'Aella' Discusses Her Viral History, Showering Habits, LSD, Gnome-Posting And Spicy Birthday Party

Aella is a blogger and sex worker who has become deeply embedded in meme culture over the past decade. Beginning her rise to viral fame in 2013 with a series of Reddit posts in which she gets kidnapped by a gnome, Aella has continued to go viral in the 2020s for everything from her research on a variety of sexual topics, her shower habits and her wild birthday gangbang.

We recently spoke with Aella about her viral fame, covering everything from her camgirl beginnings to her in-depth research.

Q: Great to talk to you, Aella. So, your online career started with becoming a cam girl. How did that come about?

A: I became a cam girl because I was a poor homeschooler. I was like, "Oh shit, I need money." So I started camming, but before that, I was a homeschooler. I don't know, there's some cultural gaps that happen when you [are homeschooled]. So I was pretty weird as a cam girl.

This was on My Free Cams and the growth on that platform, you don't measure it quite in the same way that you measure a lot of accounts today. You don't really get followers in the same way. It's mostly when you're live streaming, you're ranked by the "cam score," which is a number representing the average amount of money you earn per hour that your live averaged over the last 60 days. So it's pretty competitive. I think at the time, I was one of the very few women who was advertising outside of the website. This is very common now with OnlyFans, but at the time it was extremely rare.

Q: Your first taste of virality came from your Reddit posts. When did you start posting on Reddit?

A:I am not sure. I am a big internet person. I feel like my home culture is the internet and I've been a very regular Reddit user for a long time. So I was just on Reddit all the time and I was like, "I might as well start posting the stuff here, too." Then I realized that actually, that was quite a good move. So I kept doing it.

Q: Your most notable Reddit post, which was the top post of all time on /r/GoneWild for a while, is a photoshoot where you're kidnapped by gnomes. What's the story behind that?

A: Well, I forget how I came up with the idea. At some point I thought it would be funny to do a parody of these strip sets that I kept seeing [on /r/gonewild]. I was living alone in Portland. I was 21 years old and I shot it myself by taking screen grabs with my webcam.

It was really janky and it took me a long time. It was actually kind of hard, but it was so funny. What happened was I knew that you were supposed to post in the morning. This was a good time and I was pretty poor. I went to see the dentist that morning 'cause I was gonna get my wisdom teeth out. Then I decided to walk home and it was about a 45-minute walk home.

I ate a sandwich, like a really big greasy sandwich an hour or so before I posted the gnome set and I thought it was fine. I didn't really think it was a big deal. I posted it, I ate the sandwich and then I kept walking. Then as I kept walking, [the post] was just exploding in the ranks. My phone started going off.

But I also have IBS. So my stomach was feeling pretty bad and I needed to diarrhea immediately. So I started looking for a place to diarrhea, but the places I was walking through were full of really upper-end suburban homes. I was like, "this is not good." I'm trying not to shit my pants, then it starts raining really hard. I'm like, "Should I wait for a bus?"

I sit at a bus stop for a while, but the bus isn't coming. This is not good. Am I gonna poop in a bush? I was walking down the sidewalk at some point and then I did poop in a bush. I had to jump into a bush right on the side of the road and I pulled off my pants. Luckily, I think the rain was actually a benefit at this point because it was raining so hard. People weren't out. It was at a park. So people sort of had cleared out of the park and it was just a horrible, horrible pile of diarrhea in this bush.

But while this is all happening, I am becoming famous. [Commenters] are like, "Oh my God, you're so sexy and funny." Everybody's going to my profile and purchasing my content. It was really surreal to have such intense experiences happening simultaneously. Then I walked to a gas station and I threw my underwear away in the trash. I got home and I took a shower. That was really exciting. It was my first taste at having a lot of attention and I really liked it.

It was the number-one post of all time on /r/GoneWild for some years. It was the 11th top post of all time of all of Reddit for some years. Then eventually they changed the scoring system and whatever and /r/GoneWild no longer allows sellers to post there. So, end of an era. But at the time, it was very Reddit-famous.

Q: Was that your first time going viral online?

A: I was doing weird shit [online] for a while. I mean, I've had stuff that goes like mildly viral, but that one was just the first big one. But I was a mime [on cam]. I was already miming for some time at this point. There were a couple of big threads on 4chan about me around that time. I just don't think any of them have been saved.

