A teacher at a Catholic school for infants in Italy was suspended after parents discovered she was moonlighting as an OnlyFans creator in her spare time.
Elena Maraga, 29, was put on leave from her job at a nursery school near Treviso, in northern Italy, yesterday after a parent of a child at the school recognised her selling raunchy content online.
The parent brazenly notified other parents through social media of their unlikely discovery, before they took the matter to the school.
When pressed to delete her account, Maraga pushed back. She has argued in interviews that what she does in her free time ‘does no harm to anyone’ and said her teaching salary of around 1,200 euros (£1,000) a month is ‘unsustainable’ on its own.
The school nonetheless decided to suspend her, judging that her behaviour was not in line with the religious values of the institution.
But her story has garnered sympathy from parents, who continue to praise her ‘fantastic’ work with children – and support her case that her ‘external’ work does not affect her ability to teach.
Maraga said that she had started looking at other careers after struggling as a poorly-paid teacher.
‘That’s why I had already considered other careers. I know friends who earn very well,’ she said.
‘I simply thought that I’m proud of the physical results I’ve achieved and I like to show them off.’
Maraga told Italian media she has a degree in Educational Sciences and has five years of experience working in a Catholic nursery school.
‘I love teaching children, it’s my calling,’ she told Open. ‘But I earn much more on the Internet.’
‘I opened OnlyFans a month ago, partly for fun, partly out of curiosity, partly to see if you could really earn money.
‘In one day I get a month’s salary.’
Maraga’s case has come to national attention and found the backing of Italy’s biggest trade union.
Alvise Sponza, general secretary of the Cgil Flc (Federation of Knowledge Workers) of Treviso, said today that it would be unfair to dismiss her for her work outside of school.
‘Whoever intends to fire her does not have the law on their side,’ he said.
‘There is no point in the contract that prohibits doing anything in their free time, and if this is legal, no one can contest it.’
But the education ministry in Italy has vowed to draw up a new code of ethics that would ban teachers from appearing on such websites, per the Telegraph.
For her part, Maraga is adamant that she should be able to continue moonlighting on the site.
She said in interviews that what she does on OnlyFans ‘does no harm to anyone … people should be allowed to do what they like in their private lives’.
‘I am not ashamed of what I do.’
Maraga insists that she is ‘adult and aware’ of what she is doing.
Her parents ‘know about my “extra work” life and don’t agree,’ she said.
‘But they say that at almost 30 I can make the choices I want.’
‘My body is the result of hard work in bodybuilding, I think it is right to enhance it, even economically,’ she told local media.
She also told Open that she has backing of some of the parents at the school.
‘I’m not collecting signatures to avoid being fired, as has been written,’ she said.
‘But there are some mothers who want to support me. They want me to continue teaching their children.’
The industry has seen a boom since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is now believed millions of people produce content for subscriptions sites such as OnlyFans, Just for Fans and Clips4Sale, said Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry.
“I think that there was a time prior to the pandemic where the idea that someone might become a porn star was akin to saying that someone might be abducted by aliens,” Stabile told the Associated Press in late 2023.
“I think that what the pandemic and the sort of explosion of fan content showed was that a lot of people were open to doing it.”
It frequently proves risky, though. A report at the time found 3 in 5 adult entertainment performers have experienced employment discrimination.
The report, based on a survey of more than 600 people in the industry, said 64% of adult creators have no other significant source of income, while there were no details on the occupations of those who did.
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