Banks started webcamming in 2010 at the age of 19 while studying chemical engineering. Her father was shocked at her choice in career. Initially, Banks was ashamed to disclose her career and lying about her job contributed to her depression. She is now an advocate who speaks out about the damaging and discriminatory treatment sex workers in the industry regularly face. In 2018, Banks and webcam model, Jenny Blighe, shot their first professional scenes for Evil Angel in Cam Girls: The Movie. Days before the release of the movie, Blighe alleged that she was mistreated by costar Manuel Ferrara in their scene together. Banks was not aware that Blighe was uncomfortable until after the shoot was finished when Banks took pictures of Blighe's injuries and they talked about what happened. Both alleged that John Stagliano, the owner of Evil Angel, had groped them without their consent while directing another scene. Evil Angel issued a statement to Adult Video News that "everyone involved with the project conducted themselves properly and were held to our high standards." AVN noted that Banks on her Twitter stream had seemed to contradict Blighe's allegation. Banks was harassed online and resigned her position as chair of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee in the backlash of the allegations. She later apologized to Blighe about her initial response to the allegations. In June 2020, Banks filed a police report against Stagliano over the alleged groping. Banks was one of the targets of a harassment campaign against pornography performers by an Instagram user. Instagram had disabled her account in November 2018, and the user took credit for her deactivation through reporting her and others for violating its community guidelines. Her account was reactivated months later, and Banks admitted censoring her postings due to her wariness at being deactivated again. She believes that removing sex workers from social media marginalizes them by removing their marketing channels.
Advocacy
In June 2017, Banks posted a video on YouTube that compiled allegations of sexual assault against Ron Jeremy by members of the adult industry. While the allegations against Jeremy have stemmed back decades, it wasn't until the video and when the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations came to light that the accusations began to get noticed outside the industry. Banks was motivated to take a stand against Jeremy after speaking with dozens of women who claimed he had assaulted them at conventions and learning that others had known about it and normalized it with a "Yeah, that's Ron". Jeremy argued that Bank's video compiled allegations that distorted the interactions with the women who had buyer's remorse. Jeremy was banned from several industry shows after Banks' social media campaign and the Free Speech Coalition, an industry trade group, rescinded its Positive Image Award that it had originally presented to him in 2009. Banks made a video in 2018 hoping to appeal toBernie Sanders after he had voted in support of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act. She wanted him to think about the dangers SESTA/FOSTA would create for the sex work industry and asked him to consider fighting for the rights of sex workers. Banks started a petition demanding Mindgeek to remove Porn Fidelity videos from its tube platforms after accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced against producer Ryan Madison by several performers. The Porn Fidelity and Teen Fidelity channels were removed from Pornhub, but the videos were still findable on the Mindgeek sites.
Personal life
Banks has a sister, Emma Banks. They webcam together, but do not have sex with each other despite frequent requests from their fans.