But I would do these cult rituals as a mime where I would like transform from like a young to an old woman. I'd have the gnome standing around in a death cup. I don't know. I just had a lot of fun. I think I was like kind of uncertain about how to be sexy because as a homeschooler, I was quite isolated from the outside world and we weren't really allowed to watch much media about the secular world. So my concept of the way flirting worked, I didn't know anybody who had had sex before in my age group and dating wasn't really done.

So this whole concept of how men and women are supposed to interact and how seduction works is just, I didn't know that at all. It took me a long time to sort of brute force that. But in the beginning, I was like, what is interesting to do? I'm like, "Oh, I could be kind of random." And I did and it was really fun.

Q: Do you find that mixing comedy or meme culture with sex work is a successful tactic? Why or why not?

A: Well, I partially think the standards for hot girls are so low that you just sneeze funny and people are like, "Oh my God, she's doing something right." I kind of feel like a talking dog. Like, "Oh, how cute." I don't think I'm particularly funny compared to great comedians. I am kind of mid. The only thing that's happening is I'm combining it with sex and people are like. People are just shocked that there's any effort going into it at all, is my guess.

I don't know why more girls aren't thinking of having fun about it. Like, most girls seem to sort of just do a rote like, "Oh, I'm gonna show my titties and then make money." I mean, it's fine if you wanna do that. There's no shade. You don't have to enjoy something you don't enjoy. But I'm surprised that it's so rare to try to build on it.

My purpose has always been trying to do sex work and then the comedy is a way to get people into the sex, which is maybe kind of inefficient to do. But at least it motivates me. I need to make money and I need to get people to my OnlyFans. How do you differentiate? So maybe it's a little bit less of you're doing the sex to get people into the door of the comedy and more like, I'm doing the comedy to get people into the door of the sex.

Lately, [the interest is more on] my research. I just really like publishing the stuff that I'm working on. Intellectually I think ultimately I'm more of a nerd than I am an artist, although I like both of them, of course. I think that sex work gets people into the door to my research, but it also is a double whammy because it makes people, I think, take me a lot less seriously.

Q: Another of your most viral moments involves a Reddit post where you document taking lots of LSD. What's the story behind that?

A: I didn't know that you weren't supposed to take that much LSD. I think there's a lot of default social rules that I sort of just didn't understand. I was like, "Should I do it again?" and they were like, "Well, I mean, if you feel like it's good for you, then yeah." I just did it as much as I wanted to. I didn't realize that it was too much until later. I was taking quite high doses, probably on average once a week for about 10 months. It radically changed me for the better, I would say. But from the outside, I think it looked concerning for a while.

I stopped suffering. Total self-acceptance. A lot of my insecurities sort of faded. A lot of these things happened in the aftermath. I was very altered and it took me maybe around five or so years afterwards for a lot of the changes that were set in motion by that to finally click in place. But yeah, best choice, best decision I've ever made.

Q: How did you get into researching sex work topics?

A: Well, I was the cam girl and I had followers and I was like, "I have questions." I wanted to know what makes cam girls earn more money. This was my very first survey. Everybody has their superstitions. It's very random. So I did a survey to try and figure this out and it was a pretty bad survey. I only figured out that it was a bad survey after I got the data.

Then anytime I had a question about anything, I was like, "Oh shit. You can just do a survey to try and figure it out." Obviously, it's not perfect, right? You're surveying people who follow you, but still, if you're trying to figure out a question, there's nothing else. So I just started doing that and then one thing led to another and then I was like, "Oh God, I have to figure out how to analyze this data." The data started getting really big and I needed to learn how to program in order to analyze the data.

I've gotten a lot of really smart stats people to help tutor me. So I have a really spotty knowledge but I think the work that I publish is solid. I publish simple work, but I know I could do more. But it's still really fun. I really love doing it.

Q: Where does this passion for research come from?

A: I think it comes from the same place that made me do so much LSD, which is just burning curiosity. I really like knowing things and figuring things out. Let's say you're hanging out and there's an island over [in the distance] and you're like, "What's on the Island?" No human being has ever stepped foot on the Island. You're like, "I should go look at the Island." This is how I feel with sex research specifically because it's so understudied. It is so much low-hanging fruit. Nobody's looking at it for various reasons. For one, it's hard to get funding for it and two, it's just logistically difficult.

