Meet Addis Fouché

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Addis Fouché a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Addis, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

My ability to take risk comes from taking risks: both failed attempt and successful wins.

As a child, my brother and I used to race down the street to our house when approaching Fulton Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Hearing “keep going, Addis!” rather than “why did you stop?” was an early motivator to seek grit when challenges presented themselves.

Later through learning how to speak Mandarin Chinese (in a non-Chinese speaking household), over 30,000 miles of cross country and track practice, and attending boarding school, this “risk taking then grinding through the challenge” skill was further honed.

I’ve also learned how important failed risks are, and it’s through the juxtaposition of failure and winning that I’ve appreciated just how deep of an inflection point risks have been for me!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Addis Fouché is a 30 year old Black queer woman, native New Yorker, distance runner, sober person, commercial model,  adult performer, freelance writer, startup founder, and public speaker. After graduating from Middlebury College with a dual major in Economics and Chinese, Addis began her professional career in advertising at Wieden+Kennedy, and later R/GA and Group M. Some of her former clients include Bud Light, Lyft, Equinox, Nestle Waters, bubly seltzer, Duracell, DuPont, and Planned Parenthood.

As a multi-hyphenate, Addis’ mission is to create the content that she wishes she could have seen at a younger age: which de-stigmatizes topics like sex, sobriety, race, sexuality, and gender. Whether she’s writing for Glamour Magazine or Refinery29, starring in top-performing BuzzFeed videos, hosting her live event series “The Lust Files” about sex positivity, speaking at SXSW , working on her startup (which is like DuoLingo for social justice), or representing some the most influential adult stars in the industry: you can find Addis trying new mocktail recipes, shopping vintage at stores that only locals know, or training for yet another half marathon.

– In December 2024 I completed Coco Rocha’s Model Camp, which is setting me up nicely to be signed with a fashion/commerical modeling agency this spring.
– I’m currently the only person in history to shoot 2 back to back Hustler magazine covers (attached)! That’s major! 
– I was featured in a Bloomberg documentary entitled “How The Business of OnlyFans Works And Who Makes Money”
– I was nominated for two 2025 XBIZ Europa Awards: Best Acting and Best Group scene
– My sex-positive speaker series, The Lust Files, has had 6 sold-out events at Soho House in NYC, and 2 at The Cutting Room.
– I’ve been invited to pitch another presentation for 2026 SXSW, my previous speech, “Creating For The Second Puberty of Queer Adults” was in 2023
– I’ve worked with Nike, Lululemon, and Strava on my mission to fundraise for the ALS United foundation

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Loyalty, Diversity , Empathy.

Developing a sense of loyalty has made discovering who my real team of supporters is, while also teaching me how to be a good member of someone’s else’s team. This is so important when becoming a better version of oneself, because it teaches self trust.

I also take pride in how diverse my personhood is: as a woman, Black person, performer, runner, sober person, and neurodivergent person I learn more and more about myself daily. This has become such an impactful part of my journey because I’m able to apply one learning in one sector of my life to multiple sectors of my life!

And lastly, empathy is a basic skill that deepens human connection. I would never be the business person, friend, or creator that I am today without developing my sense of empathy. We’re all human at the end of the day.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

My parents are immigrants (Jamaican father, Trinidadian mother), who both quit their jobs when I was under the age of 6 to pursue their dreams of being an author and a classically trained chef, respectively.

Immigration is such a risky process that most immigrants are extremely risk-averse, out of self-preservation. My parents taught me how important taking chances and living as my truest self is, and I thank them often for that!

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