She does porn to pay for school

UNITED STATES - Just a few days ago, nobody would have paid her much attention. At least, not at Duke University in the US.

There, she was Miriam Weeks, and she was among the hundreds of students working hard for a degree. But the 18-year-old's secret identity was blown when a fellow student outed her as a porn star, the New York Daily News reported.

Then she became an overnight success story - "Belle Knox" had more hits on Google than Pope Francis and Justin Bieber.

The law student was struggling to pay her school fees and acting in porn movies was a way of paying her way through college, UK daily The Independent reported.

She told the New York Daily News: "I really enjoy sex, so it just seemed like I could pay my way through college doing something I really love doing."

The US$47,000-a-year (S$60,000) tuition fees for the North Carolina school proved to be too much for her family to fork out. She said she could not risk taking out a loan and no amounts of shifts at fast food joints would have made up the amount.

"I didn't feel like I had a lot of options. I just Googled 'how to be a porn star', she said.

"It came up with all these modelling agencies, and I sent in my pictures and my height and weight. I was getting calls within days, with people saying they really wanted me."

She declined to tell the New York newspaper what her family made of her career - possibly because she hadn't yet told them. Her father is a doctor in Washington state.

But if they did not know then, they certainly do now - Knox revealed her true identity on American online magazine XOJane.

She also revealed her intention to complete her legal studies and to start a charity to help sex workers.

Get The New Paper for more stories.