A 57-year-old model has claimed she was shunned after her local community found nude photographs of her online.
Elaina St James, a mother of one from the Midwest, had been posting racy photographs 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 his career became the hottest topic in the small town where he grew up, which has just 10,000 inhabitants.
The content creator said friends, neighbors and even strangers avoided her on the street or refused to talk to her, and claimed people at her son’s school also turned on her.
What was perhaps even more surprising was that once they noticed her financial success, those same people soon began cornering Elaina in public for advice on how to follow in their footsteps: the model was earning tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Elaina St James, a mother of one from the Midwest US, said she was shunned after her local community found nude photos of her online.
“I expected to lose some people when I started this, but I never in a thousand years thought our community would leave us behind,” said Elaina, who has 400,000 followers on Instagram.
“I felt like Frankenstein with the townspeople holding pitchforks. I would wave at people on the street and they would turn their backs on me. It was crazy.
‘Most of the single women – and some married ones – in that city have had more sexual partners than I have in recent years.
‘For a while, the only time I left the house was to go to the store, because I couldn’t stand the constant stares in my direction.’
According to Elaina, there was also a glaring double standard in that many people disagreed with her career in public, but reached out to her privately for advice.
She said: ‘The same people who judged me were the ones who used to greet me on the street or chat to me in shops.
“It’s crazy that what I did online in this day and age could get me so brutally rejected.
‘There was a lot of hostility and judgment, but then on the other hand, some moms started asking me for help.
The mother had been posting racy photographs of herself for the past three years as a way to give her teenage son a better life.
The content creator said friends, neighbors and even strangers avoided her on the street or refused to talk to her, and claimed people at her son’s school also turned on her.
Elaina described the small town where she grew up in the American Midwest as a place with “old-fashioned values.”
Sensing a desire among the public for “mom bod” content, Elaina decided to create a swashbuckling account.
Eager to provide her son with a financially secure future, the mother decided to become an adult model in 2021.
‘They wanted me to show them how they too could make thousands of dollars a month this way.
‘When no one else was around, women would stop me and ask if we could get together so they could brainstorm.
“I was very shocked when it first happened. One person even tried to spear my teenage son.
“She told him she wanted to contact me to talk about my business and gave him her phone number. I was horrified.”
Elaina described the small town where she grew up in the American Midwest as a place of “old-fashioned values.”
At first, it felt like a safe place to return to when she welcomed her son 15 years ago.
She worked for local businesses for much of that time and was fully integrated into the community.
But eager to prepare her son for a financially secure future, the mother decided to become an adult model in 2021, sensing a desire among audiences for “mom bod” content.
After years of struggling to make ends meet as a single mother and facing the prospect of never being able to retire, Elaina was thrilled when her account took off.
Elaina now averages $30,000 per month, and even makes $50,000 in particularly fruitful months.
Setting her own schedule also meant she had the freedom to volunteer and participate in local events.
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 making fun of him for it.
Elaina and her son have moved to a more metropolitan area further south, where she feels she can relax and keep a low profile.
After years of struggling to make ends meet as a single mother 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 supermarket.
“I didn’t have to feel anxious about how I would retire. I had financial stability that I’d never had before and I was giving my son a better life.”
Elaina now averages $30,000 per month, and even makes $50,000 in particularly fruitful months.
She says her driving force has been being able to support her son and having a flexible working pattern to ensure she spends plenty of time with him.
Setting her own schedule also meant she had the freedom to volunteer and participate in local events. But all that changed when word of her online work became known.
Elaina said: ‘I heard from a friend who worked at the school that there were rumours about what I do.
‘A parent or a teacher had discovered my photos on the Internet. From then on, I noticed that some of my son’s teachers became almost hostile towards me.
‘Minor problems were blown out of proportion and I was treated with indifference for no reason. People went from being nice to cold almost overnight.’
The rumor spread like wildfire. Fortunately, Elaina had been honest with her son about what he was doing and says that he “played dumb” when the news reached the classrooms and his friends started making fun of him for it.
She said: “He was definitely bullied because of that. It was heartbreaking. I got used to keeping my head down and not saying hello to anyone when I left the house.”
Now, Elaina and her son have moved to a more metropolitan area further south, where she feels she can relax and keep a low profile.
Elaina’s son wishes she could achieve this level of success doing something different, but understands that they are now financially secure.
Elaina said she is not spending money on ‘expensive bags and shoes’ but is saving it for her son’s future.
She said: ‘We are very happy here. My son has taken everything very well.
‘He wanted to finish the school year in our old town, which we did, but he’s happy to start over in a new place.
‘He wishes I could achieve this level of success doing something different, but he understands that we are now financially secure and can travel, afford a nicer house and not have to worry about every penny.
“It’s terrible that I’ve had to lose friends over this and that we’ve lost the community that we both grew up in.
“But surprisingly, he doesn’t blame me. He tells me all the time that I’m the best mother in the world.
‘My son is my motivation for everything. If I weren’t a mother, I wouldn’t mind living a modest life and not having enough.
‘But as a single mother, it’s not just about me anymore. I don’t spend money on expensive handbags and shoes, I save it for his future and mine, or take trips to enrich my son’s life.
“Even though I spent most of my life in that village, I have no plans to ever return. Both me and my son feel that it is a new beginning.”
(tags to translate)dailymail