When money is an issue, some people would go to great length to pursue it.
Sometimes, their choices make sense, and sometimes, they don't.
This happens to Megan Gaither, once an English teacher at St. Clair High School and cheerleading coach. She admitted to have made a mistake, after becoming an OnlyFans model.
After all, teachers are educators, and Gaither should be at school teaching her students.
Not posing naked for strangers who subscribed to their nudes.
In the society, a teacher's job not only encompasses academics, because their duty also involves social, and emotional skills, because sometimes, a teacher should also help students foster critical thinking, encourage creativity, and promote a lifelong love of learning.
Teachers are those incredible people who are there to facilitate learning, impart knowledge, and shape the minds of students.
Because of this, these people play a pivotal role in the development of students, and that they're often seen as motivators and also guides.
But Gaither was financially motivated, that she had to make a choice to ensure a better living.
By becoming an OnlyFans model, she said that her pay is much more significant, saying that she could make about five times as much as she did as a teacher.
But as soon as the money poured in, and as she became more popular on the platform, the school district discovered her side hustle.
And it didn't take long until 32-year-old Gaither was put on a permanent leave.
"A lot of people tell me that I should be happy, but I wouldn’t wish this past year on anybody,” she said in an interview, shortly after cleaning out her desk at the school.
"I studied 12 years to become a teacher, and now that’s gone. Looking back, I wouldn’t recommend this. If I could go back, I would tell myself not to do it."
Not only that, because in addition to costing her a teaching career, Gaither has been criticized by some of her friends and family members.
She also experienced a near-daily comment from people who body-shamed her rather plus size, and those who mocked her for becoming a model and not a teacher, and not to mention, mocking how her career choice would affect her role as a parent to her young children.
"It is unreal how quickly people seem to forget that I am a human being," she said.
"I would never, ever call someone out based on how they look or how their body is shaped, but these people do."
Her presence on OnlyFans literally made her life a living hell.
She said that she's in therapy in order to cope, and that she and her husband had to move their two elementary school-aged children out of the school district.
It's worth noting that Gaither is the second teacher suspended at St. Clair High.
The first, Brianna Coppage, made international news when she admitted (and proudly) said that she had been put on leave because of pornography on her OnlyFans account, which noted she was a teacher.
Gaither was put on leave, and barred from attending her class, when rumors began to swirl that she had appeared — with her face hidden — in one of Coppage’s videos.
In the video, the varsity cheerleading coach had sex on camera with Coppage, which is also her "best friend."
Gaither who couldn't come with a good excuse, eventually admitted that she also had an account but that she had deactivated it.
But again, the show must go on.
Gaither reactivated her OnlyFans account after she was put on leave.
"My husband and I talked about this before I started OnlyFans, that there would be consequences if I was caught," she said.
"I know I made choices. But whoever turned me in, I have to ask: Was that necessary? And what did I do to them to deserve this kind of treatment?"
Read: A Teacher Has No Regrets Quiting Her Job Because Being An OnlyFans Model Earned Her More Money
Gaither and Coppage are two of about 3 million people worldwide who work as content creators on OnlyFans.
And that number is increasing fast, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic that forced people to remain indoors, forced many professionals to look to supplement their incomes.
As for Gaither, she said that she is making about $22,000 a month from her 1,500-plus subscribers.
What's more, the news of her being an outcast after being an OnlyFans model, further propelled her to fame.
An East Side strip club reportedly asked Gaither more than one she earned a year being a teacher, for a single night's work being a stripper. The strip club spokesperson even said that they would give Gaither an additional $10,000 if she wants to appear in their podcast.
But unlike Coppage who came to terms of the fact she can no longer become a teacher, Gaither plans to use the money she made on the site to pursue a doctoral degree, and hopes that could one day teach in a university.
But still, she knows that her work as an OnlyFans model may hinder her there as well.
“My advice is to really think about the consequences of this decision and to consider those consequences as your reality because it will happen to you just like it happened to me,” Gaither said. "Are you OK with never working professionally again?"
