As the bushfires in Australia continue to devastate the country, many people have been doing what they can to donate and raise money to organizations that are providing aid. One of the most clever tactics I've seen used to raise money for Australia was done by Kaylen Ward, a sex worker. She created a post on Twitter saying that for each $10 someone donated, she would send that person one of her nudes in exchange.

When I first saw the tweet I could not get over how great of an idea it was. She knew her nude photos were in demand and decided to use that demand to raise money for a country that desperately needs it. The result blew me away because Ward ended up raising over a million dollars.

I figured that everyone would be overjoyed at this news and thanking Ward for her contribution, but that was not the case. Ward tweeted that when her family found out that she was a sex worker, they "disowned" her.

It's frustrating that a woman feeling secure enough in her body to be a sex worker is a reason for some people to want to cut contact with her. Ward did something charitable with her sex work and that should be respected, not looked down upon. Sex work should not be shameful. As long as the sex workers themselves are safe and have consented to be in this line of work, nobody should have a problem with it. It especially does not make sense to look down upon sex workers when Ward raised a million dollars for Australia through her sex work. Is her good deed negated because she sold nude photos to do it? Would you have preferred she not created that tweet and thus caused Australia to miss out on a million dollars?

As Ward explained, "It's a really good incentive for people who wouldn't donate, as bad as that sounds."

And she is completely right.

We all know that sex sells, and Ward used that as a way to help people in need. The New York Times pointed out that, "Partially dressed firefighters are known to pose for fund-raising calendars, and pageants with swimsuit competitions are often held for charitable purposes." There is really not much of a difference between those events and Ward's campaign, and the people that have a problem with her work are probably just uncomfortable with the fact that she is in charge of her own body.

The donations for nudes exchange is now over, but Ward has opened a GoFundMe where people can still donate to Australia if they please. All of the money donated to the GoFundMe will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund and the NSW Rural Fire Service. I am glad that Ward has decided to use her newfound fame to continue bringing attention to the bushfires in Australia and encouraging her audience to donate.