Readers of a certain age will fondly recall a joyful expression, “What a trip!” … These same people feel sorry for those too young (or sheltered) to know that one, but we assure you that it certainly applies with our May, 2022, Pet of the Month.
A Trip Bri Conversation
I’m sitting here with Trip Bri, Penthouse Pet.
Trip Bri: Hello! Thank you for having me.
How do you navigate the intersection of your personal beliefs and the expectations placed on you by the public, or the industry?
Trip Bri: [sighs] Wow. … First of all, amazing question.
Thank you.
Trip Bri: You guys really did the work on that.
Thank you, again.
Trip Bri: That’s because I think about this actually quite frequently, ‘cause I wrestle with it kind of internally. My personal beliefs in what I do, and what I support, versus what I believe that the public sees me as and what morals they would like me to support, I guess you can say… and I think that, for me, it’s complicated.
I think that while I value the sort of ‘my body is a temple’ values internally, I also try to remember that a lot of people look at temples. A lot of people go visit temples, and it doesn’t really destroy them, and so I try… I try to remind myself also, there is … I think there’s a lot of judgement that comes from the public — that comes as a projection. I try to remind myself that who I am and what I do, those aspects are not intersected as much as people like to portray them. And so, like I said, I do think that the body is a temple, and it is to be treated with respect. That’s one of my personal beliefs, and so, I try not to share my physical body with a lot of partners at a time, while I continue to respect others who do. But I also believe that a temple can have a lot of visitors and still be sacred.
Great answer. I love that. What role do you think social media plays in shaping the public’s perception today?
Trip Bri: Social media — the internet itself, is such a fascinating third place because all of us are a little bit of a different version of ourselves on social media than we are in reality. That applies whether you’re just a commenter, or a spectator, or a poster. I think that social media, with the sort of faceless aspect of it, for commenters and the sort of identity-less aspect of it for influencers and posters, those of us who don’t generally make our posting our identity, I think it kind of creates this weird third space where all that we really see is someone’s façade.
That’s why I’ve been — I think that’s why the de-influencing trend has started to be such a big thing. I think that people are really starting to crave the candidness and the sort of anti-influencer unpolished personal element of it. So I think it’s definitely been a looking glass. Social media has been a looking glass into who we really are, what we really want. I think it’s taken some time to get there, but I actually think we’re making solid progress toward observing ourselves in a more natural light than we have through social media.
Great answer. If you could give a TED Talk on a subject outside of your expertise, what would it be?
Trip Bri: Outside of my expertise? I think I would love to talk about calculus and the physics of space and Earth. I’m actually conceptually really good at math, but I’m terrible at the actual performance of the numbers. And calculus is cool. I took it in college, and conceptually, I find it so cool how the different formulas represent ways that numbers and shapes and movements of the universe relate to one another. It’s certainly out of my expertise, but if I could give a TED Talk, I would definitely love to give one on calculus and the cosmos. [laughs]
How do you envision the future of your industry, and where do you see yourself fitting into that vision?
Trip Bri: Yeah, I actually also think about that one all the time. I don’t think that it’s going to stay the way that it was. I think that — I mean the world that we live in — everything has begun accelerating so much more than before. I mean you can look at it in everything through interior design trends, to clothing trends, to the speed at which social media algorithms change.
I mean, even just the type of content I was posting a couple of years ago, or a year ago, is different than the type of content I need to create now. The organic algorithm changes. The future of the industry — I have no prediction immediately off the top of my head, but I have no doubt that the next evolution is going to involve something a little more material. Like, I think VR is going to be a really big thing that’s going to come up. I think the OnlyFans thing is interesting, because it was the natural next evolution for porn. Like, it went from impersonal performances to the highly personal interactive. And so, I think it’s going to continue to get more interactive.
How I fit into it, I see one of two things. I see myself either retiring entirely from it and stepping away or creating something that hasn’t existed before, which I think is actually a passion of mine and something I’d like to do. It’s on my bucket list. I really want to create a non-sexual free retreat for women who do what I do to be in a space with other women with potential to do breath work, to go sunning, and swimming in the river naked, and be with each other naked in a non-sexual way and remember that we are actually just little human bodies running around this planet. I’d love to provide sex therapists and sex talks to these women. I think it would be…
Women lack a lot of community nowadays. Our world is really isolating, and our culture very isolating. I think how women have survived for so long has been through strong female culture and sisterhood, and so I think creating what I consider currently is lacking in this world is in the next step for me. I’d really like to create safe spaces for girls like me.
I love that one! Come on now, stop being so fantastic. What has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?
Trip Bri: I think that no matter what anybody says, I’ve observed it within myself and within others … the career that we do has, can have, a pretty negative impact on romantic relationships — especially if you are with someone who is interested in monogamy and has just a different perspective on it.
