On the Way Up: Inside the World of Tru Kait

This is the cover story of the July issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES—Tru Kait achieved one of her goals in the spring, purchasing her first house after a three-year search all over the City of Angels. “I kind of told myself—because I’m a very picky person—that when a house speaks to me I’m going to get it,” Kait says. “So for fun on the weekends I would go do open houses. I probably have seen 500-plus houses now, it’s insane.” The 26-year-old creator reveals it was a rainy day in L.A. when she fell in love with the one she now calls “home.” “It just felt really good inside,” she says. “For me I like to feel the energy and the flow of everything.” Tru Kait trusted her instincts during the past five years since launching her OnlyFans, building a global following and respected brand while doing hundreds of content collabs—in addition to select scenes for mainstream studios. Now as she considers all that’s happened since those early days, the former personal trainer and hospitality industry sales rep tells AVN without question, the best is yet to come. “I couldn’t be happier but I don’t feel accomplished yet,” Kait says. “I feel like there is so much more to navigate and do. “My time here is so far from done.” It’s sunny and 85 degrees on this Wednesday afternoon in L.A., where Kait is relaxing on a sofa in her cozy living room discussing her work ethic, how she learned to be disciplined with money and the sense of community she feels in adult. Wearing a white t-shirt featuring a bowl of green olives with the words “eager to tease” and baggy blue pants, Kait says back when she was dipping her toes into the business there weren’t a lot of people open to the idea of shooting content. “It was still a very new world,” she recalls. The native of Long Beach, Calif.—who grew up in San Antonio, Texas—didn’t have a five-year plan when she gradually began shooting more explicit stuff in 2019, while still working as a personal trainer at Equinox. But she did have a few benchmark goals—not the least of which was hitting $10K a month on OnlyFans. She remembers telling herself that once she got there that she would leave her job at the gym and commit to doing adult full time. And in September 2019, just seven months after her first post on OnlyFans, she quit Equinox. “I did start really from nothing and I kind of built my brand from the ground up,” Kait admits. “And I think for anybody that’s something to be proud of. “But sometimes I get this feeling of, did I really do this? Am I doing enough? I can do more. But in the last year I have just taken time to become really self aware and appreciative of myself and what my body can do, and all the things that I’ve accomplished. So I really worked on my impostor syndrome.” Without question Tru Kait now belongs in any conversation about the top content creators in the industry. A world-class beauty with a sweet girl-next-door persona, Kait has demonstrated she can get down with anyone when the cameras roll. And she has accumulated an impressive list of accolades to back it up. Last year she became a Twistys Treat in February and a Fleshlight Girl in October; she was crowned the Penthouse Pet of the Month in May 2021 and had an exclusive performance contract for Brazzers from 2020-21. Playboy Plus, meanwhile, made her their June 2024 All Star. Now the crowd-pleasing performer—who at press time had 2.1 million followers on her main Instagram at @tru.kait—tells AVN she has begun expanding her repertoire with new endeavors that extend beyond the adult space. “I’m actually making a bit of a transition into doing more safe-for-work content,” Tru Kait says. “So I’m streamlining myself in that area and I have a lot of projects planned and a lot of collaborations with new people that are in different places in the social media industry. “For us, we know everybody in the porn industry. It’s like family; it’s familiar faces. But I’m really pushing myself out of my box to start working with TikTokers and YouTubers and people that do Twitch and more mainstream content. “I’m meeting a ton of new faces and it’s really exciting to change up the vibe and my environment.” Kait—whose stage name is half of her actual first and last names, but backwards—says the SFW content she’s interested in is far from limited to photoshoots. “I want to really show my personality and talk more to the camera,” she explains, adding that she loves acting and doing comedic skits. Kait not only enjoyed her supporting role in the main comedy skit of the 2024 AVN Awards Show, she also graced the biggest stage in adult as an awards presenter at the 41st annual ceremony in January at Resorts World Las Vegas. Now Kait tells AVN she wants to explore the potential of OFTV—the free video platform featuring original content by OnlyFans creators. “But I need to start talking,” Kait adds. “I need to show people who I am and what I’m about and other things that I’m passionate about.” Before adult, Kait’s passion for weightlifting and fitness took her places—such as several bodybuilding competitions in 2016 in Texas. She studied finance for one year in college, competing in bodybuilding as a hobby while working full time for a high-end luxury hotel chain. Kait started out as a server in the restaurant and then later transferred into sales & marketing, where she sold hotel rooms and did group sales. “So I was going to the gym regularly and I became part of a group. We were called Lifted and it was like 17 people that were at this gym,” Kait recalls. “We would all hang out and do different things and some of the guys were bodybuilders and some of the girls were doing competitions and that’s how I got introduced to bodybuilding. “It was so cool to have that group of friends. There’s nothing like that these days. It was just people from everywhere, too. We would actually go to some competitions together just to watch. And somewhere around those months I met my coach and started prepping and doing competitions. “And then I was still going to college and basically juggling all three things—prepping for competitions and working.” But by the end of her first year of college, she felt bored with her finance major and wanted something more. “My mom’s a director of revenue for hospitality companies for a long, long time and I was kind of following in her footsteps,” Kait says. “And I’m like this isn’t me, I’m obviously passionate about fitness. “And it makes me so excited that I wake up at 4 a.m. every day and go to the gym and make it back to the gym after college and work that day for a second time.” By May 