See Why this Brazilian Hunk Is Breaking Twitter and OnlyFans
Recently OnlyFans performer Diego Barros received an email from the platform. "People at the world's largest 'subscription-based social media platform' had sent him a message, notifying Diego that he was the first male to ever arrive at one million dollars in earnings in just eight months' time," reports the queer website What About Tom.
The reason is apparent, at least by judging by pics on his Instagram. What may have helped push Barros, a Brazilian native living in London, to the top was a NSFW Twitter challenge last summer in which participants were challenged to balance a shampoo bottle on their erect penis. "Diego, dear people, stacked not one but four bottles on his dick, biceps flexed," writes What About Tom. "The cocky caption: 'So which challenge is next?'"
It was enough to get Barrios attention — a lot of attention. His social media career began when he posted pics on Instagram a few years ago. "I had been posting videos on Instagram, teasing with my dick. Not a lot of people were doing that kind of stuff at the time, it was giving me a following, and OnlyFans invited me to start an account."
But instead of pursuing a career on the web, Barrios became a go-go dancer, for which he was paid well for his "Magic Mike" moves. Then Covid hit and Barrios could no longer perform in clubs. Stuck in his London flat, he decided to return to social media.
In short time, his following grew exponentially, helped by such stunts as his balancing those shampoo bottles on his erect penis. And it came at the right moment. "If Covid proved anything to me it is that in my line of work you have a short career. I need to make my money now and be smart about it. Work hard and save, save, save."
In just a short time, Barrios has accumulated one million followers on Instagram, almost a million on Twitter, and a half-million on Tik-Tok. That and his OnlyFans account has help him to make a million dollars so far. But it requires his constant attention. "I put a lot of effort into what I do. I post a video every day, I try to come up with new ideas constantly, I reply to every single message, to every single comment. I do live shows, I do giveaways. The first time I did OnlyFans I only stripped down to my underwear. I don't do collaborations with other guys, but my stuff has gotten much more sexual. I do fetish stuff, I use toys, I cum on camera."
But while his work has become more sexual, he only does solo work. "It's where I draw the line. Many of my videos on Twitter have more retweets than clips of guys fucking. And if you look at my results, apparently I don't need to go any further. Though I'm not saying I never will. The stuff I post today, if you had asked me four years ago I would have said: no way I'm ever going to do that."
His adds that his family is very supportive, but his mom gave him some advice about going further with explicit content. "My mom is super supportive but she did tell me: 'Just don't cross the line, because you don't need it'. She never said: don't do porn, but I think I understood what she meant."
He says that his experience as as a stripper informs his social media content. "Have you ever been at a party where strippers come on stage already naked? After ten minutes people are talking to each other again, they are off to the bar. You need to keep your audience engaged. I always use the example of going for a full course meal. You get your starter, your soup, the main course, and then dessert." Laughs: "That's it. You can't skip. The part where I show my dick is the last few minutes."
And, he admits, he is proud of his endowment. "Okay, right. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's a fucking nice dick." He laughs: "You know what: it's very good-looking. Sometimes even myself, I'm looking at it and go: oh fuck, it's very good-looking." More laughing. "It is veiny, it is big. Not just big, it's thick, it's the thickness. You know. And, so many... There are long cocks, and I think — from what people told me before — they prefer the thickness. It is better sucking a thick dick than one that is long and thin. And I have huge, huge balls, the head is nicely shiny..."
Nor does he express any issues with showing it off in public. ""I do get a good erection. I'm hard a lot. Even talking to you now, I'm semi-hard."
He continues: "I am a very horny guy. I don't need steroids, I don't do drugs. I know a lot of guys like to fuck on drugs. The only thing that makes me extra horny sometimes is wine. I do take half a viagra, one hour before a show, it helps me to stay hard. And I put a cockring on."
He admits that when Covid hit, he became depressed. His dance gigs had dried up, sales on his online underwear and sportswear line plummeted, and the London gyms closed. "I had to shut that business because I was starting to lose all my savings. That's when depression hit me. I ran out of motivation and felt really down. To make things worse TikTok blew up. I had a million followers on Instagram. But all of a sudden TikTok made Instagram look old, in the way Instagram made Facebook look old at the time. TikTok had all these amazing influencers and I was a nobody on there. It felt like I had lost and had to start all over again."
But a trip home to Brazil and advice from his mother helped him set a new path. "I got to reconnect with my parents, I met my friends from school and uni. And they were chatting to me. Even my mom's friends: 'D., go back to OnlyFans, make your money'. My mom said: 'No one has to judge anyone, you never know why a person is doing what they are doing. As long as you don't kill, don't steal, and never harm anyone to get to the top, you do what you want.' That was a big encouragement for me. They told me to reinvent myself and that's what I did."
But Barrios admits to some anxiety looking ahead. "Success on OnlyFans isn't going to last forever, there are a lot of competitors out there, and I won't be doing backflips on stage until I'm fifty years old. I don't consider myself a celebrity — to me celebrities are the people in movies and music, collecting Oscars and grammy awards. But even I am getting so much attention sometimes that it makes me uncomfortable. I have to make sure I always look good and I'm kind of looking forward to not having to impress anyone anymore. But don't get me wrong: especially because I know it's not going to last forever, I'm really enjoying my time now."
Looking back, the out performer admits not being able to have sex with a man until he moved to London when he was 19. "I started my gay life when I moved to London. I had many girlfriends in Brazil. My first experience with a guy was here because I came from a very religious, straight, macho family. I grew up with five cousins exactly my age. Them, my uncle, my grandpa, all those guys that were proper guys sitting in a bar together and just talk about women."
And on one of his Instagram posts, he wrote: "Some people are born to make the world laugh, some to make people emotional, some to entertain, and I was born to make the world horny."
"Yes, I think so. It is not just me having a big head about myself, it's what people say to me. I do have this thing apparently that makes people horny. And it's why I'm doing what I do. I just really like to make people horny."