Not all superheroes wear costumes; sometimes they wear nothing at all.
Take, for example, the Filipino influencer Maeurn Smiles, who has over 3 million Instagram followers and earns six figures monthly on the adult content subscription platform OnlyFans.
On OnlyFans, she is quite popular among subscribers for providing a service akin to an "online girlfriend experience." She frequently interacts with her subscribers, even remembering each person's name, giving them the feeling of having a "communicative girlfriend." Maeurn Smiles herself stated bluntly in an interview that some fans fell in love with her because they felt understood. It can be said that she put heart into the crowded adult industry sector, focusing primarily on emotional value.
Of course, if that were all, I wouldn't need to write a special article to introduce her. In fact, she not only wants to satisfy adults' curiosity but also wants to give children full of求知欲 (thirst for knowledge) an opportunity for education—to this end, she chose to build a school in her hometown.
According to the official website of the educational 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.
In terms of actual project progress, she spent 1.75 million Philippine pesos in 2024 to purchase land for building a school. Initially, she planned to donate the land, but later decided to take it a step further by personally driving the school's construction. Subsequently, in 2025, she established a small children's learning center where local children can engage in science experiments, cooking activities, and other handicraft studies. Additionally, this educational project provides educational support to the local community, such as school supplies.
Although the planned school buildings have not yet been officially completed, the current project progress has yielded some results, providing tangible help to some children—perhaps as the related projects continue to advance, they may help more children facing educational difficulties in the future, which would be a good thing.
But obviously, this matter with such strong contrast could not end here. Along with the viral news of Maeurn Smiles building a school, the entire incident still sparked considerable controversy and discussion due to her identity as an adult content creator.
First, on a moral level, some netizens have criticisms regarding Maeurn Smiles' profession. Although donating money for charity is a good deed, it does not mean that the profession itself is worthy of recognition.
Many people believe that she is merely using charitable acts like building schools to whitewash or polish her image. Others have said that they hope the children who received help will not regard Maeurn Smiles as a role model in life because of this.
Regarding Maeurn Smiles' motivations, some have raised corresponding doubts, suspecting that Maeurn Smiles is exploiting children—using the name of building a school to bind herself to charitable causes. One might ask, if her purpose were truly pure charity, would it be necessary to deliberately disclose her identity as an adult content creator?
Others feel that the plot of an "adult star doing charity" is too dramatic and has too much viral potential. Related news was posted across many different sections in a short period, leading to suspicions that this was a pre-planned advertisement leveraging emotions for marketing purposes, aimed solely at gaining followers.
Moreover, even if we temporarily set aside the aforementioned doubts and focus only on questions regarding subsequent operations, some netizens are wondering how daily expenses such as teachers' salaries will be maintained—can Maeurn Smiles really remain a top creator on OnlyFans indefinitely?
Of course, skepticism is only one side of the coin. Another group of netizens paid little attention to her past experiences—as long as the children truly received help, the source of the money seemed irrelevant. Moreover, the two aspects are not necessarily mutually exclusive; questions regarding morality and behavioral motives can be discussed separately from the actual help the children received.
Applied to Maeurn Smiles, her income clearly comes from adult content creation. While this may not align with everyone's moral standards, given that consumers of adult content pay voluntarily, this income cannot be compared to illegal proceeds such as fraud or robbery (of course, subject to local laws)—thus, this is more of an ethical discussion.
Regarding these discussions, a Filipino netizen who claimed to live near the education center stated that the main reason Maeurn Smiles wanted to help the children there was because she had lived in a similar environment herself. Furthermore, this netizen expressed dissatisfaction with the local educational issues in the Philippines and was happy to see the emergence of people like Maeurn Smiles—regardless of how she earned her money.
Indeed, in relevant interviews, Maeurn Smiles mentioned that she was born into a poor family and had always hoped to become a teacher since childhood. However, due to her family's inability to afford tuition fees, she was forced to interrupt her studies at the age of 17.
After dropping out of school, she first tried teaching English to Chinese students online to supplement her family's income, which was indeed related to education. However, the pay for this online work was extremely low; working 10 to 12 hours a day yielded an hourly wage of only one dollar. Thus, she chose a faster path to earning money by becoming a different kind of teacher.
This career change led to her sudden enlightenment. She not only mastered the key to subscription-based services but also developed a methodology akin to "love suppression theory," allowing her to thrive and achieve a leap in income.
In fact, in an interview in 2021, she already stated that her OnlyFans subscriptions covered her family's tuition fees, allowed for the construction of a new house, and lifted her family out of poverty. Consequently, she now has the extra capacity to help other children receive an education, which can also be seen as fulfilling a childhood dream.
On the other hand, considering the current state of education in the Philippines, it is not difficult to understand why Maeurn Smiles chose to invest this money into building schools. According to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the poverty incidence rate in the area where Maeurn Smiles' hometown is located is higher than the national average in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, in a press release issued by the World Bank this April, it was also mentioned that approximately 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 that prevent children from accessing sufficient educational resources, or it may suffer from defects in educational resources that make it hard for children to acquire knowledge. In fact, many of the skeptics mentioned earlier have already expressed concerns about this point.
Looking at it this way, under systemic issues, the moral discussions surrounding Maeurn Smiles' professional identity have become the least significant part. As Guan Zhong said, "When granaries are full, people learn etiquette; when clothing and food are sufficient, people understand honor and disgrace." For those children truly lacking educational resources, it might be better to first obtain opportunities for education rather than delving deeply into how the money was earned.
Regarding these controversies arising from her identity online, I don't think they are entirely bad things—if it weren't for such a unique professional identity, this matter would likely not have caused much stir on the internet.
For example, there was previously a streamer named "Hao H Hao Female Killer," whose daily streaming style was quite risqué, and who also offered paid private photo sets.
But beyond streaming, she is also a volunteer rural teacher—according to reports at the time, she taught in rural areas for nearly a month in late 2018, stopped broadcasting for half a month in 2019 to teach in the mountainous areas of Guizhou, and even volunteered at temples. Furthermore, she did not intend to use these experiences as gimmicks for her streaming career and specifically reminded viewers not to discuss this matter in her live streams.
Thus, after netizens discovered these two starkly contrasting images, she quickly gained widespread attention, with many calling her a true "bodhisattva." At the same time, she faced accusations of "fabricating a persona." Amidst the sudden surge in popularity and public opinion, her final choice was to delete all content from her Weibo account and completely fade out from the internet.
Similar debates have not ceased even now. For instance, this August, Japanese adult film actress Tianye You donated 3 million yen to the earthquake-stricken areas of Kumamoto, hoping to aid disaster victims. However, regarding her charitable act, some netizens sharply commented, "Although it's dirty money, thanks anyway," expressing a negative attitude toward the source of the funds.
And Tianye You's response was that one should not deny such support simply due to professional identity—donations are donations, and the most important thing is to ensure they reach those who truly need them.
Maeurn Smiles' case is similar. Regardless of whether netizens are supporters or detractors, and regardless of whether Maeurn Smiles is seeking traffic, acting sincerely, or both, it will at least have some effect, drawing more attention to this school and those children lacking educational resources.
Perhaps this could indeed allow more children to access educational opportunities?
But this is no longer just Maeurn Smiles' personal matter.