Cosplay Queen: Sweetie Fox on Fencing, Art & Creating Content

This is the cover story of the June issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES—The creator known as Sweetie Fox can summarize what she likes most about her profession in a single word: “Freedom.” “Freedom of creativity, freedom of movement, freedom of expression,” Sweetie says. “Aesthetics plays an important role—the beauty of naked bodies, the passion and unity between a man and a woman! “I like that I can put my fantasies on the screen and realize images that excite me. Porn is an art form!” And Sweetie’s artistry already has taken her to places that she never thought possible. The 22-year-old Russian phenom—who has been the top-ranked model in the world on Pornhub for over two years—on January 27 won the first AVN Award of her career in the ultra competitive category of Favorite Cosplayer at the 2024 AVN Awards in Las Vegas. Fox finished in a tie with Bunni Black in online fan voting for the 41st annual ceremony at the Resorts World Theater—a result that caught her off guard. “My husband and I arrived that day to meet a friend and he immediately started congratulating us,” Sweetie recalls. “At first we didn’t even understand why. But then he showed us the awards results page and we were very surprised and happy.” She continues, “All in all, the fact that I won the AVN means a lot to me. At the beginning of my career I could not even dream of such a thing. “It is a very prestigious award in our industry and I am very happy to receive it. I hope that next year I will be able to attend the AVN Awards in person.” A skilled digital artist who enjoys working out and fencing in her free time, Fox in the past five years has amassed more than 1.1 billion video views and 1.9 million subscribers on her Pornhub channel. Her top three videos each have over 30 million views; she has five videos with more than 20 million views and a remarkable 21 videos that have gone over the 10-million mark. Sweetie says climbing all the way to the No. 1 ranking on one of the world’s most trafficked websites “is very valuable for us, as it means that people appreciate our creativity.” “We are very grateful to our viewers, friends, family for their support and love!” she says. “We have influence in the amateur adult industry and many beginning models turn to us for advice. Even four years ago we could not even think that this would be possible. “Rank is just a number, we are first among equals. There are a lot of talented people in this field and unfortunately many of them are overlooked.” A Pornhub spokesperson tells AVN, “Sweetie Fox has become a favorite on Pornhub with over 300 videos and weekly uploads for her dedicated fans. “Her videos, mostly longer than 10 minutes, have gained immense popularity, especially among the gaming and anime communities. Known for her creative cosplay, Sweetie Fox brings a wide variety of characters to life through interesting storylines and role-playing, and her signature ahegao while climaxing has become iconic.” In addition to her AVN triumph, Fox has won her two Pornhub awards—2021 Favorite Cosplayer and 2022 Most Popular Amateur Model. “Sweetie Fox exemplifies how amateur models creating high-quality content can achieve remarkable success,” the Pornhub spokesperson continues. “Sweetie Fox is a great example of how Pornhub continues to be a great discovery platform for amateur and professional models at all stages of their careers. “… We’re so glad to have Sweetie Fox as part of the Pornhub community, and we can’t wait to see what she creates next.” Fox tells AVN she has always loved dressing up like different characters and changing her appearance going back to her teenage years when she got into anime and manga. “When we started making porn videos, we found that there were very few cosplay videos, so I decided to realize myself in this niche,” Sweetie explains. Indeed, Sweetie loves fantasy themes, role-playing games, elegant swords and elves. It’s how she discovered fencing—a combat sport that involves sword fighting. “It has always beckoned me,” Fox says. “Being a student, I wanted to take up an interesting hobby and then I came across an advertisement about enrollment in the historical fencing section.” Sweetie recalls envisioning something “on the level of battles from Lord of the Rings,” so she wasted no time signing up for a class. “But I didn’t get at all what I wanted,” she admits. “The training was physically very hard and the saber blows were painful. But surprisingly I enjoyed it and my companions were close to me in spirit. Many were attracted to the same fantasy romance, so I got involved and kept at it. “That’s where I met my husband.” Then everything changed. “We immediately realized that we were made for each other, despite the rather large age difference,” Sweetie continues. “He became my first and only man. I often dressed up in different ways and we shot home porn for ourselves. We both had a passionate desire to unleash our creative potential, to self-actualize in this direction.” In 2019, Sweetie tells AVN they found out about the Pornhub Model Program and in September of that year, when she was 18, she and her husband started making hardcore videos for public access. Now Fox reveals she is most inspired by “the aesthetics of sex, the beauty of the female and male body.” “When I have an idea or an image in my head, I want to realize it as soon as possible,” she explains. “I don’t have idols or idols for inspiration, I get inspiration from myself.” Born in Yekaterinburg, a city located east of the Ural Mountains in central Russia, Sweetie says her childhood “was not special.” “I finished school with top marks and went to university to specialize in graphic design, as I loved drawing and creativity from a young age,” she says. Fox started drawing custom artwork while high school and that later turned into a full-fledged job as a digital artist. “I really enjoy drawing, but drawing just for the sake of commercialism has led me to burnout,” Sweetie says. “During my university days I had to work hard to pay my rent and save for the future. “My main thing was the depiction of brutal strong men. In the Russian segment, artists were not paid much, so I found my niche in the foreign arena. I started drawing furry porn. I wasn’t attracted to this theme, but I was paid a lot of money