Sex workers created an “anti-fan only” to take control of their profits.
Made by Stella Berry Nami made a name for herself on TikTok in the early months of the pandemic, talking about how much she loved anal. “The level of isolation drove me there,” he says, recalling the moment things began to change for him.
Barey parlayed his TikTok fame into OnlyFans fortune. He says he earned $8,000 in his first month on the adult platform. The next month it reached $40,000 and eventually he became so popular that he made $300,000 in 30 days. “For five and a half years, I was posting on multiple different platforms every day, multiple times a day,” Barry says. He liked the taste of success. But the demands of the industry also weighed on him, and by 2025, when he felt he and his peers deserved better working conditions, he decided to build his own platform.
In April, she launched Hidden, the first adult platform owned and operated by sex workers. Billed as “anti-fandom only,” Hidden proves that fairer industry conditions are possible when the people in charge are actually from the world they profit from.
Hidden is TikTok’s version of OnlyFans – a sleek, integrated platform designed for creators where, instead of Korean skincare tips and Get Ready With Me videos, you’ll find the ForYou page with videos featuring all kinds of adult content: from food and BDSM to gaming and lingerie videos.
“In this industry, no one expects anyone to be able to change anything. We have to drive all our social media traffic to fans alone. And we’re getting burned more and more every year because all the advertising relies on us.” To fix that, Barey made Hidden based on discoverability. “Innovations like the addition of the ForYou page make it easier for girls to create ads,” she says. It creates an ecosystem where we all bring fans to everyone,” which helps girls who don’t have a lot of followers.
Barey says Hidden is all about giving creators more control, and many of its features reflect that mission by creating avenues for “passive income and promotion.” Hidden drops 18% (compared to 20% on OnlyFans). It also has chargeback protections of up to $2,500 that prevent customers from falsely arguing with their credit card companies and receiving chargebacks. There’s a creator store for people who might want to “buy 50 videos at midnight,” he says, noting that about 80 percent of a creator’s revenue “is made in messages, selling long-form videos or special packages.” Each manufacturer also has an interface that is familiar with their account and responds to any questions within 24 hours. All these features are present in the same form on other adult sites. A secret happens that brings them together for the first time.
“I’ve made the vast majority of my money from OnlyFans, so I can’t hate it at all,” Barry says of his stealth marketing as the anti-OnlyFans. “They exist in a realm. But I guess Hidden just offers something that I’ve felt like we’ve always been missing for a long time.”
