Where will Your Look Fit In?
There is a vast amount of porn industry niches and markets but where do you fit?

When most people think of a "Porn Star" the image of Jenna Jameson or Tera Patrick probably first comes to mind. However with the current restructuring and expansion of the adult entertainment world due to the internet's growth, which has made both the distribution of, and porn attainability easier than ever before, many new and nearly untapped adult niches and markets have been discovered!

Yes, the younger blonde women with the proto-typical slim build with huge breasts is still a very popular look, but today some of the most popular porn stars (ex: Jenna Haze and Stoya) have all natural bodies. Eva Angelina, a beautiful Latina has a relatively average build. The beautiful Misty Stone is a very slim,  all natural African-American with a B cup. 

Alternative looks have found their audience as well. Websites such as suicide girls top the charts. Joanna Angel leads the of the punk/goth porn scene and does quite well (she has even runs her own label). Even Adam and Eve pictures is jumping on the alternative bandwagon a bit with the addition of Teagan to their contract girl lineup (yes she's a barbie glam girl, but she has a full sleeve tattoo). 

Porn fans are making it known that they find beauty and sex appeal within women of ALL types. The success of adult and fetish BBW model Amazon Amanda is proof of that.

Whether you are short, tall, heavy or thin there is most likely a market for your look and studios WILL shoot you and agents WILL book you. Whether your a young "Barely Legal" type, a late twenties to mid thirties year old "MILF", or a seasoned forty year old (or plus) "Cougar", there's a place in porn for you. Of course, your bookability factor and your earnings do depend upon what you are willing to do in a scene, and the niches your scene is being marketed in.

Before you get into porn, I strongly suggest that you honestly evaluate your look, and work on what you feel may need improvement - whether it be losing weight, toning up, gaining weight, changing your hair, etc. 

Why? Because porn world is much more harsh than even the regular modeling world. Not as far as standards of beauty are concerned (actually porn world is much more open than the mainstream entertainment world in regards to promoting all type of looks), but there are MANY down right MEAN people who's goal is to BREAK YOU DOWN by any means necessary in order to BREAK YOUR CONFIDENCE in order to persuade you to do things that you normally wouldn't be comfortable with or consider in an effort to CONTROL you (I know this sounds a bit "paranoid", but trust me - it's often the case).

Fine tuning your look not only will you improve you chances in being cast in better porn roles, but you will also IMPROVE YOUR CONFIDENCE. A confident woman in a sexual situation (or any situation) generally is much more attractive than an insecure woman. Much of your "bookability" has to do with your PERFORMANCE rather than HOW YOU LOOK. Also being confident in yourself and your appearance, will prevent you from falling prey to negative people and situations within the industry.

Trust me, if you remain in the porn business for a while, you will most likely go through quite a few "looks" as time goes by. I definitely have. Also remember that you don't need to try to achieve any level of perfection. Don't change anything about yourself unless YOU WANT TO and unless you'd make that change EVEN IF YOU WERE NOT IN PORN.

Pornstars RARELY wake up and get out of bed looking they way the do on DVD box covers and in magazines. Generally it takes a team of makeup artists, hair stylists, wardrobe people and photographers to CREATE the final "PORN STAR" look.

Also keep in mind, that though there are markets for all types of people, certain markets are still seen as more popular than others, and certain "looks" do earn more than others due to studios holding on to "old fashioned" ways of thinking. Though the porn trends and standards are changing with time, Caucasian women and Latinas are at the top of the totem pole (as far as many studios are concerned) in general when it comes to how often they receive bookings and their earnings. Asian women are next in the rankings and unfortunately African-American women come in last place. A part of this IS due to racism as well (which is very prevalent in the porn industry - I will refer you to the www.xxxporntalk.com forum to witness this for yourself).

African-American women entering the porn industry need to be especially confident (I suppose I'm saying this primarily because I'm an African-American woman). Being that there hasn't been an African-American contract star since Heather Hunter (and that was around a decade ago), many porn industry professionals truly feel that African-American women are not "up to par" with their counterparts of other ethnicities. 

Finding a good agency may be difficult for African-American women. In fact some agents will outright tell you that they "have trouble booking black performers". Other agents will say "we already have a black girl" - one of the largest and most well known adult talent agencies in Los Angeles generally only has 1 to 2 African-American talents on their roster at a time (if any). 

True, there is a limited amount of ethnic and interracial porn shot, yet the market IS expanding, so the excuses many adult talent agencies like to give African-American women as to why they will not take them on as clients are just that - excuses!  A good agency is proactive and puts forth effort in finding all the clients they represent work. They don't just sit back and wait for the work requests to come in.

Further more, being that there recently have been and are currently very few roles available for African-American women in porn (though the "Black" and "Interracial Markets are becoming increasingly popular), many studios and agencies will try to convince you to take less pay and/or do more sexually than you may have initially been comfortable with.

As an example, I was once approached by a director to shoot a scene that paid half the "going rate" for a basic Boy/Girl sex scene. When I turned the offer down I was told by the director that he could "find black girls like me anytime any day for even less money" than what he was offering. I still turned the offer down and of course the scene was still shot, but truly, I'll always wonder if that director really did find another performer "just like me". :)

The above situation can apply to any woman however of any type. Be realistic about your rates, but don't let anyone take advantage of you monetarily, because remember, once you've been paid for a scene regardless of your niche or market, most likely you will never see another penny from that shoot, while in the meantime the owner of the content can re-edit and resell that one sex scene over and over again making quite a bit of money off of it in the long term.

It's not the hottest woman in porn who becomes the most successful, there are MANY other factors. Often it's the woman who has the most drive, who's laid the proper ground work for herself, who appeals most to the fans, who performs and comes across well on video and in photos, who is most professional and many times who has the most marketing and promotion behind her (ex: studios like Wicked Pictures & Digital playground HEAVILY promote their contract stars - very few have reached their heights in the porn world on their own, but that doesn't mean that you can't even if you never snag yourself a studio contract).