We all have hang-ups about our appearance; some of us carry a life-long baggage of being told we aren’t attractive; others are coming to term with changing in our previously “hot” features that come with pregnancy, age or illness. I’m not here to convince you to love everything about your body – or even to be at peace with your body – although I hope that eventually this will be possible for you. Instead, let’s talk about the relationship between your physical appearance and your camming career. And here it is: you don’t have to look a certain way in order to be a successful webcam performer.
Sometimes this simple truth is so hard to take in that it may contradict our deeply embedded beliefs about beauty, sexual attraction and coming to terms with our erotic performances as a cammodel. Even the most experienced webcam model will at times struggle to feel it deep within their bones. And despite the varied differences between us and pre-conceived about beauty standards from around the world, I’d like to inform you of one truth that’s completely absolute: All body types are desirable in camland. It’s your creativity, your mental focus and overall confidence that sales the package.
Your Video Stream Isn’t You
First of all, consider that you audience isn’t, strictly speaking, looking at *you* – instead, viewers are faced with a two-dimensional image on the screen of their device. Part of any model’s professional skill that comes with practice is learning how to turn your 3D body into an attractive 2D image.
Whether the viewer feels turned on by this image is based only partially on your physical, flesh-and-blood features. A large number of other issues come into play. Some of these you can control – for example, figuring out great camera angles, getting the best lighting you can get your hands on, making sure your sound works OK. Others factors are out of your hands, like whether they are watching you from a crappy old device, with sound turned off, while keeping one eye on the football scores. Your job as a cammodel is to do your best with the aspects of your stream quality you can control, and let go of the worries about issues you can’t help at all. If your picture is smooth, crisp, well-lit, and taken from an striking angle, you may draw the viewers who might walk straight past you in the street without turning their head.
Cammodel Desire Is Subjective
OK, you’ve done your best with your set-up, but you turn on the cam, and still you aren’t happy with the image on the screen. All you can see is flaws, now in glorious HD. I don’t mean to dimiss your worries – lack of confidence can absolutely make camming unbearable – but remember: what you see and what each viewer sees is not the same. Everybody is looking at the world through a kind of filter. Just as you are staring at your image through a veil of baggage and hang-ups of various kinds, so is your viewer’s desire shaped by a variety of needs, opinions and random quirks.
These preferences are shaped not only by each person’s experience, but also by where they’re from. If you’re worried about being too far from a particular beauty standard, don’t forget: camming is international. Ideas about attractiveness vary around the world. I’ve noticed this from my own experience as a BBW cammodel that viewers from some parts of the world may flock to me, while others are indifferent and on occasion rude.
Relax, The Numbers Are On Your Side
You might be thinking, “It’s all very well for other models, but let’s be real: how many people are actually going to be attracted to my [insert features you dislike or are self-conscious about]?” And you know what? I get it. A cheerful spiel about beauty being subjective isn’t going to convince you that, say, your wonky teeth aren’t a serious barrier to being a popular cammodel.
Fortunately, I don’t have to convince you of that. Instead, please understand that you don’t actually have to be popular with the majority of site visitors in order to make a living. It is absolutely possible to rely on a relatively small collection of regulars and a steady trickle of new fans. Some days, all you need is that one customer who can’t get enough of you.
Although at times it may appear that more mainstream models appeal to larger percentages of camsite traffic, unconventional models have the potential of becoming that one true gem well sought after by niche lovers.
As cammodels, we actually have it easier than people in other adult industry occupations. Unlike exotic dancers and other in-person workers, we aren’t restricted by distances. Webcam models neither have to rely on a small pool of locals, nor have to travel to where our fans are, nor wait for a certain time of day. Even taking into account that some regions are wealthier than others, the worldwide pool of clients is so vast, that statistically there are more than enough potential fans to support any model’s career.
And unlike porn actors, we don’t have to go beyond gatekeepers to reach our fans, because there aren’t any producers inflicting their hiring processes upon us. Independent cammodels don’t need to be coerced into believing that by hiring us production companies are doing so at a great risk. Trying to make us believe that our content isn’t as marketable as some of the others is pointless when you believe in yourself. Some producers can be notorious for having pre-conceived ideas about what fans will find the most attractive. And quite often they’re wrong and proven as such by thousands of online performers who operate on their own terms. When you work for yourself and create your own opportunities no one can tell you that you’re too old, too big or too…whatever. Your success depends on you.
It’s Okay To Make Changes, But Don’t Let Your Insecurities Change YOU.
As I’ve mentioned, you are apart of your own audience and unlike all the other viewers, you actually have to stare at your picture all day long, and you may very well want to try to please your harshest critic, that is, yourself. There are aspects of your on-screen image that you may want to tinker with. Maybe with experience you notice that certain angles attract more customers, or people keep asking if you have a red crotch less body stocking and you suddenly want to try wearing it, or you decide to go blonde. Experimenting is just fine. It would be a mistake, however, to convince yourself that you can’t possibly log on until a particular issue with your looks is resolved. If you catch yourself thinking, “I can’t go on cam until I [change my hair/ get veneers / get new boobs / tone up]”, recognize that logging on just as you are is going to bring you at least a few customers, whereas not working until the magical day when your acne has gone away is going to cost you that income.
My final anecdote is about my first week as a cammodel, where I wasted a ridiculous amount of time shaving what I thought were my unsightly pubes and hiding ingrown hairs with expensive body concealer. Not only was it a waste of a good product but it became smeared all over my undies, sheets and just about everything else. Suffice it to say, that ingrown hairs made no visible difference to my income. They were there to stay and my customers fell in love with them just as I grew tired of wasting my time and money on hair removal. It was then and there that I found my niche and from there my fanbase expanded within the world of hairy cammodels. Oddly, the very same features that go unnoticed by some viewers become a centralized focus for others. Embrace your quirks and imperfections because trust me, each one of your stretch marks has the capacity to form it’s own fan club.
