Joy Ride: Inside the Rapid Rise of Ruth Lee

This is the cover story of the June issue of AVN magazine. LOS ANGELES—Ruth Lee follows a routine every morning at her home in Madrid, Spain. She wakes up, makes a matcha latte and sits at her computer answering all the messages that came in overnight on her OnlyFans. Some days it’s 150 messages; sometimes it’s 250. “And it’s like one hour-and-a-half answer all the message and sometimes it’s crazy because when I finally finish, the first message is answering,” Lee says with a giggle. “It is what it is and I love it. “And in the end of the day I sit again and I answer every single message.” Lee takes pride in giving her subscribers an extra personal touch. “The most important point I think is because I made a real family inside to my page,” she continues. “Because I don’t have agencies, I don’t have robots. I answer the message like this, with audio voice, with daily pictures. I know every single name from my fans. I know their lives.” It’s an approach that serves Lee well as she navigates her breakout year in adult entertainment. The vivacious former cam girl—a native of Venezuela who says she’s still learning English—climbed all the way to No. 22 on Pornhub’s Most Popular Porn Star rankings in March, not even a year after she started uploading videos on a regular basis on the platform. And last month she added her first Pornhub award to her resumé, winning Favorite Collab with Johnny Sins at the 7th annual show on May 8 at Saddle Ranch in Hollywood. The road to Pornhub glory went through Barcelona. It’s where Lee tangled with Sins in late 2023, leading to 30.3 million views at press time and counting. Their performance marked only the third pro collab of Lee’s adult industry journey that started when she was an 18-year-old streamer on Chaturbate and Stripchat and now has her poised for global stardom at 24. “That was crazy,” Lee says. “Because Johnny Sins is like a big crush for all the girls. And I was like, this man really want to collab, this is insane…What I can do after this? “And I remember we meet and he was so fun, he’s so sweet. Oh my goodness, we had a connection and it was so nice. And I feel so happy with the result.” Sins, who won a record seven consecutive Fan-Voted AVN Awards for Favorite Male Porn Star from 2017-23, says after exchanging DMs with Lee on Twitter that he wasn’t sure when they’d be able to meet since she lives in Spain and he’s based in the U.S. “A few months later I was planning my first trip to Europe and had a few girls in mind I wanted to shoot with—Ruth was definitely one of them,” Sins tells AVN. “I met Ruth in Barcelona to shoot and she was great! Charming, funny and super hot! He adds, “She was fun and professional, knowing exactly what she wanted to do and sharing her ideas to make the scene special. We shot our award-winning scene and have been friends ever since.” Lee’s Instagram reel with Sins from their December 2024 reunion—in which she asks him to be her doctor for the day—has amassed 227 million views. Indeed, when Lee wants to entertain it’s become must-see TV, whether she’s belly dancing, cosplaying Ronald McDonald or demonstrating world class talent in her hardcore sex outings. Her pinned tweet on her @ruth_hotlee account from a year ago shows her positioned in reverse cowgirl and unleashing an explosive squirt that splashes the mirror in front of her with the caption, “I think this is out of control.” It has 12 million views. Her pinned TikTok video—posted in November 2022—reached 26 million views at press time and shows her drinking a thick, milky substance out of a glass, grimacing and then spitting it back out with the caption, “Cuando pruebo la nueva Whey Protein de Vainilla”—or “When I try the new vanilla whey protein.” Lee knows her exotic look—coupled with her stage name—tends to leave people guessing. “A lot of people think I’m Asian girl or something like that, but no, the truth is I was born in Venezuela,” Ruth says. “All people is like, what, really? They’re so curious.” Lee tells AVN she has a lot of Japanese fans. “And they really love me because they see, oh my goodness, ‘You look like Asian girl, body like Asian girl, face like Asian girl, but your attitude is Latina. This is so weird. You are like a doll, an Asian fuck doll.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, thank you,’” Ruth says. “And I think my face and that weird combination really opened the doors because it’s something that really helped me a lot. So I feel blessed for this face and my personality.” Lee at press time had more than 906K followers on her main Instagram account, @ruth_shavarri, which she started in 2015. She explains why her @ is different from her stage name. “That is my Instagram from high school,” Lee says. “I remember when I started making cam girl streamings and they asked me about Instagram. And I was like, OK, here you are, my normal Instagram. In my career, I grew up and I’m still having the same Instagram. What’s happened? “When I decided to change my username in the cam-girl sites, I was watching [Korean] dramas and I remember Lee, I love how it sounds—like Ruth Lee, I remember. And I was like, OK, this sounds good. Why no? “And I started using this name in all my social media, TikTok and those things. And the people can start to know me by Ruth Lee. So of course they understand like, OK, if your name is Ruth Lee, of course you’re an Asian girl. But no, it’s not true. And well, that is my funny history. Now that is my real name, Ruth