Fresh Faces: Jenna Starr

A version of this feature appears in the June issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES — Jenna Starr admits she wasn’t all that familiar with Brazzers when the studio booked her first sex scenes last year. “I really didn’t know what I was walking into,” Starr says. “I knew they were a big company and they came to me and asked me to shoot for them.” Starr already had been dabbling with amateur content for her OnlyFans and when she went out “people would always ask me if I was a porn star or tell me I looked like a porn star or exotic dancer. “So I thought I might as well try it.” Not only did Starr give porn a shot, her third ever sex scene with Brazzers — a threeway with Kayley Gunner and Kyle Mason — exceeded one million views on the heavyweight site last year en route to it being declared the most watched scene of 2021. Starr at press time had 10 scenes on Brazzers with many more to come since debuting on the site in March 2021. AVN Hall of Famer Toni Ribas directed her viral scene — which was titled “Fucking The Slutty Scrunchie Lickalikes” — in Las Vegas. “It was just a lot of fun really,” Starr recalls. “[Kyle Mason and Kayley Gunner] were both pretty laid back and chill, so we just had fun and laughed all day.” As with all of her early scenes, Starr confesses, “I didn’t know who anybody was — nobody. I didn’t watch porn. People are still throwing names at me.” Now she is on her way to becoming a big name herself. All of Starr’s success on Brazzers inspired her to broaden her horizons, signing with OC Modeling for representation this year so she could begin working with other studios. “Which is what I’m doing now,” Starr explains. “I’m still technically extremely new. It’s weird because it’s been a year’s worth of time, but I was just shooting for Brazzers. It wasn’t a lot of work I guess. It gives me a really big kickstart though.” Starr primarily performed in solo content for her OnlyFans, but she also mixed in some boy/girl, girl/girl and threesomes. “I was already doing OnlyFans for a solid three years and I wanted to have multiple streams of income,” says Starr, who notes that 2019 was the first year she started making any money on the platform. “It was just a little bit and then in 2020 is when I said, ‘OK, I really want to start doing it,” she recalls. “I was struggling with the idea of how people were going to treat me and I just kind of got over it. I did have a few people who encouraged me and told me, ‘Fuck what other people think.’ “I finally got to the point where I realized people who have opinions about me and judge me aren’t going to pay my bills.” A native of Sacramento, Calif., Starr moved to Austin, Texas in 2016 with about $11,000 in savings. Resourceful and determined to make a living, she started a cosmetology business from scratch. “In 10 months, by October, I had gotten my business off the ground and I was making six figures,” Starr says. “And I had that business for five years.” Starr did micro-blading, eye-lash extensions, spray tans and waxing. “I was one of the one first people to start doing micro-blading,” says the 33-year-old performer, who went to beauty school and got her cosmetology license when she was 21. “When I got my business off the ground it was like an epiphany that not only can I do what I want, but clearly I understand finances and marketing. I did all my own marketing  — every part of the business I did. Now I have so much confidence. Now the past is a joke.” By the time she closed her business due to Covid she had already been in the beauty industry for 11 years, navigating various phases in which she worked for other people and then worked for herself. Now she appreciates the freedom that adult affords her. “I don’t have to answer to anyone,” Starr says. “If I don’t want to work, I don’t. If I want to jump up and fly to Mexico, I can.” Even though she is new to doing porn full time, she’s no stranger to fanfare. Many of the fans she has today have been following her since 2017. That was when she was asked to do a photoshoot by the same photographer who captured her wedding. Starr would later get divorced but that didn’t stop that photographer from encouraging her to step back in front of her camera. “She was like, ‘Hey, I think you would be really phenomenal.’ And I told her, ‘I’m not a model,’” Jenna says. “She said, ‘I think you would be fantastic.’ So she talked me into it. And I looked at it like it was an empowering thing.” Once Jenna started posting those photos online and tagging the photographer, many other seasoned pros wanted to shoot her, too. “And I started doing it and it became a hobby and I started getting some followers,” Jenna recalls. “I wanted to grow my following for whatever the future was going to hold.” She already had the wisdom that only comes with experience. Starr had been taking care of herself since she was “homeless” at 16 and then lived in multiple cities in both California and Texas, venturing to another place when there was a better opportunity elsewhere. She still remembers being told she was “a failure” in school, when she got bad grades and was “always in trouble.” In addition to not listening to the naysayers as she adapted and survived, Starr also has learned how to manage her ADHD. “‘You’re pretty, but you’re stupid’ was basically what people told me,” Starr says. “I never knew I was smart. I wanted to work so hard to prove myself to everybody.” And with all she’s overcome to arrive at this point of her life, Starr says now her approach is about “putting one foot forward every day.” “I don’t have a five-year goal anymore, I stopped doing that,” Jenna says. “I create a lot of shorter-term goals instead of trying to come up with a whole five-year plan. If you stick to a whole five-year plan you’re either going to be depressed or broken down on the side of the road or stuck in something.” The good news for the fans of adult entertainment is that Starr believes she’s just warming up. “I can intuitively sense a lot is going to happen this year,” she says. “With me personally, my career and financially. Last year even after the setback of Covid I multiplied my income times five. “Now without the setback, this year is going to be even better… So I’m just going with my intuition and seeing where it takes me.” Some of her most recent performances include a three-way for Digital Playground in which she squared off with Zoey Sinn and Air Thugger on a jet; and encounters for Girlfriends Films, New Sensations, Lethal Hardcore, Perv City and Nympho, among others. “I have a lot of scenes finally coming out. This year is going to be a lot bigger year,” Starr says. It already is. “I think she leapfrogged past a lot of talent in the industry,” OC Modeling’s Sandra McCarthy tells AVN. “Her first scenes were with Brazzers and she continues to shoot with them. As she grows and develops her internet presence, so will her fanbase and if she sticks around she can have a healthy career.” Photography by @kb2splashy