Sending Cam Girls Gifts In The Age of Coronavirus

With little else to do but watch porn and shop online, cam girls are raking it in, both monetarily and materialistically. 

By Leslie Gonzalez

Who doesn’t love 1) gifts, 2) free things, and 3) surprises in the mail? (Lacey London)

Lacey London’s Amazon wish list is separated into three categories: “Kawaii Cutiee,” “Femme Domme,” and “Pink Shit.”

Each has products every girl could possibly want, like shoes and clothing or a white vanity set — plus a few juicier goodies like a glass dildo, nipple pasties, an anal plug with a fox tail on the end, and a $70 pink, carbon steel Japanese katana sword. And that is only a pinch of the vast amount of desired gifts that makes up London’s public wish list.

Read: “Customers Sometimes Receive Unwanted Sex Toys From Amazon”

A veteran cam girl in Denver, Colorado, London has figured out how to convince her customers to send her gifts safely and artfully. In doing so, she rewards them with special one-on-one private sessions, photos, and videos. It’s a tactic she uses to drive fans to her channel, and in the age of coronavirus, it seems to be working particularly well.

“I’ve received more gifts during quarantine than normal,” she told OK Whatever.

The idea of receiving goodies in the mail and getting paid by complete strangers can be a turn-on. So much so that many are turning on their webcams to get on the action.

Coronavirus has been good for the adult entertainment industry. Since the pandemic began, adult websites have been receiving record-high traffic. Compared to March, Pornhub’s traffic for April was up by 22% on any given day. 

It’s not hard to see why.

With many of us furloughed or shuffling in the unemployment line, what else is there to do but watch porn and experience the instant gratification that comes with it?

And it’s not just viewers flocking to porn sites.  There has been a steady rise of women signing-up on webcamming sites in the rise of coronavirus. In an article for Rolling Stone, Ethen Seinfeld, CEO of the subscription service IsMyGirl, said new sign-ups went up 300% over a two-and-a-half-week period in March. Most of them were fledgling cam models new to the industry.

Webcamming is a transitory industry, a revolving door for those who think they can tackle something as “easy” as masturbating in front of a camera. For every new cam girl that joins, there are also dropouts who’ve tried and, in the end, decided the industry isn’t for them.

As for London, who’s been in the industry for six years, she already knows there’s more to webcamming than just pleasuring herself before a network of viewers.

London often wears gifts she’s received from fans when she webcams. (LL)

It’s a game of tug-of-war that she enjoys playing and thrives in, but not all webcammers have the same ingenuity or ambitions it takes to be a successful cam girl.

“You have to be consistent,” London said. “You have to market everything. Use social media and multiple platforms so that you can have the biggest range. … There is so much competition out there that you have to differentiate yourself from the next person. You have to do this as if it were a job — and it is.”

Read: “How Strip Clubs Are Handling The Coronavirus Outbreak - So Far”

Webcamming takes dedication, self-promotion, and creativity. London makes it a point to include whimsical, cosplay items on her wish list to hook viewers.

Most remain anonymous when sending their gifts, but others aren’t afraid to send short notes. They’re usually about the item they purchased for her, stuff like “I can’t wait to see you make a video in this” or “I thought this would look really sexy on you.” London said she enjoys these occasional interactions because they make the gift-giving experiences more fun and interactive for both the customers and herself.

“My customers really like to build their own fantasies for me,” London said.

More often than not, those fantasies include the color pink and anime cosplay, a large and increasingly popular niche that London rarely sees being explored by black women on webcam sites.

London has found creative ways to show her love for anime — like wearing it on her underwear. (LL)

“You mostly see it in Asian and white women, but you rarely see a black girl that dresses up into cosplay,” London said. “That’s what I focus on.”

On both Twitter and Instagram, you can find London in a range of costumes, including anime characters such as Nora from “RWBY,” animals such as a sexy kitten or bunny, or a cute maid’s uniform. Dressing up is a practice London is not only fond of, but it’s a fetish many of her viewers respond to as well. That response has grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic.

Through her camming sessions on Chaturbate and MyFreeCam, London attracts hundreds of fans a night, averaging about 2,500 viewers a week compared to around 700 before the pandemic.

She thinks it’s because “everyone is at home right now”  with little else to do than just watch her — and order her gifts.

Although it’s flattering, receiving gifts as a cam girl can be frightening — and even dangerous.

In the days before coronavirus, when London first began webcamming, she had a designated P.O. Box to receive her Amazon wish list deliveries so that no one would know her residential address.

Yep, elfin fetishes are totally a thing, and London has no issue tapping into it. (LL)

“I got scared. These are random people I don’t know, and I didn’t want to give them my address.”

But even using a P.O. Box felt too revealing. She was fearful of stalkers and obsessive fans who could use her post office as a potential ambush point.

Thankfully, London’s living conditions eventually changed and now the cam girl has gifts delivered to her leasing office, a location that is both convenient and more secure for her. 

“If you go through my leasing office, you can’t get into my apartments because you don’t have a key fob,” she said. “It’s safer for me.”

Adult entertainers who don’t have the luxury of forwarding deliveries to their leasing offices find that online stores like Amazon are at least discreet about sharing their personal information. When creating a wish list, there are privacy settings the user can turn on to keep their wish list public but their address hidden. So when a fan sends a cam girl a gift, they are none the wiser about where exactly it’s being sent. 

And, if a cam girl still feels uneasy about fans sending gifts to her address, Amazon Lockers are another option. Often found in public areas, such as at laundromats or in grocery and department stores, it’s another tactic that can be used to conceal where one lives.

Oh to be one of the balloons in that room… (LL)

London still receives deliveries through her leasing office, but now that coronavirus has struck, safety has become a concern for her yet again.  

For instance, even though she wants nothing more than to rip open her presents when they arrive, she won’t touch them for a day.

“I wear gloves and sit all of my items on my patio overnight prior to opening them,” London said. 

Whether it’s a new pair of platform heels or a steely, pink Japanese katana sword, a girl can have it all it seems, even in the middle of a pandemic.

Leslie Gonzalez is a writer who has written content about fashion, art, travel, and history. When she’s not writing, she’s reading fantasy novels or flagging down the mothership in Joshua Tree.

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