Cami Strella is talking about her recent journey – and escape from – the confines of a multilevel marketing scheme (MLM) that took over her life in a new article for Entrepreneur magazine, “This OnlyFans Star Was Once Part of a Fanatical MLM Cult: ‘I Was Forced Into Celibacy’.”

The Colorado-based model/performer, who now makes six figures a month on the popular subscriber platform, recalls, “This wasn’t like being a Mary Kay lady; there was a much deeper immersion of experience that many people in multilevel marketing companies have never had. This was deeply personal. It was about restructuring and reshaping you as an individual.”

Deeply in debt and struggling to work her way through college, Strella joined her brother among the ranks of Amway to enlist people as salespeople for health & beauty products but found herself caught up in a rigid system that trained her “to seek out the most desperate and vulnerable with the goal of retiring early by recruiting enough people to support myself financially.”

Meeting with MLM coaches impressed her enough to drop out of school: “Being around entrepreneurs with so much money really dazzled me… I gave up absolutely everything to pursue this, as I was inspired by all the cars, private jets, and travel my mentors participated in.”

Strella was required to become celibate, labeled a sex addict, and encouraged to see a trauma counselor to cure her, which she calls “slut conversion therapy,” before realizing the true nature of the situation she was in. “It took me a year to really admit and gain the self-awareness that this was, in fact, a cult,” she says, adding that she hopes that her story can help others avoid the same professional pitfalls.

While she admits she learned helpful sales techniques that have served her well as an OnlyFans model, Strella says that her current gig offers her the opportunity to support her philanthropic endeavors; she donates 10% of her monthly earnings to raise awareness and funds for causes around mental health, PTSD, and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), particularly for military veterans.

“My whole goal of getting into sex work was to support myself while I pursued something to help other people. Now I can help hundreds a day by funding research.”

​To read Strella’s story in full, visit Entrepreneur.com and be sure and follow ​Cami Strella on Twitter at @thecamistrella.