LOS ANGELES — Fiery temptress Vanessa Veracruz ignites her every girl/girl scene with such authentic passion, they transcend mere performance to become voyeuristic fantasy.
Yet beneath the silky lingerie and come-hither glances, Veracruz is a boldly ambitious businesswoman, brandishing stiletto sharp confidence with calculated ease.
As an aspiring nurse in 2011, Veracruz first delved casually into adult to pay for school with cold hard cash, before she realized how lucrative such a career could be.
That entrepreneurial spirit led her to exclusively focus on girl/girl work, despite all the boy/girl opportunities the industry offers. It was a move that has uniquely defined her brand thus far.
She has now starred in over 120 films and made her directorial debut in February 2015 with “Living on Fantasy Lane” (SunLust/Vivid).
Last fall, she launched VanessaVeracruz.com, tantalizing her zealous fanbase with everything from custom videos to scintillating live cam shows. Soon thereafter, she banded together with Shyla Jennings, Kenna James, Bree Daniels and Karlie Montana to forge LVLZ.com, a joint platform for their official sites.
At the 2016 XBIZ Awards, Veracruz was crowned Girl/Girl Performer of the Year, and her kingdom has only just begun to shatter horizons.
XBIZ recently spoke with the reigning girl/girl queen about her professional journey and what she plans to conquer next.
XBIZ: Tell us about your evolution into a sex positive star. What led to your career in adult?
Veracruz: I was 24 years old, managing an urgent care facility and going to school full time for my Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN). I’ve always been very vocal about how important I think an education is — as cheesy as it sounds, knowledge is power.
It’s been interesting over the past 5 years seeing how close-minded people can be with pornography. Not only that, but the amount of discrimination we receive from different areas. People are afraid to talk sex. I recently wrote a blog about sex and how people are still to this day, afraid to talk about it.
It was just interesting hearing what people had to say, sharing their personal experiences. We offend people because we don’t fall into their “norm,” but their norm isn’t mine — I’m not ashamed of my sexuality or my job. I want to spread a positive message about how sex and self-love is a normal healthy thing.
What led to my career was pure spontaneity — I really believed at the time that I was going to be in the biz for a year tops, have crazy hot sex with the most beautiful women, then disappear, lol. Turns out, it was a great way to put myself through school. I was able to go for 2 full years, paying for my education in cash! Fuck you student loans, ha! Sorry, lol.
XBIZ: You describe yourself as bisexual. Why have you chosen to devote yourself to girl/girl work?
Veracruz: From day one I promised that I would stay true to myself and to remember my goal not only for the industry, but also for life. At one point, this all will end and I have to know for myself personally that I’m okay with all the decisions I’ve made.
Everyone is different — my comfort level is different from every single performer. Doesn’t make anyone better than anyone. Coming into the industry, my focus was girl/girl. I love shooting GG and there are so few performers that are GG only and I don’t blame them — the work is so limited.
I’ve said this over and over. You can’t just do GG, you have to do something on the side like webcam, which I do 25 hours every week for FreeWebCams.com. I’ve just never had the desire to shoot BG. Different strokes for different folks, but my area will always remain in GG porn.
XBIZ: Tell us about your directorial debut with SunLust’s “Living on Fantasy Lane” back in February 2015. What were the highlights and the challenges?
Veracruz: I was actually approached by the company PussyEatingClub.com to do the movie. They are mostly web-based, but distributed through SunLust Pictures, which is part of Vivid. This movie will forever remain special because I gave my fans complete control of who they wanted in this movie and what scenarios they wanted! So that was definitely the highlight! The challenge was the last minute cancellations, like any other movie.
XBIZ: Do you have any plans for directing more movies this year or will you primarily focus on being a performer?
Veracruz: I would absolutely love to be given more opportunities to direct. Having my own site, I have a newfound respect for the production side of the biz. I won’t solely focus on being a performer this year. I’m stepping up my game in every aspect to continue to grow as a businesswoman.
XBIZ: What business lessons did you learn following the launch of your official site last fall?
Veracruz: Where do I even start? One of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever gone through. The back and forth with trying to figure out who processes for what, needing to make sure their percentages weren’t ridiculous and so on. I realized then why models weren’t independently doing their sites — if I didn’t have someone in my corner, I would have thrown in the towel.
XBIZ: Tell us about your collaboration with photographer/producer Rick Shameless, and what inspired the launch of LVLZ.
Veracruz: My friend Shyla Jennings introduced me to Shameless over a year ago. Shyla and I actually hired Shameless to film our first GG anal — talk about an icebreaker, lol. If there’s one thing I can say, from everyone that knows Shameless — when he gives you business advice, you listen.
My collaboration with him started because I became a fan of his work. I loved the material we were creating. He also challenged me to always think outside the box and to “stop thinking as a performer” — see the bigger picture in everything I did.
We have a great work relationship and most importantly I respect his work ethic and attention to detail. What inspired LVLZ was going though the launch of my site, and seeing how successful my site was with my fans and how great it was to use my social media to directly push sales. After talking about how awesome everything was going, launching LVLZ was the obvious choice, and that’s how we became business partners.
XBIZ: How did Shyla Jennings, Kenna James, Bree Daniels and Karlie Montana become involved with LVLZ?
Veracruz: Shyla and Karlie showed interest and loved the way my site ran, so they were on board from day one! We knew we wanted to launch with 5 girls total, so I started asking around, talking to girls that I knew were go-getters. Soon after, Kenna and Bree came on board! We have all been so excited from the very beginning. Their sites will be launching in March. All the girls are concentrating on shooting exclusive content for their websites! I can’t wait to continue to expand and take on more performers that are interested in joining the team.
XBIZ: What are your goals for 2016?
Veracruz: My goal for 2016 is to continue to grow in any way I can. I hope that 2016 will bring the opportunity for me to work with companies that I’ve never shot for before. I recently just worked on a “Performers Of The Year” movie for Elegant Angel, directed by Pat Myne. This was actually their first year dedicating a full movie to the Girl/Girl POTY nominees, which I truly appreciated. I personally thought that was a great step towards giving girl/girl-only performers the recognition they deserve. My goal will also be to shoot as much content as I possibly can for my site and to continue to webcam — and LVLZ, of course!
XBIZ: Any long-term ambitions?
Veracruz: To continue to work in whatever makes me happy, the possibilities are endless! There are so many other things that I would love to do like eventually write a book about breaking stereotypes, my personal experiences and my journey.
