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Reign works as a stripper. She tells us exactly what she earns and spends in a month.

This post deals with assault and may be triggering for some readers. 

After working as a stripper for two years, Reign knows one thing to be true; "It’s nothing like the movies".

"I walked into this job thinking it was just going to be stacks on stacks and a party every weekend, but it's really not," she told Mamamia.

The 21-year-old works at a strip club in Brisbane, and shares her day-to-day life on TikTok with her 270,000 followers.  

But while Reign says stripping isn’t like what we see on our TV screens, it was actually movies that first piqued her interest in it. 

"I watched a lot of dancing movies growing up and that just made me think, 'Oh wow look how much money they make. [And] they get to look pretty and they get to dance.' As a kid I thought 'I want to do that.'"

Image: Supplied. 

For Reign, the "sexual" aspect of the job didn’t bother her. 

"Having to actually be naked was never a problem," she explained. 

However, it wasn't until after she finished her nursing diploma and left a toxic relationship, that she decided to get into the industry.

"I was freshly single and I needed something to do. I didn't want to work a normal job. So I thought this was the perfect time to get into the industry and give it a go."

Working as a stripper certainly isn’t your typical nine-to-five job. For one thing, Reign's shift starts at 9pm. But the prep starts hours before. 

A week in Reign’s life.

Reign works at the strip club four nights a week. When she's not stripping, she's posting videos to her OnlyFans account and baby sits for her friends to earn extra cash on the side. 

"I work [at the club] from Thursday to Sunday. On Wednesday nights, I try to stay up as a long as I can to change back over to the night shift… and then I'll try to sleep in during the day on Thursday."

"As soon as I wake up, I start prepping....to wash my uniform, make sure my shoes are clean, make sure my nails are nice, and my hair is washed and brushed."

When 6pm hits she starts getting ready for the night, spending an hour on her hair and an hour on her makeup. 

Once she's ready, she'll drive to work arriving at 8:40pm ahead of her 9pm shift. 

After she arrives, Reign pays the club $30 in house fees, which covers expenses such as her locker and pole hire for the night. 

Then, it’s time to freshen up. 

Down at the locker room she will quickly touch up her makeup and get dressed into what she’s wearing for the night before heading to the bar. 

"Most of your clientele will probably be at the bar. I just keep going around and I'll talk to as many customers as possible. If I get lucky, I'll go for a dance and if I don't, I’ll go on stage."

"Once I'm done on stage, I'll have a 10-minute break. I try to have my break early because from 12am to 3am is when we're really busy and they're money-making hours. If I haven't been booked then I just keep going around the bar and on stage, and basically repeat that the whole night."

During the night, Reign might also spend time in one of the club's booths, where clients can party and hang with the girls for anywhere between $600 to $1,600. 

For Reign, the best part of the job is being booked in the club’s VIP room. 

"I really like the VIP room, because sometimes it can be really awkward just doing a one-on-one dance with customers on the floor. But in VIP there's multiple girls and people and it's just like a party in a room."

Reign might also get booked for a lap dance, which could last anywhere from 10 minutes (which costs $100) to three hours (which costs $700). The 21-year-old also gets to keep a 60 per cent cut from each service and pockets all of her tips. 

But even when Reign is booked for a lap dance, she doesn't spend the entire time dancing. 

In fact, most of the time is usually spent simply sitting and chatting with the clients naked.

"Most of the time they just come in to vent and just want to talk about what's bothering them like how much they hate their job or how much they don't like their partner… You're basically like a therapist."

Over the course of the night, people of all ages and genders will walk through the club's door, ranging from 18 to 94 - Reign's oldest client. 

But she says the best clients are 50 to 60-year-old men.

"Older Australians are the nicest and the most willing to spend. They are a lot more respectful and understanding of how strip clubs work and are more willing to tip and book girls."

After a busy night, Reign will leave the club and get home around 4:30am. 

"I’ll have a shower and go to sleep. And then I repeat that for three nights... So it's not an easy job. It's really time-consuming but people underestimate what strippers do."

