Over the past five years, women have increasingly stepped into the roles men have historically held within the adult industry. Not only are women generating more content, assuming the positions of director, producer and star, they’re also experiencing longer careers as self-invested entrepreneurs profiting from today’s internet-based business model.

“This is really the era of the performer—not just female performers, but certainly women have gained a lot with these changes. Being the era of the performer, performers are more empowered than ever before. They have so many different platforms where they can be their own boss and create passive revenue streams,” says Angela White, one of the most highly awarded porn stars of her generation. “That empowerment that female performers are experiencing means they are not relying on traditional studios and directors to make their money.”

While working with well-known companies may not be as lucrative, or necessary, White acknowledges that doing so is still an important aspect of any performer’s career; it’s how they establish themselves and grow their brand. Building her own brand into the smashing success it is today took a number of years and extreme focus, turning White into something of a porn anomaly.

In 2019, Angela White won AVN’s Female Performer of the Year for the second year in a row—the second women to have ever accomplished such a feat. Then, on Jan. 25, 2020, at the so-called “Oscars of Porn,” she became the first woman ever to win three consecutive years; an unusual accolade for any female performer to receive, much less one entering her 17th year in adult.

It has, of course, been more common for men to receive AVN’s Performer of the Year for multiple years in a row, given how men are allowed to age in front of the camera, providing them opportunities to perform well past their “prime.” Young women, on the other hand, can be considered “aged out” of the adult industry by the age of 24 and relegated to MILF status, thereby sustaining shorter career spans and less lucrative opportunities.

“My experience in my career, it’s not that consumers need newness, it’s that they want authentic passion. They want performers who are truly doing what they love,” says White, who doesn’t believe performers need to do more extreme acts to find longevity within the industry. “I hope my success can inspire others. This year I did do scenes differently but it certainly wasn’t more extreme or more aggressive. The big movie I shot this year was a feature film. The way I challenged myself and grew as a performer this year was to become my character by working with an acting coach and growing in that way.”

Though women have long been the face of porn, the stars so to speak, they’ve often inhabited roles designed, for the most part, by male-dominated studios pushing stereotypes—and not at the helm of content creation as they are today.

“I think anyone who has followed the adult industry for the last half-decade will know that stereotype doesn’t hold true. With the internet and the democratized means of production, anybody can start recording themselves and broadcasting themselves,” says White. “You’ve seen a proliferation of body types, and really a celebration of different fantasies and different sexual preferences. It’s not how it used to be when a handful of major studios controlled the narrative.”

Cognizant of the infrastructure that enabled her, White generously credits the adult entertainment industry for her accomplishments. “Film production is one of, if not the most collaborative art form, so even though I know it’s called Female Performer of the Year and my name’s on the trophy, there’s no way I could have won that without the incredible projects I was a part of and the directors I worked with that helped me to grow and become the performer I am,” says White, acknowledging the otherwise invisible work that goes into supporting and elevating her brand. “You’re only as strong as your weakest link. So for me to get on that stage requires a village; it requires everybody to be doing their best work.”

“For this day and age, she’s the perfect storm of a porn star,” says White’s long-time agent Mark Spiegler, who points out that it takes more than being sexy to rise to the top. “She’s a master of all trades: she does the casting, the producing, the directing. She even does the editing in her own movies, and not like slap together a scene either—she’ll spend a week or two editing one scene and painting with small brushes.”

Dedicated to maintaining the brand she’s envisioned, Spiegler says Angela White often takes the long-term approach to quality over quantity. “When Angela is shooting her own movie she’s a perfectionist. She’ll do scenes and it’ll cost her ten to fifteen thousand bucks but if it’s not exactly what she wants, she won’t put it out,” says Spiegler. “When she does a movie, if it’s not exactly how she wants it, if one of the girls is sick, she’s not going to just put another girl in, she’ll probably cancel and reschedule the shoot to another day. Whereas a lot of other higher-end studios are under pressure to grind out product, they may lower their standards to meet the quantity they have to, and she won’t do that.”