Chavarri. So all people from my family, my old friends, everyone know what I do.” Born in Mérida, a city in the Andes mountains in the northwestern part of Venezuela, Lee says her hometown is “one of the most beautiful places” in the entire country. “The people are so kind,” she says. “I feel happy for it.” But when she left Venezuela in search of better opportunities it was out of necessity. “I was focused on my mind. I have big goals. I know what I want and I need money to do it,” she says. “And I really want to do everything to get my beautiful life and help other people and support animals, you know.” She first moved to Colombia and then to Dominican Republic and then Uruguay before arriving in Madrid three years ago. She hopes to come to America next. It was while Lee was living in Uruguay and working as a cam girl that she took a road trip to Paris and Italy and also made a life-changing stop in Madrid. “And I decide I don’t want to live anymore in Uruguay because it’s so far away,” Ruth says. “And my biggest goal is to be a new star in the industry. “Of course, in that times, I don’t know a lot of about this. You know, I just was being a cam girl. I know I need to move if I want to improve my career. I can’t stay in this place. So basically, for that reason I take the decision.” Then in November 2022 she decided to create an OnlyFans account, earning $75 in her first month. “And one day when I come here in Madrid, I’m still working in Stripchat and Chaturbate, and I remember one of my friends say, ‘OK, baby, you don’t need to do this anymore. You have a lot of potential. Just focus on OnlyFans.’ And I was really scared, you know, terrified,” Ruth recalls. “And I remember my boyfriend support me and say, ‘Let’s do it, OK? We have saved money, we can live with this’ and yes, I did it. And my life changed a lot.” Lee says her OnlyFans wasn’t an instant success—but it was a viral TikTok that led to a breakthrough. “I remember one day I just was in my house and I decided to shoot this TikTok challenge and I remember I have some red stockings and for any reason that video go viral,” says Ruth, whose @queenruthlee TikTok account has 951K followers and 12.9M likes. “And when I wake up that morning I remember I shared OnlyFans and my boyfriend said, ‘What the fuck, we have 500 subscribed?’ And I was like, ‘What?’ Because the last night I have just 15. “I was like, oh my goodness, this is real. This is happening just for TikTok. And well, after that, it was like, OK, I’m going to post on [Instagram] Reels, I’m going to post on TikTok and those things.” In 2022, Lee traveled from Uruguay to The Bahamas for her first collab—with Jak & Jill from Chaturbate. “I don’t have expectations in that time, just I made, OK, I’m going to shoot this collab but I’m not going to post, I’m going to save this collab,” she says. “I was so scared, you don’t have any idea... “But Jak Palmer, he’s a really nice guy, he sit with me, he told me you don’t need to feel uncomfortable. And when we post that video all the fans were like oh my goodness, who’s this girl? She’s so natural, I love it and when I arrive here [in Madrid] I post that video.” That collab now has 11.1 million views on Pornhub. She did her second collab with Girthmasterr, who won Favorite Independent Male Creator at the 2025 AVN Awards and tied for Best Dick at the 2025 Pornhub Awards. “I was nervous because I am really so selective with who I want to work because for me the most important is when I turn on the camera I need to shoot and make a real thing,” Lee says. “Because you can find a lot of porn on internet but sometimes the thing you really want to feel and enjoy is this is a real sex, this is nice, I can feel the connection. That is what I’m looking for in every single collab.” She adds, “So I meet him and I remember I was scared. I was like, no you are so big, it’s impossible. But in the end of the day, I did it. And we post that and boom it was on the first page on Pornhub. And in that moment, my life changed.” Ruth remembers being reluctant to upload anything during her early days on PH, where she now has racked up 107 million video views and 306K subscribers on only 29 videos. “When I was being a cam girl, I create my own Pornhub channel, but I don’t post nothing because I was bit shy, to be honest,” Lee admits. “So finally when I create the OnlyFans and I can see OK, this page has a lot of potential. I can know more people here, I’m going to do it and I post my first Pornhub video and got whole new subscribers to my page and it was like oh my goodness this is so real because now my life changes. “I can go to the park and a lot of people is, ‘Hey, are you Ruth Lee?’ And I was like, oh my gosh, what is this?’” Thanks to changing the way her name is listed from “ruthlee” to Ruth Lee on Pornhub—which was part of a case study on the impact that stage names have on PH rank—Lee saw a dramatic rise in her ranking earlier this year. Ruth ranked No. 324 on February 10 when her stage name was ruthlee, but based on user search data, the PH brass noticed that people were typing “Ruth Lee” to find her content. “We immediately contacted her and asked if she’d be open to changing her name from ruthlee to Ruth Lee to make it easier for PH users to discover her content and ultimately get her more views (and more money from ad revenue),” the PH rep explains to AVN. “She agreed and we ran a four-week test to measure the results. By March 10, Ruth’s PH rank rose to all the way up to 22 by simply adding a space