Candy Kisses Founder Story: Deja Dawn

Hi, I’m Deja Dawn.

This year marks 20 years of my journey in the sex work industry.

When I sit with that number, it means more to me than time. It means resilience, reinvention, survival, lessons, and community. It means two decades of witnessing an industry constantly adapt, evolve, and continue forward despite stigma, censorship, and misunderstanding.

Over the years, I’ve worked as an agency companion, worked independently for myself, answered phones for agencies, helped with administration, business planning, and written blogs within the industry. I’ve seen this world from many angles, and every chapter taught me something valuable.

Most importantly, it taught me that sex workers are some of the most resourceful, intelligent, creative, and adaptable people I’ve ever known.

It also taught me that while this work can offer freedom, independence, and opportunity, it can also be incredibly lonely.

Especially when you work for yourself.

Many independent workers choose autonomy because it gives us control over our boundaries, schedules, branding, income, and choices. But independence can also come with isolation. Long hours alone. Carrying the emotional weight alone. Having no true peers to brainstorm with. No trusted circle that fully understands the realities of this work. No workplace community.

And on the other side, some of the less lonely environments can come at a cost.

In indoor workspaces and profit-driven settings, community can sometimes be tied to hierarchy, competition, pressure, gatekeeping, or environments where someone else benefits most from your labor. Spaces that should feel supportive can become transactional, political, or coercive.

I’ve lived long enough in this industry to know that many workers are forced to choose between things they should never have to choose between:

Freedom or belonging.

Autonomy or support.

Independence or community.

That never sat right with me.

About five years ago, I saw a gap online and tried to build something for our community. I believed deeply in the idea, but I made mistakes in marketing and struggled to recover from them. After a year, I shut it down.

That was painful.

I took two years to reflect, learn, grow, and ask myself if I should let the dream go.

But I couldn’t.

Because I knew the heart of the idea still mattered. I knew workers needed spaces built with them in mind—not as an afterthought, not as a commodity, and not only when profitable.

So in Summer 2024, I began again.

I rebuilt the concept with more wisdom, more patience, and a clearer understanding of what was truly needed.

And in October 2024, Candy Kisses was born.

From day one, I wanted one thing to be clear:

Candy Kisses is sex worker centric.

We believe clients do not belong to anyone.

We believe people will follow authenticity, connection, trust, and value.

We believe workers deserve ownership over their own audience.

We believe networking should not require exploitation.

We believe support should not come with strings attached.

We believe community should not cost your freedom.

Watching creators lose accounts and stability across OnlyFans, X, Instagram, and beyond only confirmed what I already knew:

The time for our own spaces is now.

Candy Kisses is deeply personal to me.

It comes from lived experience.

From mistakes and lessons.

From loneliness and resilience.

From love for an industry that has given so many of us independence and opportunity.

From a desire to create something safer, softer, smarter, and truly ours.

Candy Kisses is more than a project.

It is the space I wish existed years ago.

A network.

A workspace.

A collective where workers can grow without losing themselves.

This project has been my heart and soul for the better part of half a decade. I have invested countless hours into concept, design, building trust, creating a brand that will be recognized and building community one individual at a time. I have invested every cost encountered personally and continue to do so.

Candy Kisses Online and Canada's Coast to Coast Collective of Companions are more than just a project to me. They are a social initiative that I believe this community has need forever. Together, we are unstoppable, this concept has been built to sustain itself, with your involvement every step of the way. Together we can shape the future of our industry.

Thank you, for you. You matter and will forever be the reason we exist. Not for Profit but for change.

Sweetly Signed,

Deja Dawn 💋