biggest mainstream content creators on TikTok and Instagram. She recently opened up about the journey in an interview with Bustle.
Her story is a wild ride that takes her from a job at Fuddruckers, to getting recruited on the street into nude modeling, moving into porn under a stage name that combined her dog's name (Mia) with the name of a favorite rapper (Wiz Khalifa), and very rapidly to a brief stint as "Pornhub's #1 Performer." The production company she worked for put her in some massively controversial clips that led to death threats, international headlines, and got her old Instagram account hacked by ISIS.
She left the porn industry after a career that lasted less than a year, but couldn't escape the often toxic notoriety. She describes attempts to work in more conventional jobs like paralegal and bookkeeper that always ended with her getting recognized and that becoming a disruption.
Over the past couple of years, Khalifa has worked to rebuild herself as a mainstream social media star, with a largely female fanbase. She has an OnlyFans account, producing content she describes as "safe for work but spicy", but her biggest platforms are Instagram and TikTok. Her new IG account is about to hit 28 Million followers and she has amassed nearly 33 Million followers on TikTok. There's a lot more to her path to the extremely short list of porn performers to crossover to mainstream fame, but you should read it in her words at the link above. And check out some of her recent posts below.
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