Sex for various reasons is one of the things that's very difficult to get a good hold on. But I feel sort of uniquely suited to getting at least some slice of it. Obviously, not all slices. Obviously, there's limitations in research. Survey data comes inherently with a lot of limitations, but a lot of the beliefs that we have around psychology currently are based off of survey data. So I think this is why I'm so excited about it and it just happens to be that I am well positioned and I'm just super curious to know what's over there.

Q: What are some topics you're still trying to get to the bottom of?

A: One of the driving things that I still don't know the answer to is why there is a mismatch between doms and subs in sex. You'd think if it were evolutionarily designed there would be less of a mismatch.

One interesting thing recently is that non-binary males are significantly different from trans women in a lot of the ways that they answer questions. I sort of naively thought that they would probably be more similar. Like, maybe it's like trans women are here on a spectrum and like cis men are here and like the non-binary males are in the center, but often it's reversed. Often non-binary males are significantly more different than trans women. I'm like, "what is causing that?" I don't know.

A lot of my research is about what women want in bed that men aren't giving them. Like what is the low-hanging fruit? I definitely write a lot about that on my blog.

Q: How has the advent and popularity of sites like OnlyFans changed the landscape for sex workers?

A: I think people do not appreciate the amount of work that comes into being competitive on OnlyFans. A lot of people have this idea that you just post tits and then make money. I would like to see you generate a realistic AI photo of tits and see how much money you can make on that. It's quite hard. One of the highest earning women I know who is earning like $100K month, well before I was, she's like mid-40s and she's just a brilliant ex-lawyer.

So the amount that you make, it's impacted by how clever you are about it. It's the marketing and business game. With IRL sex work, people don't understand the amount of safety and protocols that a lot of sex workers have. They're like, "It must be so dangerous." I'm like, "Well, try it." Imagine being a sex worker, how would you account for that danger?

Q: You recently started posting yearly datasets recounting your "stats" for the year. In particular, your claims that you only showered 37 times in 2022 went viral. Did you expect that to go as viral as it did?

A: I did not expect that to go viral. [laughter], I like posting sets because I think people are constantly subtly misrepresenting themselves in a way that they think people will socially approve of. I think we need more people who are just directly honest about themselves in the world, even in ways that are really unflattering or strange or unpopular. The world would be a much better place.

So I don't know. In that vein, I like to post hyper-vulnerable [stuff] and like way too much TMI information about my life. So maybe this backfires because everybody makes fun of me. But I still like doing it.

37 showers is like maybe the most I've showered in a few years. So it could have been a lot worse. It was just weird. Why would you daily shower? It seems actively bad for you. I don't get it. Like there's pros and cons and it depends on where you are and whatever. But I started noticing once when I went out camping. I went out camping for quite a long time. I didn't shower for a long period of time and I got home and I smelled fine or whatever and I took a shower. Then immediately after I shower I smelled really bad. I was like, "Did the shower trigger that?" So I started experimenting with it. I'm like, "how long can I go without a shower?"

I realized that if I continually pushed through the stinky part and then stopped showering, then my stink actually started reducing. It's not a hundred percent perfect, you have to do something. It's very similar to hair. You can't just not do anything to your hair. Even when I was no [sham]poo I had to do some maintenance. But stink depends a lot on, for example, airflow. If you are not flowing air through your butt crack, it's gonna [stink] pretty bad. If I sweat really bad and I have my hair up in a ponytail and I don't take my hair out of the ponytail, then my hair will stink pretty bad.

So I had to learn the basic things. I had to learn how to make my armpits stop stinking without using soap. I'm not saying I never stink, but I'm saying that the amount that I stink is significantly less than when I would shower all the time.

Q: What did people's reactions to the shower stats tell you?

A: It tells you a lot about the way people's worldviews are really set in stone. For example, there's a lot of good evidence that I'm probably not stinky. For example, I am very successful escort. I've written about being an escort. I'm interviewed about being an escort. I am having sex with men for money. I keep stats on how many of them return. It's about a 60% return rate. So clearly, she's not stinky, right? Clearly, there is some good evidence. It would be a very confusing world if I'm a really rank person who's somehow managing to be a successful escort.

But people will hold both of these things simultaneously in their heads. "She must both stink and be successful." Or they'll be like, "Oh, men just really like stinky women" or something. It was just interesting. People were just like, "There's absolutely no way that she can pull this off" despite the overwhelming evidence for it, which was sad to realize, I guess.