between her name.” In addition to that crucial name tweak, Lee continues to do high-profile collabs with some of the top performers on Pornhub—in addition to Sins and Girthmasterr, she’s worked with the likes of Jak Knife, Elly Clutch, Maximo Garcia and Troy Francisco, among others. “Ruth Lee’s rise in model rankings from the 300s to a top 50 creator in just a few weeks speaks volumes about her talent and creativity with our platform,” says Alex Kekesi, VP, Brand and Community, Pornhub. “She recently won her very first Pornhub Award for Favorite Video Collab with Johnny Sins; voted by the fans at this year’s ceremony. “We’re especially proud that her success story showcases the power of leveraging our platform resources and creator tips: from using custom video thumbnails to showcasing her personality and action-packed content. “Her journey is proof that with a combination of talent and strategic marketing, creators can take their careers to new heights with Pornhub. We’re proud to celebrate Ruth Lee’s achievements and her role in our creator community.” The two-time AVN Award-winning stud Troy Francisco—who has done two collabs with Lee—tells AVN that she is the real deal. “Ruth and I had been mutuals on social media for a while and I just contacted her when I was in the U.K. and I flew out to Madrid for the day to shoot with her,” Francisco, who took home the 2022 AVN Award for Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene for his performance with Gianna Dior in Psychosexual for Blacked Raw, says. “She’s a great person. She’s super sweet and caring. She’s always has a real positive energy. I had such a great time I shot with her again when I was in Barcelona a couple months ago. “On top of her being an amazing human being, she’s an insanely good performer. The energy and connection is peak. I’ve also never seen someone squirt as much as she does. Not just like the quantity but like force also, it’s insane. Honestly, she’s one my favorite collabs, 100%.” Lee did her first hardcore scene live on cam with her longtime boyfriend, Daniel Prieto, when they were working out of a studio. “A cam studio is like a big house with a lot of rooms and you can come and work there for eight hours making a streaming and then you leave to your home,” Ruth explains. “This studio saved 50% of the [audience tips], I remember. So we cam there and the first day I was crying. Before to go online and I was crying and I was like, my goodness, I don’t know if this is good or this is bad, but you know, something inside to me say, do it. “Do it—because you need to change your life. Do it because you need to go up. “Because I was in a dark side in that moment, you know? And I just do it, I turn on the camera and I connect every platform like Chaturbate, Cam4 and Stripchat with my boyfriend. We start talking to the people inside to the room. Then we have our first private show. I remember we go to private show and they’re like, ‘Oh, I want a sex with a good facial. And I was like OK and we did it. I don’t know how… And in the end of the private I remember I checked the price and we earned I think $125. “And I was like, wow, yeah.” Prieto remains Lee’s biggest supporter behind the scenes; he quietly performs in a lot of her content and also helps her with all aspects of production and editing. “He was part of my life from the beginning, he support me, he made the editing for the videos and he’s behind the scenes always with the light, with the camera—and I think we have a really good team,” Ruth says. “And that is a really big important thing in this industry, you know. You need to have something to support you because all the days aren’t amazing days. Some days are rainy, cloudy, and you need something to make you happy in the life.” Lee, who worked in a restaurant on the weekends selling hamburgers before she got into adult, loves doing Pilates and going to the park with her two dogs when she’s not making content. She also centers herself every day with meditation. Not only does she keep her body fit, Lee takes special care of her mind. “The money is nothing without mental health,” she says. “I feel really blessed and I think this is just the beginning of a big journey. Maybe my life will be super different in three years, I don’t know. I just want to stay in this career.” Ruth tells AVN she learned that sometimes guys just want some female company online. “And sometimes they don’t want nothing sexual, they just want to talk like this, you and me and a coffee, talk about the life and the things, so I discovered that point. “And I mean, OK, a lot of girls make OnlyFans and they’re beautiful and talented and amazing but what happened with the spirit part, you know?” Lee says. “What’s happened when the guy really need a girl just for time and that guy need to feel this real connection but to know nothing going to happen in the real life. It’s like a support. “I just think in the end of the day, you need to be a good person, too. I think the world sometimes is really rude with the rest of the people. If you can make that little difference to make the day of the other person better, it’s good. The universe return that energy to you.” Someday Ruth wants to start a business that supports animals. “One of my goals is to create my own foundation for animals for adoption—dogs, horses. I love animals. I love nature. And my goal is to buy a house with trees in the garden,” she says. “And I want a lot of birds in the morning and just a chill life.” Photography by Daniel Prieto