About Me.
I am a former university instructor and lifelong exotic dancer turned itinerant preacher for women’s empowerment through sensual awakening. I am a writer, speaker, cheerleader, and catalyzer of communities for women.
Through my workshops, retreats, and digital courses, I help women reconnect with their desires and boldly pursue a path of pleasure and fulfillment.
I am a published scholar in the field of women’s studies under the name of Dr. Lindsay Byron. My short documentary, “Conjured” and longer article, “Rewriting Elizabeth,” reconstruct the lives of women wrongfully institutionalized at an infamous Southern mental hospital in the mid-twentieth century. I was named Best Stripper in Atlanta in 2015, and competed in the elite Miss Pole Dance America competition in 2016. As an academic expert on women’s issues as well as a long-term sex worker, I bring a unique mixture of historical, cultural, and real-world insights that cannot be found elsewhere.
My Story
In 2013, I was a newly-minted PhD teaching Freshman Composition–feeling as if I’d done the thing, reached the goal, achieved the accomplishment, and–painted myself into a corner.
You see, when I’d committed myself to this path over a decade earlier, I thought a PhD in English would mean I’d write novels and occasionally consult with bright minds who were in love with literature.
Wrong.
Instead, I was spending my days grading essays, showing up for committee meetings, planning composition classes–
It’s a good life for many!
But it wasn’t a good life for me.
Not only that–
The pursuit of my doctorate…
Had been about more than my education.
It had also been about my insecurity.
I craved the trappings of “respectability” because my past had left me feeling low. As a teenager in a small Southern town, I had been sidled with a bad reputation my heart couldn’t shake. The moment I graduated high school, I hit the strip club, determined to make the most of this identity.
And yet–the insecurity never left. I tried to remedy my self-loathing by doing the “right thing” and committing myself to an academic life. Anyone with a PhD must be worthy of respect, I reasoned. I took out my lip ring and put on a blazer. I left the strip club stage for the lectern. I pursued doggedly the “Dr.” in front of my name as much as the education itself.
However, the more I tried to plaster over my inner self with outward manifestations of respectability–suits and and scholarship–the more I felt like I’d assassinated the most vibrant parts of me in exchange for the approval of the world.
I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with my life, but I was at a crossroads. The academic fellowship which I’d landed when I’d graduated was up for review: would I reapply and redouble my energies towards finding a professorship somewhere, anywhere, they would take me–or–
Or–
Would I start over?
That -or- called to me.
And so, in what would be the boldest move of my life yet, I quit the academy without a safety net other than my old skills as an exotic dancer to sustain me financially.
I was in my thirties, had three degrees, and still didn’t know what I was going to be when I grew up–
But–
I had an idea.
A vision.
A dream.
I began my professional life as a stripper, and then graduated to a university instructor–only to quit the academy and hit the club again, hustling for a new dream. My career as Lux ATL began as an internet personality funded by the labor of an exhausted mom (me!) walking the strip club floor until four in the morning to raise funds. I then took off as a world-touring teacher and orator. From there, I began hosting epic retreats for women worldwide that exceeded my own wildest fantasies. I’ve written books, hosted online workshops, produced video tutorials in countless number and variety, and have amassed a following of tens of thousands across social media outlets.