I think for me, when you’re in an intimate relationship with somebody, well, first of all, the work that we do puts us so into the spotlight that we are really hard on ourselves, and it can be really draining. So first I’ve observed that a need for your partner to support you consistently and pick you back up is pretty crucial. That’s been one impact that I’ve seen. … Since I stare at myself — on my phone, on my camera — all day long, I’m staring at minutia that I wouldn’t notice otherwise, and I think having a partner be there and dealing with that has more often than not been a point of tension in my life. I also think that involving them in the work that I do is kind of hard. … It’s a hard ask — for me, for my partner. Especially, when we’ve done live streams, that’s been, I think, the biggest point of contention. It’s really hard for a man to have to perform live when he’s not personally trained, or decided to enter the industry, when he’s just a regular guy who has no training or any of that but also doesn’t want you to sleep with anyone else for that. So, it’s a really, really, tricky thing to navigate… so, I think that’s been the biggest thing I’ve noticed.
That’s another great answer.
Trip Bri: [laughs]
Do you think the role of celebrity and influencers changed in the digital age?
Trip Bri: I do.
How?
Trip Bri: I think that celebrities used to be these mysterious creatures … and I think of super-models in the early and late 90s. I mean they would show up at events, they would take photos, they would look mysterious and cool, and then they would retreat and maybe paparazzi would catch them doing something, but nobody was stalking them with their cellphones. That wasn’t a thing… and now it’s so ubiquitous with the cellphone that you can’t really have that mystique as a celebrity anymore. I also think that with that lack of mystique, people have generally stopped praising celebrities as much. They’ve had a lot more opportunities for missteps and we’ve had too many social media missteps with celebrities that got a little bit too loose and too much of a look into what their lives look like, I think that people have lost a lot of interest in mystique in influencers and celebrities as things to be praised. I think that now — like I said earlier — people are looking to de-influence and become relatable. I think we are looking to find relatable people on the internet … which …
I don’t know if I fall into that category, but…
I think you’re very relatable, are you kidding?
Trip Bri: [laughs] Thank you.
How do you balance your public persona with maintaining personal privacy?
Trip Bri: Yeah… I think that thinking of, like a compartmentalization of … thinking of my persona Trip Bri as a project — rather than an extension of myself — makes it easier. I really do enjoy blending my creative interests into my work. So that element of it I do put out there, but as for my privacy, I don’t really post my day-to-day. I think I just keep it … I stick to work, you know? I post a cute photo, but I don’t need the world to know where I’m going to get lunch and stuff. I let myself live my life. I don’t photograph all my experiences, for me.
I love that answer.
Trip Bri: [laughs]
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about your upbringing or early life?
Trip Bri: Everyone thinks I was a cheerleader. I was a shaved-head musical theater rugby player. I was not in the slightest what people imagine. I was Polish speaking … I mean I learned English, but I had an accent through elementary school. I had short hair, [and] in high school I had long hair, but I was a musical theater kid, and then in college, I shaved my head, and I played rugby. I think that people would not expect that of me at all.
That is very true.
Trip Bri: [laughs]
You’ve shocked me. How do you define happiness, and what does it mean to you personally?
Trip Bri: Happiness is a massive term … there are so many large and small moments of happiness that fill up a whole pot of it. And I think that it’s a balance of the big and the small. … ‘Cause you can’t always seek happiness to grow, you have to seek wholeness.
I think when you can be happy with the unhappiness that you’ve had, when you can be happy that your suffering has made you who you are — and brought you to where you are — that can fill the larger happiness hole.
Then the smaller happiness for me is definitely the liberty to wake up when I want to, and the liberty to have a slow morning, and the liberty to travel freely into the woods when I want to disappear. And that … that means everything to me. I think to have the mental freedom to sit down and not have to do anything for a little bit and also knowing that the moments where I’m working, and I’m tired, and I feel ugly and fat and unloved, and all those things that don’t make me happy, being happy that I get to have those experiences is also a part of my happiness … if that makes sense.
It makes total sense. Ok, one more question. Could you share a personal story of when you almost gave up but decided to keep going?
Trip Bri: I can! I actually can!
I was in a very tough relationship, and he took everything from me after we started this work together. He took over all of the business elements, and I naively trusted him and believed for years that I had no worth outside of just making TikToks and making OnlyFans content. And when it came time to acknowledge that I couldn’t accept that anymore, I almost gave up. I actually tried to give up. Essentially, I tried everything except going out on my own. I thought I could negotiate with him. I thought I could do anything other than trying to go out on my own. …
Eventually I, with the power of really good friends and people telling me to get a lawyer, was able to actually liberate myself from a situation that kept me completely stuck and financially dependent. And now I get the absolute — I will say, if anyone is reading or listening to this and thinking about something similar and is scared to take that leap, I highly encourage it because on the other side of that risk, on the other side of that jump, is the most abundant wealth of self-fulfillment and self-independence and adventure. Ever since I didn’t let myself give up, I’ve found an absolute trove of joy, and so I’ve been really grateful for that.
That was great. Those were great answers…
Trip Bri: Thank you.
As you can probably tell, Trippie “Trip” Bri has a lot to say these days and most of it centers around joy. Can’t argue with that goal for sure. You can catch the official Pet Background in these pages, of course, and she has Instagram and backup Instagram and backup backup Instagram — because apparently she knows her tendency to push boundaries. All the struggle adds to her happiness, though, so we see no downside. To be fair, we have yet to see a downside to this one at all.
