A 57-year-old model claims she was shunned after her local community found nude pictures of her online.
Mum-of-one Elaina St James has been flogging racy snaps of herself for the past three years as a way to give her teenage son a better life.
But the well-intentioned plan backfired at first, as her career became the hottest gossip in the small town where she grew up – which has just 10,000 residents.
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The content creator says friends, neighbours and even strangers avoided her on the street or would refuse to speak to her, and claims people at her son’s school turned on her as well.
Perhaps more shockingly, once they noticed her financial success, the very same people soon began to corner Elaina in public to beg her for tips on how to follow in her footsteps – with the model making tens of thousands of dollars a month.
“I expected to lose a few people when I started this but never in a thousand years did I think our community would ice us out,” said Elaina, who boasts 400,000 followers on Instagram.
“I felt like Frankenstein with the town’s people holding pitchforks.
“I’d say hi to people in the street and they’d turn away from me – it was crazy.
“Most of the single – and some married – women in that town have had more sexual partners than I have had in the last few years.
“For a while, the only time I would leave the house was to go to the store, because I just couldn’t stand the constant stares in my direction.”
According to Elaina, there was also an obvious double standard in that many people didn’t agree with her career in public but would reach out to her in private to ask for advice.
She said: “The same people judging me were the ones that used to say hello on the street, or chat in the stores with me.
“It’s crazy that what I did online in this day and age could make me so brutally shunned.
“There was so much hostility and judgement but then, on the flipside, some mums started asking me for help.
“They wanted me to coach them on how they too could earn thousands per month this way.
“When no one else was around, women would stop me and ask if we could get together so they could pick my brain.
“I was so shocked when it first happened.
“One person even tried to go through my teenage son.
“She told him she wanted to get in touch with me to talk about my business and gave him her phone number – I was horrified.”
Elaina describes the small town where she grew up in the Midwest, US as having “old-fashioned values”.
Initially, it had felt like a safe place to return when she welcomed her son 15 years ago.
She worked for local businesses for much of that time and was fully ingrained in the community.
But eager to set her son up for a financially secure future, the mum decided to become an adult model in 2021, spotting a desire among audiences for ‘mum bod’ content.
After years of struggling to make ends meet as a single mum and facing the prospect of never being able to retire, Elaina was thrilled when her account took off.
She said: “For the first time, I didn’t have to check my bank account every time I went to the grocery store.
“I didn’t have to feel anxiety over how I would retire.
“I had financial stability that I’d never had before, and I was giving my son a better life.”
Elaina is now averaging $30,000 a month in earnings, even making $50,000 on particularly fruitful months.
She says providing for her son and having a flexible working pattern to ensure she spends plenty of time with him has been her driving force.
Setting her own hours also meant she had the freedom to volunteer and participate in local events.
But all that changed when word got out about her online work.
Elaina said: “I heard from a friend who worked in the school that there were rumours swirling about what I do.
“Either a dad or a teacher had discovered my pictures online.
“From then, I noticed some of my son’s teachers becoming almost hostile towards me.
“Small issues were being blown way out of proportion and I was treated with the cold shoulder for no reason.
“People went from being friendly to cold almost overnight.”
The rumour spread like wildfire.
Luckily, Elaina had been open with her son about what she does and says he “played dumb” when the news reached the classrooms and friends started to tease him about it.
She said: “He definitely got bullied because of it.
“It was heartbreaking.
“I got used to just keeping my head down and not saying hello to anyone when I left the house.”
Now, Elaina and her son have relocated to a more metropolitan area further south, where she feels she can relax and keep a low profile.
She said: “We’re very happy here.
“My son has handled everything very well.
“He wanted to see out the school year in our old town, which we did, but he’s been happy to start over in a new place.
“He wishes I could achieve this level of success doing something different, but he understands we now have financial security and can go on trips, and afford a nicer house, and just not worry about every penny.
“It’s awful that he’s had to lose friends over this, and that we’ve lost the community we both grew up with.
“But amazingly, he doesn’t blame me.
“He tells me all the time that I’m the greatest mum in the world.
“My son is my motivation for everything.
“If I wasn’t a mum, I wouldn’t have cared if I lived a modest life and didn’t have enough.
“But being a solo parent, it’s not just about me now.
“I’m not spending money on expensive handbags and shoes – I’m saving it for his and my future, or taking trips to enrich my son’s life.
“While I spent most of my life in that town, I don’t have any plans on returning ever.
“Both me and my son feel like it’s a fresh start.”
