Zara Dar Quits PhD in Computer Science to Pursue Success on OnlyFans
A Change of Direction – Leaving Academia
Zara Dar, a YouTuber with a subscriber base of more than 1K and who has previously championed causes for women in STEM, made a radical call to drop her on-going PhD in computer science from the University of Texas. Zara, known for her tutorials on machine learning and neural networks, had originally pictured herself in academia, wanting to teach students and contribute to scientific research. But with the demands of an academic career, like financial insecurity and lack of applause, she had a change of heart.
In an unfiltered outbreak in her Youtube video titled “PhD Dropout to OnlyFans Model,” Zara admits she’s no longer interested in following that path. Academia is, she explained, a place where people often work like dogs for no recognition, ending up at the bottom of someone else’s vision.
“People whose lifestyles I thought I envied are beholden to someone else’s vision,” she said. “They’re going to spend their lives busting their hump for a corporation and do more and more they don’t necessarily love, for no recognition, and no security.”
From YouTube to OnlyFans – A Successful Leap
While working on her PhD, Zara tried making content on OnlyFans as a side job. What began as a small try soon turned into a big success, making her over $1 million. With this money, Zara paid off her family’s home loan, got a car, and started saving and investing.
“I’m glad I didn’t need to get any student loans. Now, I have savings and plan to buy my own house,” she said.
Zara called her career move a risk, not just for her job but for her whole life path. Choosing to do content full-time was about more than just money—it was also about gaining freedom.
Challenging Career Norms – Broader Implications
redefining success and professional fulfillment. Her chosen path of leaving behind the conventional academic pathway is a challenge to social norm for reaching the top in the professional fields of STEM and/or in academia. If Zara zooms in on what people want and can achieve with autonomy, then it is the possibilities of the non-traditional route that Zara points to in using the online medium for monetizing content and making a single life financially secure (i.e., see OnlyFans). When she reflected on her journey, Zara commented on the very striking contrast that existed between the past way of life, that of which she is no longer bound by, and the present way of life that she is subject to. She contrasted the life of an average professor in the US (making about $100,000 a year and frequently working on grant applications) with the financial and creative flexibility she has today. “I envisioned a different life for myself,” she said. An individual unencumbered by the dogma of the ivory tower or the ironclad rule of the company’s executive floor. Zara’s career move is an example of what is possible when reinvention is on another plane in a constantly changing society and serves as a source of encouragement to others who might dare to think outside the box to find their own fulfillment and achieve success.
