Off the beaten path: Hannah 'Star' bares it all about balancing stripping with academics

Editor’s note: To protect the identity of our subject, we have chosen to use her stage name coupled with her first name. To further insure our subject’s anonymity, we removed her major and hometown as well as the name of her friend.

When the sun goes down, Hannah performs using the name “Star,” under stage lights while wearing 8-inch heels.
Hannah, a junior at Texas Tech, grew up learning different forms of dancing, beginning when she was just a 3-year-old, and used that foundation  during her freshman year of college to gain financial independence.

Looking back on her initial employment, Hannah said although she was young and ambitious, she still retains a slim memory of shock.

“I got a fake ID and started dancing when I was 17,” she said. “It’s crazy when I look back. I’m like ‘Wow, I started doing that?’ I was this cute, little naive girl, and I started taking my clothes off for money?”

Since March  2007, Hannah has been working at The Lodge on the outskirts of Lubbock, but she has been dancing for four years. Like any student with four years of experience in college, Hannah said she has learned to balance and prioritize school and work.

“My entire freshman year, I was a stripper first and a student second,” she said. “It was a horrible thing — it’s a hard lifestyle to live. For people with no self control, (stripping) is not a good job.”

A close friend of Hannah, who is a junior political science major, has known Hannah since high school. The two continued their friendship after they each enrolled at Tech. He said unusual careers or lifestyles often can bring criticism and cruel generalizations.

“It’s something they don’t know about — you don’t know how it is to be in someone else’s shoes,” he said. “You can’t say someone should be some way, or live up to your expectations because it’s not your life. The same factors that affect you don’t affect other people.”

Hannah said she has heard numerous insults, generalizations and assumptions about herself because of her job, but uses the same reply when confronted by doubters.

“There so much about strippers that people don’t know, lumping everybody into one category is not fair; it’s inaccurate and ignorant,” she said. “It’s just a supplement to my lifestyle. It’s not who I am, it’s what I do.”

Instead of being shocked or disappointed, her friend said he was intrigued and pleased to know his friend was making her way through life supporting herself.

“It was definitely interesting — her being able to do things on her own and be independent,” he said. “Coming up here, taking care of herself, and making the decisions she needed to do was awesome.”

When talking about students and the numerous jobs they have, Hannah said what she does is not unlike other common student jobs.

“It’s very similar to waitressing or bartending,” she said. “You’re not trying to sell a drink, you’re trying to sell yourself. That’s where personality comes in. You can be hot as hell, and if you have no personality, you’re not going to make money.”

Kelly Blumhagen, manager at The Lodge and Hannah’s employer, said he respects her ability to work and go to school, and dancers at The Lodge are able to have a flexible work schedule.

“I admire that she works and goes to school,” he said. “Dancers have no set schedule, they work when they want to work — they’re contract laborers. It allows time for school and other activities.”

Hannah said her work yields another personality to cater to the fantasy of the club — making the experience for the customers surreal, but concocted for her.

“It’s like schizophrenia in a way,” she said. “You’re not getting paid for being the intelligent college student who has a life, you’re getting paid for being the hot girl, half-dressed, sitting next to me rubbing on the inside of my leg.”

She said as old as the adage is, it holds true to her profession and lifestyle: “The biggest thing is, you can’t judge a book by its cover. As cliché as it is, that’s so true.”

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