Mikaela Spielberg is thriving in sex work. The adopted daughter of the famous Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has been in the adult entertainment business for nine months, and despite a rocky start to her porn career, she now says, “I’m really enjoying work, and it’s giving me a whole new life-affirming way to be.”

After battling anxiety, depression, and substance abuse problems over the years, back in February of this year, Spielberg rocked the internet with her announcement that she was taking up adult entertainment as a “safe, sane, and consensual” way to express her sexual self. “This is a positive, empowering choice,” she told The U.S. Sun. But shortly after that interview, she was arrested on domestic violence charges—which sent tabloids into a tizzy. The charges against her were eventually dropped, and she’s quietly continued on her journey into adult content and her own healing.

Recently, in an interview with the Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern, Spielberg, now 24, ventured back into the spotlight to talk more about where she’s been, where she’s at now, and where she’s going.

“I was at a point—maybe two years ago from now—where I was heartbroken, vulnerable, and felt like my soul had kind of been split in two. And I was covering that up with drinking,” she told Stern. But now, she said, “I am no longer like that…I’m in the middle of a healing journey.”

Spielberg told reporters back in February that her decision to go into sex work wasn’t “an ‘end of the road’ or ‘I’ve hit bottom’ choice.” Instead, she told Stern last week, “It was about independence in finances, and independence in freedom of speech.” She continued, “I wanted community, and I wanted to be 100 percent in charge of my own life in a way that was creative and not destructive.”

She’s now working with ManyVids, where she shoots live and pre-recorded solo cam shows from home. And the experience so far has been wonderful, she said. “ManyVids is a really incredible and wonderful community. There’s safety, security, clear regulations, and also clear expectations,” she told Stern. “I don’t feel a hostile energy around it but a loving energy. Its core design screams ‘sexual health.’ It feels safe.”

Given that she told Stern she was on the verge of homelessness over the summer, the safety and inclusiveness she’s found in the adult community seems to have made a huge difference in Spielberg’s life. “One of the things I love about ManyVids is their willingness to not shy away from the topic of creating inclusive spaces. It feels like everyone is on there, pretty much—every body, gender, adult age range. It’s a really beautiful painting of what I feel, or I wish, all my spaces were like all the time.”

Although she had told The U.S. Sun earlier this year that her sexual appetite had gotten her in trouble in the past, she told Stern last week: “Here’s what I’ve learned about myself from doing this kind of work: I’ve learned that I’m not hypersexual at all.” And more than that, “I’ve learned that I do not enjoy hardcore content personally. Whatever you decide to make is your decision, but I enjoy soft content and passion content. My long-term goal with self-expression is to work with a company that does passion-oriented content.”

Spielberg told Stern that she hopes to take up painting, and that sex work has been a stepping stone on her way toward that goal, “I really do enjoy performing though, so I’m probably going to be a performer for the rest of my life. I love it that much.”

“Thrive” photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels