Abstract:
Not all superheroes wear uniforms, sometimes they wear nothing at all. For example, Maeurn Smiles, a Filipino internet celebrity who has more than 3 million Instagram fans and earns six figures a month on the adult content payment platform OnlyFans. On OnlyFans, she provides a service called "online girlfriend experience" and is very popular among subscribers.
She often communicates with subscribers and even remembers everyone's name, giving people the feeling of a "girlfriend who can communicate". Maeurn Smiles herself also bluntly stated in the interview that some fans fell in love with her because they felt they were understood. It can be said that
is taking a different approach on the crowded adult track and focusing on an emotional value.
Of course, if that's all, then I don't need to write a special article to introduce her. In fact, she not only wanted to satisfy the curiosity of adults, but also wanted to give children who were full of curiosity a chance to receive education - for this reason, she chose to build a school in her hometown.
According to the official website of the education project "Mundo and Mae Educ" founded by Maeurn Smiles, she plans to build a school with more than ten classrooms in her hometown to provide educational services to nearly 300 local children.
Judging from the actual progress of the project, she has spent 1.75 million Philippine pesos in 2024 to buy a piece of land for the construction of a school. She initially planned to donate the land, but later decided to go further and personally promote the construction of the school. Then, she opened a small children's learning center in 2025, where local children can conduct science experiments, cooking activities and other manual learning. In addition, the education project is providing local communities with educational support such as school supplies.
Although the planned school building has not been officially completed so far, the current progress of the project can be regarded as some results, and some children have received practical help-perhaps as the relevant projects continue to advance, more children with educational difficulties will be helped in the future, which is also a good thing.
But obviously, this highly contrasting thing cannot end here. As the news of the establishment of Maeurn Smiles school exploded, the whole thing still caused a lot of controversy and discussion due to its identity as an adult content creator.
First of all, from a moral perspective, some netizens have criticized Maeurn Smiles’ profession. Although it is a good thing to donate money for charity, it does not mean that the profession itself is worthy of recognition.
Many people believe that she is just using public welfare activities such as building schools to whitewash her image, or to gilt her image. Others said that they hope that children who have received help will not regard Maeurn Smiles as their role model in life for this reason.
Some people have also raised corresponding doubts about the motives of Maeurn Smiles' behavior. They suspect that Maeurn Smiles is using children - she ties herself to public welfare undertakings in the name of building a school. I would like to ask, if her purpose is really purely public welfare, is it necessary to deliberately disclose her identity as an adult creator?
Some people think that this "adult star doing charity" plot is too dramatic and too powerful to spread. The relevant news was published in many different sections in a short period of time. They suspect that this is a well-planned advertisement that uses emotions for marketing, with the purpose of increasing fans.
What's more, even if the above-mentioned doubts are suspended for the time being, just looking at the questions about subsequent operations, there are also netizens who are thinking about how to maintain the follow-up daily expenses such as teachers' salaries - can Maeurn Smiles really remain top-notch on OnlyFans?
Of course, questioning is only one aspect. There will be another group of netizens who don't care too much about her previous experiences - as long as those children really get help, it doesn't seem to matter how the money came from. What's more, the two are not necessarily an either/or relationship. Questions about morality and behavioral motivations, and the actual help the children receive, can be discussed in two aspects.
As for Maeurn Smiles, her income obviously comes from adult content creation, which may not be in line with everyone's moral values, but when consumers of adult content voluntarily pay, this income cannot be compared with illegal gains such as fraud or robbery (of course, it still depends on local laws) - therefore, this is more like an ethical discussion.
Regarding these discussions, a Filipino netizen who claimed to live near the education center said that the reason why Maeurn Smiles wanted to help the children here was mainly because she herself had lived in a similar environment. Moreover, this netizen also expressed his dissatisfaction with the local education issues in the Philippines. He is very happy to see the emergence of people like Maeurn Smiles - no matter how she earns her money.
Indeed, in related interviews, Maeurn Smiles once mentioned that he was born in a poor family and wanted to be a teacher since he was a child. However, due to family circumstances, he could not afford the tuition fees, so he was forced to interrupt his studies at the age of 17.
After dropping out of school, she first tried teaching English to Chinese students through the Internet to support her family, and she was also engaged in education. But the pay for this online job is too low. When working 10 to 12 hours a day, the hourly wage is only one dollar. So, she chose a way to earn more money faster and became a different kind of teacher.
This career change gave her an instant enlightenment. She not only mastered the key to subscription-based services, but also summarized a set of methodologies that can be called the Love Suppression Theory. From then on, she became prosperous and achieved a leap in income.
In fact, in an interview in 2021, she already stated that she relied on her OnlyFans subscription to pay for her family's tuition, build a new house, and lift her family out of poverty. So much so that now, she has extra ability to help other children receive education, which can also be said to be fulfilling her childhood dream.
On the other hand, from the perspective of the local education situation in the Philippines, it is not difficult to understand why Maeurn Smiles chose to invest this money in building schools. According to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the incidence of household poverty in the area where Maeurn Smiles’ hometown is located is higher than the national average in the Philippines.
At the same time, in a press release issued by the World Bank in April this year, it was also mentioned that about 91% of ten-year-old children in the Philippines are unable to read and understand age-appropriate texts - a phenomenon known as "learning poverty."
In other words, the local area may face economic difficulties and be unable to provide children with adequate educational resources, or it may face defects in educational resources that make it difficult for children to learn knowledge. In fact, many of the doubters mentioned above are already worried about this.
Looking at it this way, the moral discussion surrounding Maeurn Smiles’ professional identity has become the most insignificant part of the systemic problem. Guan Zhong said that if the warehouse is solid, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace. Maybe for those children who really lack educational resources, instead of delving into how the money comes from, it is better to get the opportunity to get an education first.
As for the controversy over identity on the Internet, I don’t think it’s all a bad thing – if it weren’t for this rather special professional identity, I’m afraid it would be difficult for this matter to cause any waves on the Internet.
For example, there was a previous anchor named "Hao H Good Female Killer". Her daily live broadcast style was large-scale and she also provided paid private photos.
But outside of the live broadcast, she is also a rural teaching volunteer - according to reports at the time, she taught for nearly a month at the end of 2018. In 2019, she stopped broadcasting for half a month to teach in the mountains of Guizhou, and also worked as a volunteer in a temple. Moreover, she did not even intend to use these experiences to add any gimmicks to her live broadcast career, and specifically reminded the audience not to discuss this matter in the live broadcast room.
So, after these two completely different images were discovered by netizens, she quickly came out of the circle and was called a real female Bodhisattva by many people. At the same time, she faced the same doubts about "creating people". Amid the sudden popularity and public opinion, her final choice was to clear all content on Weibo and completely fade away from the Internet.
Similar debates have actually not stopped until now. For example, in August this year, Japanese adult actress Tanano donated 3 million yen to the Kumamoto earthquake-stricken area, hoping to help the victims. But for her good deed, some netizens commented, "Although it is dirty money, thank you anyway," showing a negative attitude towards the source of the money.
Tian Tianyou's answer is that you cannot deny such support just because of your professional status - a donation is a donation, and the most important thing is to let it reach the hands of those who really need it.
The same is true for Maeurn Smiles. No matter whether the netizens are white or black, whether Maeurn Smiles is diverting traffic or sincere or a combination of both, this will at least play some role in making more people pay attention to this school and those children who lack educational resources.
Maybe this can really give more children the opportunity to receive education?
But this is not about Maeurn Smiles alone.
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