YouTuber quits PhD course to become full-time OnlyFans creator. She has earned $1 million so far

YouTuber Zara Dar has made headlines by abandoning her PhD aspirations to pursue a career as a full-time OnlyFans creator. Once an advocate for women in science and technology, the former computer science researcher shared her journey in a candid YouTube video titled "PhD Dropout to OnlyFans Model."

"Moving on to doing OnlyFans and content creation full-time—it’s not just a career choice; it feels kind of like a gamble on the direction of my entire life," said Dar, whose channel boasts over 1 lakh subscribers and previously featured tutorials on machine learning and neural networks.

Dar’s decision stemmed from a disillusionment with the academic and corporate worlds. While considering a future as a professor mentoring students, she grew critical of the systemic limitations that stifled personal growth and financial freedom.

"People whose lifestyles I thought I envied are tied to someone else's vision. They'll spend their lives working for a company and doing things they don't necessarily enjoy," she remarked. "Their work might win someone else's wealth and fame while they stay in the background, expendable, constantly worrying about getting laid off."

Dar, who earned a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas, expressed frustration with the grind of academia, where she felt constrained by the demands of funding agencies and the bureaucracy of institutional expectations.