Duke University freshman reveals porn stage name and her picture

A Duke University freshman who is working as a porn star to pay her way through the North Carolina school has revealed her stage name and posted a picture of herself. She did so in response to the college paper outing her as a porn star after one student saw her in a video.

In a piece for xoJane, the student, who used her stage name Belle Knox, said that the university found out that she was a porn star off campus when one student saw her in a video. While he initially said he would respect her privacy, he broke the promise and the Duke Chronicle published a “somewhat patronizing portrait” of her, using her first name “Lauren.”

Still, she decided to use the stage name for the piece. “Because the bullies of the world -- starting with that young Duke man who broke his promise to me -- do not dictate my life,” she explained. “Because my decision to do porn does not somehow mean that the world now ‘owns’ or deserves access to every single thing about me and every choice I make.”

She explained that she will not use her real name because it keeps her two lives separate. Her friends and family can use her real name, but in the porn industry, she has another name.

“Today, I'm going to officially reveal what my porn name is -- outside of the dregs of the Internet trying to bully me into using my birth name for porn, on message boards where comments like ‘Her nose is bigger than her tits’ or ‘She deserves to be raped’ are the common parlance -- and that is my choice to make,” Knox wrote.

Knox previously wrote for the site, but did not post a picture at the time. This time, she allowed xoJane to post her picture.

According to the New York Daily News, Knox does note that she’s been slammed for shaming Duke and some of her friends have even shunned her.

“So I'm refusing to let the bullies win,” Knox writes. She also devoted parts of her piece to point out “the level of hate that exists in America regarding women who refuse to be quiet about their sexuality.”

Knox uses her money from porn to help pay the $60,000-a-year tuition at Duke. It’s estimated that a female porn star can make $80,000-a-year by doing one video per week.

image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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