An Instagram model and online sex worker from California has raised over £500,000 for charities fighting the Australian bushfires by selling nude pictures of herself. The wildfires have so far killed more than 20 people and claimed millions of acres of land.
Kaylen Ward, 20 - also known as The Naked Philanthropist on Twitter - began her fundraising efforts on Saturday evening, offering a naked picture to anyone who donated $10 to one of 20 charities (requesting proof of donation). She then offered a nude video to anyone who donated $100.
In just two days, Ward estimates she has raised over $700,000 (around £533,000), having received thousands of messages. She says she has had to hire four people to help sort through the DMs, working round the clock to verify donations and reply to messages. She has also stated she wants to start her own organisation selling nudes for a good cause.
‘I was seeing all the posts on Twitter about the Australian fires and I was really concerned there wasn't a lot of media coverage and not a lot of people donating,’ Ward told BuzzFeed News. ‘I was expecting to raise maybe $1,000 but the tweet blew up.’
However, despite starting the campaign on Twitter, news of her efforts spread to Instagram – where she had 50k followers - and her account was swiftly disabled for violating the app's guidelines. In a screenshot Ward posted, she states she was accused of posting ‘sexually suggestive content’, although she denies doing so. Her account has still not been enabled and a number of fake accounts have meanwhile been started in her name.
Ward claims her family has 'disowned' her since she went public with her sex work. Despite being open about her online sex work – publicising her 'Only Fan' account on Twitter which she used to send pictures and videos to subscribers – it seems her family was previously unaware of her activities.
Ward is only too aware of the devastation wildfires can cause, her family having to evacuate their California home last year during the Carr Fire that burned 200,000 acres. She told BuzzFeed she had to live on a houseboat for days, not knowing if their house would survive. While theirs did, a number of their neighbours’ homes burned. ‘I got to see first-hand how many people were affected,’ she said.
‘My IG got deactivated, my family disowned me, and the guy I like won’t talk to me all because of that tweet. But fuck it, save the koalas,’ Ward tweeted on Sunday evening.
She has also been subjected to online harassment and bullying, telling her followers the internet has become a 'dark place' since she began her fundraising efforts. Now, she has closed her DMs and is trying a different tactic to help those affected, offering to give her car away to a family in need in Australia.
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