2017, Kait decided she was moving to California, making a deal with her dad to sleep on his couch in Long Beach until she could get her own place. “Because I was still 19 and I didn’t have a lot of money,” Kait says. “And he thankfully said that I could do that as long as follow all these rules. So I felt like a kid again and for me, I’m such an independent person. It was a struggle for me but I knew what I wanted to do. So I drove my little Corolla from Texas to Long Beach, all in one day, all by myself—in 2017. I was very determined. I was like, I’m getting here. “And I lived with my dad for the summer and then I was also having to pay him rent, so he was very strict. My parents were always really good at never giving me anything. They always made me pay for my own car and stuff like that. So I was paying him rent to sleep on his couch. And I was able to transfer jobs, so I had my job here, thankfully. “And I started going to the gym and I developed a new friend group of really great people.” In October 2017, Kait had saved enough to get her own studio apartment in downtown Long Beach. It was around that time that she decided to go for her personal training certification. She bought all the books and knew when her test was going to be—August 2018—but she didn’t study much. “I worked a really tough job so I wasn’t going home and wanting to do all that,” Kait says. “So I kind of waited until it was a week before the test and then I really, really studied hard and I passed it. “And I don’t know how the testing is now but those tests were not easy—like I was terrified. Like I’m not going to pass this. Because it’s really in-depth questions about human anatomy and just making sure you’re not injuring your clients. It’s intense stuff. “So I passed it in August of 2018 and I started looking for jobs, went to a bunch of interviews, while still working in sales & marketing.” Her job search led her to Equinox in Santa Monica, where she went through four interviews and got hired in February 2019—so she left her position at the hotel. Kait had already been doing boudoir modeling on the weekends as a side hobby, something to break up the monotony of her corporate 9-to-5. And she already had been growing her current Instagram account but it was more fitness oriented. As she posted more photos on Instagram, more photographers would ask to shoot her. And her comfort level grew to the point where she began experimenting with sexier poses and outfits with one of her regular photographers. He suggested she start an OnlyFans—they would shoot together and she would give him 10% of her earnings. Feeling like she had everything to gain from the collab, she decided to do it. That became the catalyst for her doing more nudes—first topless and then fully nude photos where she didn’t show her face. She made a couple grand a month to start, but the numbers kept going up as she got more risque with her content—until she reached the $10K mark in September of that year. “The first thing I thought of was like, ‘Wow, I feel like I’m the richest person in the world,’” Kait says with a laugh. “But then also—because I was always taught to not spend money—I still lived at a very minimum lifestyle and I just saved and kept working. I was so grateful that I didn’t have to work anymore. “Like I have to work but this doesn’t feel like a job.” She continues, “I felt like I unlocked a hack in life. I was like, wait, I don’t have to use an alarm to wake up anymore? “I get to make my own schedule, I’m making great money and I don’t have to worry about money anymore? So I was really happy and I thoroughly enjoyed every single day. “After you come from a background of working so hard for corporate America I feel like you really appreciate the freedom that this lifestyle and this career gives you. “One thing led to another, things progressed and then I kept growing and really becoming a driving force in this industry.” Today Kait tells AVN she has “the best fans in the world” and is in the industry “for the long haul.” Even though this year she has scaled back on her mainstream studio shoots—doing a couple new Brazzers scenes and a few VR outings—she’s always open to taking on the right project. “For me it doesn’t matter the pay, it’s am I excited to be creating this project or not?” Kait says. “I feel so lucky. So that’s really what it’s come down to in my life. To be honest I’m not interested in shooting for just any company. “If it’s not going to have a backstory or something that is going to make me excited to jump out of bed and drive to the set, then I’m just not going to do it. “I’ve definitely turned things down and for me that’s hard because I’m definitely a very ‘yes’ person.” Kait tells AVN she still wants to do an anal scene at some point. “My fans are like she’s been planning that for four years. I still plan on it, I just don’t have a date,” Kait continues. “But it actually might be this year because I have slowed down on shooting content with other people. And I think it would be kind of cool to just have one bigger scene to close out 2024. “But in terms of gangbangs or DPs I definitely want to do that later on life and for me I feel like there’s no rush.” Now when she’s not creating content or working on her fitness—she still hits the gym regularly—Kait is probably making home improvements. She already installed a state-of-the-art security system, erected a fence and redid the swimming pool in the backyard, changing it to salt water and PebbleTec. “I feel like such a proud guy because I get all this stuff done and it’s really exciting for me,” Kait admits. “I’ve been into interior design for the last few years now.” She even decided to switch one of her Instagram accounts—@tru.kaitworld—to an interior design page. “I’ll be posting more stuff on there just for fun. Who knows where it’s going to take me? But right now I just have a big passion for interior design,” Kait adds. “It makes me feel calm, it’s fun.” As she reflects on the past half-decade, looking out at the backyard of her immaculate new home, Kait says, “I have nothing but gratitude.” “I feel like, is this real life? I feel really happy,” Kait says. “Material stuff it’s nice, it’s fun. But I just feel more happy that in these five years I’ve had really great experiences and I’ve met really nice people and I have my personal freedom—and I’m truly happy inside. “I think altogether I’m just very grateful to have my health and my family and my friends and a great support system and people that enjoy watching me.” She adds, “I’m grateful that people like to jerk off to me. It feels really good.” Photography by @ninanaction