Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wonderhussy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Wonderhussy , thanks for joining us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
I took my name (Wonderhussy) as a direct consequence of being misunderstood.
For many years, I worked as an “artistic” nude model in and around Las Vegas. I would take photographers on expeditions into the surrounding desert, reclining on rocks, climbing rusty old mining equipment, straddling lonely roads. (art is eye-rollingly subjective).
I charged $500 for an 8-hour day, and made a decent living while avoiding being trapped indoors in a 9 to 5 grind. And though I estimate having dropped trou in the middle of nowhere for around 500 different strange men…it was a thoroughly businesslike endeavor, and I never really had any problems.
But, people always assumed there was more going on… and in a fit of defensive delusion in which it seemed empowering to embrace my perceived shamelessness, I branded myself Wonderhussy.
After about 5 years, I felt too old and too bored to keep going, and found I was more interested in exploring the desert than I was in pretending to hitchhike while wearing nothing more than a pair of stilettos at the side of a lonely highway. So I started a YouTube channel dedicated to finding weird shit in the middle of nowhere.
For the next 5 years, my YouTube earnings grew until they eventually eclipsed my modeling income, and I retired from modeling to focus on full-time YouTubing. But I still kept the name Wonderhussy… out of a stubborn sort of punk rock self-sabotage.
The demographic that watches my videos is mostly older, and skews slightly conservative. I’ve been told by many that they wouldn’t or couldn’t watch a channel with the name “hussy” in the name, and I know I would have found much greater success if I just changed my name to “Wonder Gal” or “The Adventures of Sarah Jane [my real name].”
But, I stubbornly refuse…to, what? Sell out? Pander to the bourgeois sensibilities of the masses? I’m not even sure I know, myself.
The irony is, there are other women doing the same thing as me on YouTube, who present themselves in a far more sexualized context than I do….but because their usernames are bland and inoffensive, they consistently outperform me.
At what point is it selling out, and when is it just being stupid? This is a question I wrestle with on the daily….
Wonderhussy , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
As outlined in my answer to the first question, I am a YouTuber who makes videos exploring weird shit in the middle of nowhere, mostly the Mojave Desert — a line of work I fell into through my previous “artistic” nude modeling work.
I have about 280k followers on YouTube, most of whom are retired, and many of whom are unable or unwilling to leave the house, due to either poor health or an excess of fear. I’m not exaggerating when I say that many of these people live their lives virtually through me and my videos.
Many of my followers are like the Axiom passengers in the movie Wall-E — comfortable, well-fed, and immobilized, with no interest in going out and seeing the real world for themselves. And since most of them are retired and drawing Social Security, they have expendable funds…and are generous with gas money.
I always say I have a thousand grandpas, because that’s what it feels like! I have one viewer who occasionally sends me a $5 bill wrapped in aluminum foil. It’s very touching to me, as I know some of these people are living on fixed incomes. But they prioritize sending me gas money, often with a note attached: ” Hey Wonderhussy, you should go check out [X,Y, Z place]!”
It’s like I’m their live-action avatar, or a coin-operated explorerbot: put some money in, tell me where to go, and now you don’t have to do it yourself.
And while this business model will remain sustainable until Social Security runs out, I’m not milking it. Against my own best interests, I am constantly exhorting my viewers to turn off the TV and go outdoors –and see for themselves that the world really isn’t as scary a place as it seems on the news. How many abandoned basements do I have to creep into, how many ghost towns do I have to prowl around to prove that the desert isn’t really as scary a place as most people think? That there aren’t actually serial killers and meth-addled psychopaths lurking in every abandoned trailer? That there aren’t rattlesnakes under every rock?
Maybe that’s why people continue to follow me…the warped positivity I relentlessly beam through their screens. Things aren’t that bad, and things aren’t that scary — but it does take some effort to get out there and find out for yourself, so if you’d rather just pay me to do it for you…that works for me!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I don’t know that there is any need for society to systematically support creatives. In my experience, the consumers of what I create are happy to fund my creations. Crowdfunding has worked fine for me thus far — and no one can complain about taxpayer dollars being wasted.
That being said, it can be difficult to get affordable health insurance and stuff like that as a self-employed creative. So if there was some kind of creator risk pool we could all join in the interest of paying lower premiums, I wouldn’t complain about that!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
As mentioned in my above answers, I started out as an “artistic” nude model –so I had a built-in following of thirsty men, so long as I continued to pepper my social media feeds with provocative photos.
But when I switched gears to YouTubing, this began to feel distasteful — and disingenuous. YouTube is very strict with what level of nudity it allows, even more strict than Instagram and Facebook. So showing my bare butt on Instagram seemed like false advertising, since I wouldn’t be able to share the same content on YouTube.
Moreover, as my audience grew, I began to get more messages from women who were watching my content — who were inspired by my fearlessness. I’ve gotten some really meaningful messages from female viewers, and I didn’t want to alienate them by taking the cheap, sexualized route.
So (to the dismay of my longtime perv followers, I’m sure), over time my content has evolved to include far fewer nudies (although I still reserve the right to post one here and there, in homage to my free spirit –only the emphasis now isn’t so much on being a naked babe in the woods, it’s more about being naked and unafraid).
I now count about 15% of my viewers as female, which I consider a moderate victory. And again, I’m sure the word “hussy” in my name hinders that campaign –but for whatever reason, I am unwilling to change it.
So, this was a long way of saying that a good way to grow a social media audience is to post nude photos. But the best way to retain a quality audience is to be authentic.
(And consistent. Consistency is key! When I started YouTube, I picked Wednesday as the day I would upload a new video, and I have not missed doing so since 2016.)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Wonderhussy.com
- Instagram: Instagram com/wonderhussyadventures
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/wonderhussyadventures
- Linkedin: https://LinkedIn.com/in/sarah-jane-woodall
- Twitter: X,com/wonderhussy
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/Wonderhussy
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/8o9iIJbUwk
Image Credits
Jill Voss (bicycle)
Ben Phillippi (American flag)
M. Mayhem (cowboy hat)
Surfer D (campfire)
CJ Photo (desert panorama)
MG Imagery (pink dress)