Lil Tay Says She Made $1 Million on OnlyFans
Lil Tay, the child rapper–slash–internet personality most famous for precociously carrying a huge stack of cash and later being the victim of a death hoax, recently turned 18. To celebrate, she started an account on OnlyFans, the adult-content website. If you’re wondering who would want to subscribe to the porn account of someone who was 17 just a few days ago, the answer is: a lot of people. Is that gross? Yes. Is she making a ton of money from it? Also yes. I imagine you have some questions about all this, so let’s get right to it.
Can you remind me who Lil Tay is?
Lil Tay, born Claire Eileen Qi Hope, first went viral in 2018 for presenting as a foulmouthed rapping 9-year-old who put on a Blaccent and beefed with fellow internet personalities like Bhad Bhabie and Woah Vicky. Shortly after she exploded onto phone screens (under the guidance of her half-brother, Jason), Lil Tay mostly retreated from the spotlight. At one point, her Instagram was wiped, leaving behind an Instagram Story that read, “Help me.” Someone then used her Instagram account to accuse her father, Chris Hope, of abusing her (which her then-manager claimed was a fake accusation). In 2020, TMZ reported that Tay’s career was held up owing to a custody battle between her parents. In 2021, Jason set up a GoFundMe claiming Hope and his wife had “physically and mentally abused” Tay.
Then, in 2023, Tay was the victim of a hoax claiming she and Jason had died (a post on her Instagram account later accused her father of faking her death). A year later, posts on Tay’s social-media accounts indicated she was experiencing an actual medical emergency and had to undergo open-heart surgery that turned out to be a “great success.” Since then, Tay has been racking up millions upon millions of TikTok views, and in late July, she began teasing an OnlyFans account set to drop on her 18th birthday.
And what’s going on with her OnlyFans?
Tay’s 18th birthday was July 29, and about a week beforehand she started posting videos about getting on OnlyFans as soon as she was a legal adult. “It’s my 18th birthday on July 29th, and every male has been counting down to it and telling me to ‘drop the link’ the second I turn 18,” Tay said in a TikTok. “Girlies, what do you think? Should I do it?”
As is the case with many of her videos, this one felt more like an intentionally trolling marketing strategy than a genuine question for the girlies. But Tay did go through with it and is now offering subscriptions to her OnlyFans for $19.99 a month. In her site bio, she claims she’s posting content that was shot at 12:01 a.m. on her 18th birthday.
In another TikTok, Tay claimed her “biggest reason” for wanting to “drop the link” was Sabrina Carpenter and Sydney Sweeney. “They are literally my top inspirations, and honestly, for anyone that doesn’t like them and shitting on them and doesn’t think they’re inspirational, you need to check your misogyny,” Tay said in a video that swung between a sped-up chipmunk voice and a slowed-down lower register. “They’re getting so much backlash, but just think about the beginning of any revolution. Like, this is reminiscent of the time that women were fighting to vote because why are we fighting to be free to express ourselves?”
Carpenter and Sweeney have both recently come under fire, to vastly varying degrees, for showing off their sexy side (and, in Sweeney’s case, possibly promoting eugenics). Again, whether Tay actually believes what she’s saying is unclear — it seems a little tongue-in-cheek — but she certainly knows how to grab people’s attention.
Wait, is Lil Tay actually 18?
Thankfully, yes. When she first appeared online in 2018, she claimed to be 9 years old, which would have made her birth year 2009. If that had been true, she would now be 16, and all of this would be wildly illegal. In a 2023 Rolling Stone profile, writer E.J. Dickson (now a features writer at the Cut) confirmed via court records that Tay was 16 at the time of writing, making her 18 now. A source at OnlyFans also told TMZ the platform performs “extensive identification checks” before people are allowed to post content on the site.
How much has she made on OnlyFans?
A lot. There are apparently many, many people willing to shell out for what they believe to be true barely legal content. On Monday, Tay posted a photo to Instagram of what appear to be her OnlyFans earnings. In total, she claimed to have earned $1,024,298.09 in her first three hours on the platform, a debut that TMZ noted beats Bhad Bhabie’s record-setting $1,030,703.43 in six hours.
So people … want this?
Clearly, at least a million dollars’ worth of people do. Tay has also drawn interest from other OnlyFans celebrities. She shared a screenshot of a DM from Bonnie Blue — a creator on the site famous for sleeping with over 1,000 men in 12 hours — in which she asked Tay to collab.
However, lots of people find this whole thing disturbing. Tay’s TikTok comments are filled with warnings against joining OnlyFans and hopes that she was talking about new music when she spoke about “dropping the link.” In a video addressed to her “haters,” Tay proclaimed she was still “winning” despite what they had to say.
“Y’all been doubting me for seven years. You can hate on me all you want, you can’t say Lil Tay ain’t winning. So for everybody out there, do whatever the hell you want with your life. Who gives a fuck what people have to say? And remember this — Lil Tay rich and finna get richer,” Tay said, before giving a shout-out to the creeps who have been following her since she was pretending to be 9. “Oh yeah, and thank you to all my supporters who pre-ordered since 2018 or whenever you did,” she said.
The Cut has attempted to reach out to Lil Tay’s representatives for comment, and we will update this post if we hear back.
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