The diversity crowd is going to have a tough time increasing the number of women in tech as long as the women are able to get paid more for their less-technical talents.
The draw of making content can overwhelm just about anyone. That includes a bioengineer who was working on her PhD. Last year, Zara Dar made headlines when she shot up to the 0.3% of creators on OnlyFans making content as the “hot science girl.” She was bringing in $30k a month while furthering her education at the University of Texas at Austin. A few days ago, she announced on YouTube, where she has more than 100,000 subscribers, that she had made the decision to become a PhD dropout in order to focus on creating content full-time.
The self-described “nerd with a passion for art, fitness, and reading” admitted that it was a difficult decision to make. Dar said, “I’ve dropped out of my PhD. I’ve cried so much over this decision to quit my PhD, you know, because it’s a stressful decision, not that I’m particularly sad about it… 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.”
This hot science girl is now a PhD dropout, taking her talents to the content game full-time. The draw of furthering her engineering career was strong, but not as strong as doing content. That and having her life tied to someone else’s vision while working for a company, spending her time doing things she didn’t want to do wasn’t what she wanted for herself.
It’s fascinating to observe how fast the social justice movement is destroying itself as well as every corporation, institution, and industry it touches.