In the span of just 3 hours, Lil Tay turned 18, launched her content creation business, and made a million dollars on OnlyFans. If you find yourself clutching your pearls, ask yourself why you even knew it was her 18th birthday in the first place.
If you (like me) have spent the last week wondering who the hell Lil Tay is, let me tell you all the things I have learned against my will. She’s a viral child star who blew up at the tender age of 9 for flexing Lambos and dropping F-bombs on Instagram. She was branded as the “youngest flexer of the century,” and yes, that is a direct quote. She became internet famous for being a walking meme and a wee tornado of chaos. She dropped off the grid after a bit of controversy, then popped back on the scene with more mystery than a recovering Disney star. If that’s not already more than enough, she had a freaking fake death hoax on Instagram when she was 14, which only compounded the weird lore surrounding her.
Lil Tay’s back again, and she turned 18 on July 29. The moment she was able to blow out her birthday candles, she launched her OnlyFans page to celebrate being a legal adult. That’s not the weird and sad part, though. Lil Tay shared screenshots showing that she made over $1 million in just 3 hours on the adults-only platform. She’s declared that she’s in her “bad bitch era,” but as it so often does, the internet has feelings.
As far as Lil Tay goes… get your bag, girl. She sees what so many young women see: there’s money on the table for barely legal women who will show up to say, “dibs, mine!” There is nothing wrong with young women capitalizing on the systems that were built to objectify them by utilizing platforms that are built to pay them directly for exactly that. Lil Tay’s taken control of her own narrative, image, and her own damn paycheck the exact same way we collectively witnessed with Bhad Bhabie, Courtney Stodden, and numerous others. She was just faster—and much louder—about it.
However. Do you know what’s weird? The sheer number of people who clearly had her 18th birthday on their radar. The same people who used to watch her online as a child were eagerly waiting to see “what she’d post” the moment she was legal. That’s not empowering. It’s predatory. If your browser history looks like a countdown clock to someone’s adulthood because you’re hoping to purchase access to nudes? It’s you. Hi. You’re the problem, it’s you. Lil Tay didn’t make society creepy—she just cashed in on other people’s gross.
To sum up: Lil Tay showed up and got paid. You go, girl. Everyone who was eagerly waiting to hit that “subscribe” button? It’s time to seek therapy. So much therapy.