for it, and I was still a teenager when I gathered quite a large base of customers.” Sweetie now primarily draws “cute girls in erotic images and brutal muscular men.” “I like the contrast of the size difference,” she says. “I develop my own characters and portray them; it’s more interesting to draw that way.” The creator describes her overall style of content as “amateur cosplay and homemade porn,” but that’s not even the half of it. “Our work covers almost all the diversity of the porn world. We tried ourselves in different directions and found something that attracts us and our viewers,” Fox says. “Almost always in our videos there is a little funny plot based on the hidden fantasies of men or women. “For example, a stranger at a resort, a neighbor, a stepsister. People like simple life stories, which they often dream about, but can not realize for various reasons.” She tells AVN what attracts her to cosplay is “the opportunity to try on the image of my favorite fictional character.” “To bring a flat picture into the real world,” Sweetie explains. “I also like to style wigs, it’s a very meditative activity. I also like to come up with new makeup, it’s very similar to drawing, but not on paper, but on my face. My artist skills come in handy here.” Some of her most dazzling cosplays include Tifa Lockhart, ElastiGirl, Raiden Shogun, Pomni, Samus Aran, Asuka, Ryuko Matoi, Ada Wong, 2B, Himiko Toga, Yor Forger and Marin Kitagawa. It often takes several days of work to fine-tune one of her looks. “An image usually consists of a costume, accessories, wig and makeup,” Fox tells AVN. “I am currently working on starting my own workshop so that I can make my own costumes instead of ordering them from online stores. “Often costumes don’t fit me perfectly and sometimes I have to heavily alter what I buy. Wig styling takes a couple days. I spend my free time from training and filming on it. “Makeup only takes an hour. It used to take a lot longer, but now I have a lot of experience. On average it takes four to eight hours to shoot a cosplay video, not counting the time spent on the costume and wig.” She says her portrayal of Ochako Uraraka—a video that was one of the first cosplay videos she released—still ranks first in views on her Pornhub profile with 36.4 million and counting. Sweetie uploaded the 9 minute, 14 second video—which is titled in Russian—two years ago. “We consider this video to be our masterpiece,” Sweetie says. “It has a cool uncomplicated plot with outfit changes, beautiful poses, colorful makeup and most importantly, I really turned out to look like the character.  “My Hero Academia anime was on a hype at the time, so this video was destined for success.” It seems like just about every clip Sweetie uploads takes on a similar trajectory. Her 11-minute video titled “A Beautiful Stranger From Paris Lets Me Taste Her Croissant”—which opens with her at a playground with the Eiffel Tower in the background—already had 30.7 million views at press time in only nine months. One of her most recent videos, titled “A Beautiful Red-Haired Stranger Was Refused, But Still Came to My Room for Sex,” sees Fox meeting a random guy at an outdoor dining area and ending up back at his hotel room for lewd activities such as pile-driver and a facial. When she gets dressed and walks out the door, she tells the stranger, “thank you.” The 21-minute video has generated 11.9 million views in three months. Fox has no plans on slowing down with several new cosplays in various stages of development. “I want to try more elaborate costumes, maybe characters from Dota or Warcraft. Those are popular games and people sometimes ask to make something from those settings,” Fox says. As she looks ahead to the rest of this year, Sweetie promises that “new outfits, new cosplay, new shoots are waiting for us.” “There are a lot of plans and a lot of desire to work, too!” she adds. “Gradually we are increasing the quality, experimenting, attracting other models, trying to make them get noticed. We don’t plan to stop at what we’ve achieved, which means there will be more quality content to come.” Fox admits she wasn’t always confident in her looks. “I used to have a lot of complexes about my appearance, but with the start of my career I found that I am much more attractive in the eyes of other people than I thought,” she says. “There are fans for every feature, even for what is considered a flaw.” Since beginning her career she also discovered more of what turns her on, finding “new fetishes that really excite me.” “I don’t think I would have discovered it in myself without doing porn,” Sweetie adds. An avid gym-goer who used to win awards at powerlifting competitions a few years ago, Fox tells AVN she's now dedicated to "achieving the perfect athletic body” when she’s not creating new adult material. “I also do historical fencing, saber flanking, study art history, make different handmade stuff, molding and painting,” Sweetie says. “Every weekend my husband and I go to intellectual quizzes to train not only body but also brain.” The talented artist also does clay crafting. “I love creating fantasy animals out of polymer clay,” Fox says. “I also often use it to create accessories for my cosplay.” In addition, Sweetie reveals she’s a DnD master and enjoys organizing games for her friends. “I believe that my main traits are hard work and creativity,” she says. “I like to turn my ideas into reality and bring what I have started to the end.” Meanwhile, Fox in May expanded her burgeoning empire, launching a signature merch collection with worldwide shipping from the US. The vibrant line features oversized, unisex fits for hoodies and t-shirts; a belt bag, socks, mugs and stickers. There are two print options available with custom art that was drawn by her. Perhaps the signature piece is her orange t-shirt that says “Sweetie Fox is My Spirit Animal” in black lettering. When Fox isn’t in the gym or immersed in her art, “like everyone else, I don’t mind watching a good movie or TV series, or playing board games.” She and her husband also love animals—they currently own a sphynx named Chupacabra and a ball python named Voland. “We used to have many exotic pets—iguanas, agamas, tarantulas, eublefars, snakes, chameleon, meerkats,” Sweetie says. “But because of the move to another country, they all had to be given away to kind hands.”