Q: One of your most recent viral moments happened in December 2023, when you put out a form to let men join in on your birthday gangbang. What's the story behind that?

A: My partner Nate and I have a lot of sex through orgies. At one of the orgies, a few people ran a train on me and that was wonderful. I loved that so much, I think it was eight or ten guys or something, It was really organic and I didn't feel like I was performing at all. I was on a high for a couple days after that.

So my boyfriend saw that and was like, "Oh, I wonder what happens if we try and run even more guys on you." So he organized a birthday gangbang for me, which was so much work. It was a lot more work than you think because you have to vet strangers. We had a whole bunch of volunteers, we were interviewing them with video calls and then they had to go through a testing process because you don't wanna trust STD tests. So we had to have a third-party verification service. My boyfriend did all of it 'cause it was for my birthday and it was a gift. So I just sort of sat back and then it happened and it was fun and interesting.

Q: What's been your response to going viral for the birthday gangbang?

A: I actually really liked that one [going viral]. I go viral a lot because I say stupid shit. A lot of times I go viral and it's just sheer hate. It's worse when I go viral because I didn't quite phrase something right. Sometimes you'll say something and after you post it you realize it could be interpreted a slightly different way and you're like, "Well, I wish I would've been slightly more clear with that phrasing." So when those things go viral, I don't feel super good about it. But when stuff like this goes viral where I stand behind it, I'm like, "Yes, I had this birthday gangbang and it was great."

Q: What was the vibe like at the birthday gangbang?

A: I really liked it. People seemed not to understand the kinky part of it 'cause I really like CNC (consensual non-consent) and being held down while I struggle and stuff, I think it's great, but when I had elements of that in my birthday gangbang, people were like, "Oh my God, this poor girl secretly doesn't want it. She must be damaged." I was like, "Guys, you just need to educate yourself about kink a little more."

But then I was like, "Oh, I should probably clarify, I'm very much consenting and I really enjoy this." I was real nervous. I said in my post that I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I could have because it felt like I didn't want to scare them off. The way that I enjoy sex is pretty intense. A lot of guys don't like it. So I was nervous about making sure they had a good time, which detracted from my enjoyment, so I probably wouldn't do it again, but the vibe with the guys was really nice.

It was a lot of guys, it is a really vulnerable thing. In order to enter the party, you had to get naked. You would enter the little greeting room and you would strip yourself of your clothes, put them in a bag, 'cause we didn't want to risk having anybody with a phone. You'd get a custom robe. So everybody's walking around, you'd come through this process of getting naked and getting dressed in a robe and letting go of your worldly possessions and you're wandering around with a bunch of other dudes. So it was a lot of comradery. People were really encouraging. It was really nice, the people the volunteers and my friends who were vetting the people attending did a really good job.

Q: One of the bigger memes to come of the event was "came in the fluffer." What was your reaction to that?

A: I did not expect that to be the thing [laughter]. I've seen people use that as a synonym for f---ing up. Like, "Oh my gosh, shit, you went and came in the fluffer, didn't you?" [laughter] To be fair, I'm not judging anybody for c---ing in a fluffer. You're not supposed to, but sometimes you f--- up. But it's a really hilarious way of using that phrase.

It also turned out to give it a little bit more of a sexy vibe. Because after you f---ed me, you were able to enter a back room where some of the fluffers hung out. From what I hear, a sort of natural orgy just took place in there, which I think is lovely. A lot of fluffers wanted to join. We had a lot of women who were trying to get in on this as a fluffer. It was crazy.

Q: Did you garner any interesting stats from the gangbang?

A: I think the percentage that were able to c-m is really interesting. I mean, it's really hard to c-m in those circumstances. I think like, if you had asked me to guess beforehand, how many people would be able to c-m, I would be really uncertain. I'd give a really wide margin. In the end, I think it was roughly 50-50, which I think is super cool.

Q: So what are you working on right now?

A: Right now, I'm working on a "good at sex" guide, which is probably going to turn into a course and a book, but I have many posts already on my blog. It seems weird that we don't have a really analytical, but hands-on guide to how to be skilled at sex. We have a lot of things where it's like, "Here's how to find the clitoris." A lot of basics that I think are quite important, but there's not really a deep dive into the psychological methods for what women actually want in sex. That's really underexplored.

You can follow Aella on X @aellagirl and you can visit her website at knowingless.com. You can also read Aella's blog at Aella.substack.com