Julia Burch googled how to grow taller.
The internet suggested coffee. So she drank a lot of coffee.
It didn’t work. She stopped growing at 11 and stayed at 5ft 3in, which the fashion world decided was a problem.
The runway was the dream. Bella Hadid was the reference point. The agencies said no.
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Her ease in front of a camera, built up over years as a competitive dancer, made no difference.
“I felt really discouraged and really sad because I’m short,” says the 25-year-old.
“I remember Googling how to get taller. I’d drink a lot of coffee and other random things, and obviously they didn’t work.”
“I stopped growing when I was 11 and just stayed at this height.”
From rejection to two million followers
So Burch turned the camera on herself instead. Bikinis. Lingerie.
The familiar starter pack. Her Instagram, @juliaaburch, now has two million followers.
Her twin sister Lauren shoots most of it.
“There’s no one I’m more comfortable with than her, so she helps me create content that my fans love.”
She built the audience from Ontario, Canada, looking up to YouTubers, then moved to Los Angeles when the numbers got serious.
OnlyFans paid for the Mercedes
The real money arrived with the OnlyFans account.
“When I first started social media, I was working a normal job and making little bits here and there online, but nothing that could sustain me,” Burch says.
Within a month she’d quit the day job.
“I quit my job and ironically, made modelling my career.”
She now drives a 2023 Mercedes EQS 580. Her first car was a used 2010 Volkswagen Golf.
“Sometimes I sit myself down and humble myself. I often think ‘this is crazy!’ but I make sure not to take it all for granted.”
The bit nobody warns you about
The money came fast. Keeping it is the other job.
“Suddenly I was earning so much money, and you want to keep it up. A lot of us who do this job are young and we don’t want the money to just disappear overnight.”
She thinks young creators get handed financial situations they have no idea what to do with.
“We’re never taught things like how to do taxes properly or how to invest our money, or how to set ourselves up sensibly for our future.”
The posting never stops either. “I have to constantly post and make sure numbers are hitting. It can be hard to switch off.”
Why it matters
Burch’s story has become a familiar shape.
Traditional industry says no. Creator goes to platforms. Creator earns more than the people who got in.
The fashion world’s gatekeeping decisions matter less every year, because the people it rejects have somewhere else to go.
And the somewhere else pays better.
What’s next
Her strategy from here is to stay authentic. Or at least look authentic.
“A lot of people can come off as really fake or performative on social media.
I want to portray a very true version of myself and just be real. I think that draws fans towards me because they feel like they can relate more.”
Whether being real on a platform built on performance is a contradiction or a working strategy, two million followers suggest she’s worked something out.