After a typical week, Reign will usually pocket anywhere from around $1,000 to $3,000.

However, she says "money does come in waves". 

The club has only just started picking back up a few months ago post COVID.

Before that, there were some nights she would be lucky to walk out with $200 and others where she would leave empty-handed. 

Image: Supplied.

Reign’s monthly expenses. 

Out of the money Reign does make, she has to put a large chunk towards her outfits, shoes and beauty supplies. 

"The club does not offer you anything at all, so you have to buy everything yourself like deodorant, bandaids, fake tan, eyelashes, nails, hairspray... basically everything that you think that you would need to get ready on a night out."

"And when you’re using it four nights a week, you go through so much perfume because you're constantly freshening up. So it is actually really, really expensive to maintain and a lot of people don't understand that. You might make $500 that weekend, but a lot of that gets spent back on yourself."

Reign says it easily costs her over $500 a month to maintain everything. Shoes in particular are one of her biggest expenses. The 21-year-old will spend $350 on new heels every six to 12 months. 

"You wear them for such a long time… so you'll have to go through quite a lot of pairs. I think they're just made to look pretty, I don't think you're actually meant to dance in them so they just break. I've had pairs break literally on the first night of wearing them."

She also spends money updating her wardrobe to "spice things up" for her regulars. She will usually buy three new outfits, ranging from $80-100 each, every six months.

A popular option at the club are sparkly one piece bikinis known as slingshots. 

For Reign, the sparklier the outfit, the better. 

"I personally think go big or go home. I always say the more sparkly and the more you stand out, the more eyes are going to look at you and the more clientele you're going to bring in. If you're just wearing a plain black bikini and a girl is wearing a diamante one piece, you already know which girl you're going to look at the most."

Here's a look at some of the other things Reign has to spend money on during the year. 

Image: Mamamia.

Despite all the added expenses, Reign says she loves her job and the chance to "get dressed up and feel pretty and sexy". 

However, there are times customers body-shame the workers, which is sadly something Reign regularly has to deal with. 

"Some of the clientele that come in can be absolutely horrible," she shared. 

"They'll tell you straight to your face that they don't like what you're wearing, or if you're too big for them, or you're too tall or to short for them. And they don't see anything wrong with it at all."

"It's really horrible, but it's just one of those things that unfortunately, you just kind of have to brush off."

For that reason, Reign says confidence is key to surviving in the industry. 

"If you have this job, and you have no confidence, it's not going to work. It's so sad but you have to like the way you look because when you get hate, and when these men are telling you, 'you're so fat' or 'you're so ugly', it doesn't bother you as much." 

Another thing she wishes she knew before starting the job is how common assaults are.

"I didn't think it was ever going to be nearly every single shift," she said. 

At the club, all clients need to abide by standard rules; no touching areas where a g-string covers and maintain a six-inch gap between their genitals and the dancer's. 

"It only takes one second for a guy to break the rules and you've been sexually assaulted... You have to explain the rules every time before you start the dance because it's protocol but they still don't listen."

Reign says her club has processes in place to deal with incidents when they happen.

Aside from those who don't follow the rules, Reign and the other girls are also able to refuse any customer, including those who are rude or have poor hygiene.  

"You can decline anybody. You're not forced to dance with someone."

If someone doesn't have the best hygiene, it's referred to as 'dirty money'.  

"If you really want that dirty money, then you obviously just suck it up and hold your breath. But if they smell so bad, you can decline."

For those thinking about pursuing a job in the same industry, Reign has some important advice:

"Definitely do it because you want to do it, not because you know someone else who's doing it.

"You've also got to be able to look out for your mental health... because this job is so mentally draining."

And for those who don't support the industry, Reign says, "just give it a chance and give it a go... and be open-minded about the topic. 

"A lot of people who hate it are uneducated on it, so if you take the time and learn about it, it could change a lot of your opinions on the industry."

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home. 

Feature Image: Supplied/Mamamia. 

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