- Zara Dar left her PhD in bioengineering to become a full-time creative, including at OnlyFans.
- She switched to content creation after becoming frustrated with academia.
- Her content combines STEM education with more adult OnlyFans, where she has earned more than $1 million.
A bioengineer who once thought she would become a professor decided to drop out of her PhD program and become a full-time creator, including creating content on OnlyFans.
The 24-year-old from Texas, who goes by the moniker Zara Dar on social media, knew it was a gamble, but she couldn’t see herself following in her professor’s footsteps.
Dar sent Business Insider her OnlyFans dashboard, which shows her net income since she started on the site in January 2022 was $1.4 million, putting her in the top 0.1% of creators. In an interview with BI, she said the amount was “something I never imagined possible”.
She earned $50,000 in her first three months on OnlyFans. Now she posts more regularly. Her earnings for December 2024 were $240,000.
After starting OnlyFans, Dar began posting lectures on YouTube and Pornhub in 2023, focusing on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Her YouTube and Pornhub accounts link to her OnlyFans page and use users there.
On OnlyFans, in addition to posting STEM content, she posts erotic photo shoots and exchanges messages with fans, a major source of income for creators on the platform. According to her dashboard, Dar’s total income from texting is $661,000.
Dar said that doing STEM lectures on YouTube and PornHub alongside adult content on OnlyFans “makes my approach not only unique, but more relevant to who I am.”
She chose OnlyFans after becoming frustrated with the academy
Dar spent two years in graduate school at a top-tier university, earning a master’s degree and working toward a doctorate in biomedical engineering. Dar does not reveal where he studied publicly for privacy reasons. BI has verified her degree and confirmed the institution.
Dar told BI that she left her PhD program at the end of 2024 after realizing it “wasn’t the right fit”.
Her doctoral research was in computational biology and drug discovery, where she explored how computational models can replace animal drug experiments.
But her quest was less practical than she thought. Her professors seemed to spend more time trying to secure funding than working in the lab, she said.
“I think, as a professor, I would feel disconnected from the actual work associated with my name,” Dar said.
Dar said the salary she received as a PhD student was “barely enough to cover basic living expenses”, which was stressful. She began to think of other ways to earn a living.
Zara Dar and her sticker from YouTube, marking the achievement of 100,000 subscribers. Zara Dar
Her STEM degree led to OnlyFans promoting her work
Dar found that her STEM niche set her apart on OnlyFans, which promoted her videos on the homepage.
Her YouTube channel recently reached 150,000 subscribers. Her videos include explanations of neural networks, machine learning concepts, and how she developed her OnlyFans notification bot.
“It made me realize that I could have an actual career continuing to share educational and artistic content on OnlyFans,” said Dar.
Dar has had obstacles. Her Instagram, where she discussed topics such as the Leidenfrost effect and Schrödinger’s cat, was banned for sexual content because she was showing cleavage, which reduced her income. The account has since been reinstated.
She has focused more on her social media presence since leaving school.
Her YouTube video about dropping out of her PhD made Zar $40,000 in just 24 hours — more than her annual salary as a graduate student, she told BI.
Dar said several management companies have approached her to offer their services to help her run her site, but she has turned them down so far.
Dar said that OnlyFans is not for everyone
For many people, OnlyFans does not provide a steady income. The total paid to creators in 2023 equaled nearly $1,300 per creator, according to an analysis by Variety. Dar said she has to constantly post videos and photos and interact with fans to stay popular. The main funnel for Dar’s OnlyFans is her STEM content on YouTube and Pornhub, which is hard work but something she enjoys.
She also worries about her privacy. “Being so visible online has its downsides,” she said.
She said many people assumed she had abandoned STEM by doing OnlyFans.
“The truth is quite the opposite. OnlyFans has given me the freedom to learn, research and share everything I’m passionate about,” said Dar.
Zara Dar has found her niche with STEM content. Zara Dar
Regardless of how much she earns, Dar said she is careful with her money, investing it, trying to live frugally and avoiding luxury purchases.
Dar advised creators considering OnlyFans to find a niche and “never do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“My experience at OnlyFans proves that you don’t need to create porn to make a significant income,” she said.
Dar said that there is a diverse range of content on OnlyFans and she aims to be unique with her erotic content by only posting artistic photoshoots that she feels reflect who she is.
“One of my photoshoots explores the two paths I face in life: to continue working for others or to work independently,” she said.
“On that set, I wrote a poem inspired by Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ and wore a hard hat while topless to symbolize the choices before me.”
Dar told BI that, in addition to creating her own content, she would like to offer online STEM courses or start a social media consultancy. She is also pursuing another master’s degree in computer science online.
“Working full-time online allows me to continue my education at my own pace and research what I like,” she said.
