Skins star says she's treated better as a sex worker than when she was on the show

Skins star Megan Prescott first found fame when she strutted onto our screens as red-headed twin Katie f***ing Finch, alongside her real-life twin Kathryn.

Since then, the actor has made a number of controversial career moves, first when she started working as a stripper and more recently when she joined OnlyFans.

But while the then-16-year-old admits she would've 'done anything' to get on the show, she has since revealed how she's felt better treated as a sex worker, having been heavily sexualised through her character.

The difference is that she is the one making money from her body and her image, not the people in suits who run the show.

"The hypocrisy has always stuck with me. I was on TV, as a child, having sex scenes, on a show where a lot of people made a lot of money," the now 34-year-old told Cosmopolitan.

"If we are collectively okay with that — which whether or not we should be or not is a different story — then why can’t I, as a grown woman, take ownership of my image and sexuality back and earn three times as much?”

After working on Skins for two years, and becoming synonymous with her sassy character in the eyes of the public, she found it difficult to find more acting work, given the crude nature of the show, which famously featured sex and drugs heavily.

"Then, a couple of years after it was ‘Well, you’ve not been in anything for a while'. I didn’t go to uni, so I didn’t have a degree to fall back on. I was doing all of these part-time or zero contract jobs," she explained.

Megan was working in her local Wetherspoons and would regularly be questioned by customers as to what she was doing there, following her fame on the E4 programme.

But she thinks people have misconceptions about the amount of money she and her peers were making.

"People think we made a lot more money than we actually did in Skins. We worked it out by the hour once, and it was minimum wage. Of course, £400 a week to a 16-year-old I was like ‘I’m rich’ but when you look back… Our contacts also meant we don’t see any money from any streaming platforms."

At the age of 23, Megan was introduced to stripping by a friend, and although she was initially reluctant, she quickly realised she had 'nothing to lose'.

Once she got started and met the other sex workers, she realised that the way men were treating her was no different to any other job she'd done, 'only there if someone talks to me badly, or doesn’t pay, I can get this enormous security guard over'.

She went on to say sex work was a 'huge sigh of relief' because what you see is exactly what you get.

"You want me to get naked for you and do a dance? Okay, I know what to expect. In acting, it’s not like that. It’s very vague," Megan said.

"I’m done blaming one industry for the problem, as these are worldwide, generic problems that permeate every industry. There’s no industry where you don’t get treated differently because you’re a woman, or because you’re working class or because of your immigration status but, in some industries, particularly, sex work and acting, it becomes more prominent."

In 2020, the actor joined OnlyFans and admits that being a creator is what gives her the financial and creative freedom to work on all her acting, writing and directing projects.

“When I went into OnlyFans my friend said to me, ‘There are already men getting off to you, so wouldn’t you rather them get off to you as an adult than this sex scene you did when you were 17?'" she said.

“We see it with child stars all the time. They’re highly sexualised, but then as soon as they get to an age where they’re like, ‘You’re right, this does make money but I am going to be the main benefactor of it', people are like ‘Stop, I don’t like the idea of you selling sexuality'. They want women to be sexual, but only under their control.”

Now, Megan campaigns on behalf of sex workers to change the public's perceptions, as well as writing and starring in her own theatre show, Really Good Exposure.