A Duke University freshman who was outed as an adult film star by a fellow classmate has spoken out, defending her choice to star in X-rated videos so she could put her way through school.
The young woman — who calls herself “Lauren” — said that starring in adult films is a way for her to foot the $60,000-a-year tuition at the Top Ten school in Durham, North Carolina.
“I worked as a waitress as a job for a year in high school,” she told Duke’s student newspaper, The Chronicle. “Not only did it interfere with my school where I was barely sleeping and wasn’t doing my work, but I also was making $400 a month after taxes.”
The experience, Lauren said, was humiliating. “I felt like I was being degraded and treated like s***,” she said, saying that in her mind, a blue-collar job is much more demeaning than staring in a raunchy adult film.
In a tell-all interview with the student rag, Lauren revealed that she enjoys sex and is flown out by her agent at Matrix Models, all expenses footed by the company. Though she didn’t divulge how much her alter-ego, “Aurora,” makes during any given shoot, the author of the piece notes it was enough to purchase an array of designer handbags, and keep her in school.
DON KLUMPP/GETTY IMAGES
A Duke coed says she is paying her $60,000-a-year tuition by working in the porn industry.
She was originally outed by a fellow freshman at a fraternity rush party who recognized her from one of her films. Despite swearing to keep mum about her secret life, the freshman blabbed, and suddenly, the entire campus knew.
But her parents are still in the dark and know nothing about their daughter’s moonlighting.
The freshman claims she “feels at home” in the porn world, but not so much on Duke’s campus, where she said girls “have to hide their sexuality.”
A spokesman for the university said Duke spent more than $130 million this year in undergraduate financial aid. “We are one of a small number of colleges that admit students without regard to their ability to pay and meet 100 percent of their demonstrated financial need based on a careful review of the family’s circumstances,” they said.
As for “Lauren’s” own financial need? “We have no comment on the issue you reference,” the spokesman said.