A trainee paramedic has revealed how she turned to sex work to fund her university degree, as she couldn’t afford to pay her rent with a minimum wage job.
Jasmine, 23, is among the one in 20 UK students working in the sex industry while at university, and shares her story in Channel 5’s new documentary Student Sex Workers, which airs tonight.
While she does have a student loan, she insists she can’t pay her tuition fees and rent and fund her lifestyle without taking on several jobs, including exotic dancing, modelling and working as a webcam girl.
‘I can’t pay my rent with minimum wage,’ she says, adding she sometimes makes ‘a grand a night’ as a cam-girl.
Also featured in the show is Carly-Rae, who started working in the sex industry when she was just 19 and films lesbian shoots.
While her friend Roo, who used to be a cam girl while studying creative writing and English, but ended up leaving her studies behind.
‘There was a lot of pressure on people at university to get top grades, top marks, constantly studying,’ Roo says.
Carly-Rae started working in the sex industry when she was just 19 and films lesbian porn
Jasmine, 23, is among the one in 20 UK students working in the sex industry while at university, and shares her story in Channel 5’s new documentary Student Sex Workers, which airs tonight
Student and cam-girl Jasmine, (pictured), 23, has to choose between her uni work and her sex work in Student Sex Workers on Channel 5
Jasmine admits that she received enough to live on, but insists it’s hard to make a payment last, saying: ‘I wasn’t really lacking for student loans, but you have to be careful because once you get through it, you have to wait until your next installment’.
In the show, Jasmine is seen filming at her flat in skimpy lingerie, in hope of enticing customers. ‘I pretend I’m horny even though I’m not,’ she explains as she logs on to the platform that allows her to entice people in starting private chats with her.
These private conversations are the costlier for her clients, who will pay £2 per minute to see her peel her clothes off.
She waits five minutes before getting topless to encourage customers to stay logged on for longer, earning her extra money.
Meanwhile, sex worker Roo has made her choice and says she doesn’t regret dropping out of university
In the show Jasmine’s set-up is in jeopardy, as her university wants to discuss the issue of her sex work
Jasmine says she sometimes makes £1,000 per night thanks to her cam-work and couldn’t pay her rent on the living minimum wage
The young woman eventually decides to drop from her course and keep on with her cam-work for some times
But Jasmine’s set-up is in jeopardy, as her university wants to discuss the issue of her sex work.
The student claims they were aware of her exotic dancer gig, but is facing trouble over her sex work.
Explaining that she’s being investigated on several counts, she says: ‘One has to do with my placement hours, the other one due with my attitude and one has to do with me basically being an exotic dancer and doing my modeling.’
Talking to a friend, Jasmine says she cannot take up a bar job instead of her work as a cam-girl because they don’t pay the same.
Jasmine’s mother is supportive of her alternative career choice, although she prefers the fact that her daughter dances to her modelling.
Roo does cam-work and shoots videos, which she shares online. The young woman says she finds her job ‘fun’ and ‘creative’
‘My mum is like my best-friend,’ Jasmine says, ‘She’s annoying but she’s also my best-friend, we’re so similar in so many different way, she’s practically my twin.’
Jasmine explains that her mother, a qualified personal trainer, is awaiting to have two hip surgeries and now walks using crutches.
‘She doesn’t really like my nude pictures,’
‘I’m really please, Jaz, that you’ve found something that you like doing,’ the mother says.
Later, as the two women meet for a drink, Jasmine shares her doubts about whether she should go back to school or not. When Jasmine says she struggles to pay for her lifestyle, her mother says: ‘
‘Sweetheart isn’t that what student finances is for?’ but Jasmine say she doesn’t get enough.
At the end of the conversation, her mother says: ‘You’re my little girl and I’m proud of you.’
Roo used to study English and Creative Writing at uni but couldn’t cope with the pressure of exams
Mid-way through the episode Jasmine reveals she’s also had sugar daddies in the past, and is now looking for a new one
‘I’m putting out ads for a sugar daddy, I’m looking for beauty treatments, nails, hair,’ she says,
In the ad she also writes she needs financial aids for bills, help with her car, clothes and a ‘boob job fund.’
At the end of the episode, Jasmine reveals she’s decided not to go back to school.
‘The whole situation has sort of put me off,’ she explains, ‘I don’t want to continue my course.
‘I’m going to keep working within the industry and doing my dancing and my camming,’ she goes on.
However, Jasmine adds she won’t be doing this forever and will look for another career later on.
Roo said she tried to work in an office after dropping off of university and hated it. She says she much prefers the porn industry
Meanwhile, former top student Roo reveals she dropped out of uni half way through her second year.
She thought she’d be happier working in an office and making a living, rather than dealing with exams, but this did not prove to be true and now she makes a living as a cam girl.
Roo, who does lesbian porn with her friend Carly Rae also dabbles in cam-work. She started while a student at university.
‘I wasn’t really lacking for student loans but you have to be careful but once you get through it, you have to wait until your next installment’
Roo has been in a relationship with boyfriend Ben for the past four years.
‘I can definitely see why students get more involved with sex work,’ Ben says, ‘because it’s convenient: you can work form home, you can study while you work, it’s definitely more convenient than let’s say, being a waitress of even work part-time.’
Student Sex Workers airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 5.