A model who rakes in around £63,000 ($80,000) a month has revealed she’s secretly battling a rare autoimmune condition.
Cayla Smith was riding high as her modelling career took off when her health suddenly began to hold her back.
The 28-year-old star from Texas, US, was juggling shoots, travel and a fast-growing online following when she found herself constantly floored by mystery illnesses.
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Despite the flare-ups and endless hospital visits, she pushed through and continued to build her brand.
Now she’s lifting the lid on the condition she kept hidden from fans while turning herself into a £63,000-a-month OnlyFans sensation.
“I was getting sick constantly for a long time,” said Cayla, who has over 345,000 Instagram followers (@caylabriii).
“I didn’t know what was going on and it definitely didn’t feel normal.
“Even family and friends used to comment on it.
“For a long time doctors thought it was allergies, but they soon worked out it was something more.”
After a year of tests, Cayla was diagnosed with Specific Antibody Deficiency – known as SAD.
The condition means sufferers have normal antibody levels but can’t make enough to fight certain bacteria, leaving them repeatedly ill.
What is Specific Antibody Deficiency
SAD is a relatively rare primary immunodeficiency disorder that makes patients vulnerable to recurring infections.
“It basically causes me to get sick really, really easily because my body can’t fight infections,” Cayla said.
“They put me on a weekly infusion medication called immunoglobulin replacement therapy.
“It basically boosts low antibody levels using antibodies from donated plasma.”
The treatment involves regular infusions of antibodies harvested from healthy donors’ plasma – essentially borrowing immune function from others.
This is a lifelong management strategy rather than a cure, meaning Cayla will require weekly treatments indefinitely.
The diagnostic journey
Before doctors cracked the case, Cayla was passed between medics and allergy specialists.
“Before they figured it out, I was put on loads of tests,” she said.
“They found out it wasn’t allergies, so they did some blood tests.
“That’s when the doctor found the deficiency.
“They told me my body wasn’t fighting off infections properly.
“It was shocking but it also explained all the sickness.
“Not that many people have it.”
The year-long diagnostic process while constantly falling ill must have been frustrating and frightening.
Primary immunodeficiency disorders are often misdiagnosed initially because symptoms mimic more common conditions like allergies.
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Life on treatment
Since starting immunoglobulin replacement therapy, Cayla says her health has stabilised.
“I’ve been good,” she said.
“I feel like I’ll really get tested around the holiday season because I’m normally not around that many people until the holidays.
“But I did go on a trip for my friend’s birthday and I didn’t get sick.
“Normally if I go somewhere with people I do – so I feel like it’s helping so far.”
The fact that she could attend a group birthday trip without falling ill represents significant improvement.
Her concern about the holiday season reflects awareness that increased social contact during festivities poses infection risk.
For someone with compromised immunity, crowded holiday gatherings are genuinely dangerous rather than just unpleasant.
Working through illness
Despite the diagnosis, Cayla hasn’t slowed down.
She’s continued to grow her platform on OnlyFans, where she now earns between £30,000 and £80,000 a month.
The income range (£30k-£80k monthly, or roughly $38k-$100k USD) shows significant variation – possibly reflecting how illness affects her productivity.
Lower-earning months may coincide with health flare-ups when she can’t create as much content.
“I do have down days or maybe a week where I won’t feel good,” she said.
“I usually try to batch film content so when that happens I don’t get too behind on work. I’m grateful to have a job that allows me to be flexible.”
Batch filming – creating multiple pieces of content in advance during healthy periods – is essential risk management for chronically ill content creators.
This strategy ensures she has material to post even during weeks when she’s too unwell to work.
The Texas connection
This appears to be the same Cayla Smith from an earlier story about rescuing abandoned dogs, also from Texas with similar Instagram follower counts.
If so, she’s managing not just her health condition and her content creation career, but also an animal rescue operation.
Rescuing, fostering, and rehoming dogs while dealing with compromised immunity presents additional infection risk – animals can carry diseases that healthy immune systems easily fight off.
The dedication to continue rescue work despite health challenges suggests strong commitment to the cause.
Managing medical appointments
Cayla said the year-long run of hospital appointments and testing was tough to manage alongside work – and needed careful scheduling.
“Juggling work and doctors’ visits can be hard to navigate but I try to schedule things appropriately. It does take some planning,” she added.
“It doesn’t stop me from pursuing my career – I just storm through.”
Weekly infusions represent an ongoing time commitment beyond the initial diagnostic period.
Many people with chronic conditions struggle to maintain employment due to the constant medical appointments – Cayla’s flexible self-employment makes this manageable.
