Name: Candi Nixon*
Age: 24
By day: A senior criminal-justice student at John Jay College
By night: An exotic dancer at a well-known strip club in Queens

How often do you strip?
I work as an exotic dancer two nights a week and on weekends.

I see that you're floating your resume on sexyjobs.com too. Are you on the prowl for more sex work?
Yes. I am extremely sexy and interested in making money and I am willing to do whatever it takes. This is my primary source of income. I have student loans to pay off and am saving for grad school, and law school after that. So yeah, money is a big issue for me right now.

Do any of your classmates know about your nighttime exploits?
The only person who knows about the dancing is my best friend, another exotic dancer. She got me into it. I tell fellow students and family that I am living on my student loans.

You don't seem ashamed at all. Why the secrecy?
I have to keep the exotic dancing a secret if I want to go into law, ultimately. Besides, my father's a professor and my mother's a social worker; I am not sure it would sit well at home.

How much does an exotic dancer pull in these days?
I can take home up to $500 on a good night. Sometimes there are the private parties for clients backstage—it might just be me or there could be two of us—and then it depends on what they ask for. There’s a $100 flat rate for backstage, but if you are asked to perform a blow job, the price increases per sexual favor.

I see. Do you ever make house calls?
I had one regular who would come in every time I was working. We exchanged numbers, which turned into wining-and-dining, which turned into going back to his place. I slept with him, and it was additional work. There is nothing wrong with getting paid for sex, in my opinion.

And you still manage to squeeze your studies in with all of this?
Well, I am not as passionate about law as I was four years ago. I really just want to make money; it comes down to what pays more. With sex jobs I can work fewer hours and earn more than I would in a regular nine-to-five. My friend has asked me to consider making videos and maybe posing for magazines. I'm thinking about it.

*Interviewee's name has been changed to protect her not-so-innocence.