Why she kept it hidden
The headline emphasises that Cayla has been “hiding” her illness from fans, though her reasons aren’t explicitly stated.
Possible motivations include:
- Not wanting fans to see her as sick or weak
- Avoiding sympathy or pity that might affect how people view her content
- Protecting her privacy about medical matters
- Maintaining the glamorous image her brand requires
- Uncertainty about diagnosis until recently confirmed
The fact that she’s revealing it now suggests either acceptance of the condition or a decision that transparency serves her better than secrecy.
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The irony of immunodeficiency in her work
Working in adult content creation while immunocompromised creates unique challenges:
Meeting subscribers or collaborators for content poses infection risk.
Attending industry events or conventions means exposure to crowds.
Travel for shoots or tours increases exposure to germs in airports, hotels, etc.
The very activities that build her career and income also threaten her health.
The glamorous façade
Cayla’s work requires looking healthy, energetic, and glamorous on camera.
Fans subscribing to her content expect a certain image – illness doesn’t fit that brand.
The disconnect between her polished online presence and the reality of weekly medical infusions illustrates how much labour goes into maintaining creator personas.
When fans see her content, they don’t see the exhaustion, the medical appointments, or the constant vulnerability to infection.
What batch filming really means
For healthy creators, batch filming is a productivity strategy.
For Cayla, it’s a medical necessity – her health is unpredictable enough that she must create content while able.
This means potentially filming sexual content while feeling unwell, knowing she’ll need the material later.
It also means the pressure of knowing that a bad health week could significantly impact income if she hasn’t prepared adequately.
The holiday season concern
Cayla’s specific worry about the holiday season reveals how her condition affects life planning.
Most people look forward to holidays as a time for family and celebration.
For her, holidays mean dangerous exposure to crowds and increased infection risk.
This creates difficult choices: miss family events to protect her health, or attend and risk getting seriously ill.
The persistence narrative
Throughout her account, Cayla emphasises pushing through despite challenges.
“I just storm through,” she says.
“I’m going to continue doing what makes me happy.
“I like putting myself out there, and obviously my fans like it too.
“I’m happy and will keep doing this for as long as I want.”
This framing positions her as resilient and determined rather than limited by illness.
Whether this represents genuine attitude or necessary public narrative for someone whose brand depends on appearing vibrant and healthy is unclear.
The flexibility advantage
Cayla specifically mentions being “grateful to have a job that allows me to be flexible”.
Traditional employment often doesn’t accommodate chronic illness well – missing work for medical appointments can lead to termination.
OnlyFans allows her to work around her health needs, filming when she feels well and resting when she doesn’t.
This flexibility comes at the cost of income instability and lack of benefits like health insurance – particularly ironic given her expensive ongoing treatment needs.
The plasma donation connection
Cayla’s treatment relies on immunoglobulin derived from donated plasma.
She literally depends on healthy strangers donating plasma to maintain her health.
This creates an unusual relationship to healthcare – she’s not just a patient but someone whose life depends on others’ altruism.
The irony that she works in an industry often stigmatised while depending on conventional medical treatment funded by the generosity of regular donors adds complexity to her story.
What weekly infusions entail
Immunoglobulin replacement therapy isn’t a quick process.
Infusions typically take 2-4 hours per session, plus travel time to medical facilities.
This means Cayla spends potentially 4-6 hours weekly on treatment – time that could otherwise be spent creating content or living her life.
The physical experience of having infusions – sitting still for hours with an IV – is exhausting and unpleasant even when it’s helping.
The £30k-£80k range
The massive variation in Cayla’s monthly income (£30,000 to £80,000) is striking.
At the low end, she still earns substantially more than most people.
At the high end, she’s bringing in nearly £1 million annually.
This inconsistency likely reflects both her health fluctuations and the inherent volatility of OnlyFans income.
Subscribers come and go, viral content can spike earnings, and seasonal patterns affect all creators.
The “not that many people have it” realisation
Cayla’s observation that “not that many people have it” reflects the isolation of rare disease diagnosis.
There aren’t large support communities or extensive resources for uncommon conditions.
Finding other people who understand her experience is difficult.
This isolation may contribute to why she kept the diagnosis private initially – who would understand if she shared?
Living with uncertainty
Despite treatment helping, Cayla acknowledges ongoing unpredictability.
“I do have down days or maybe a week where I won’t feel good,” she says.
This uncertainty – never knowing when illness will strike – creates constant background stress.
Planning becomes difficult when your health is unreliable.
The need to “batch film content” represents trying to create certainty in an uncertain situation.
The career commitment
Cayla’s determination to continue her career despite health challenges suggests deep commitment beyond just money.
“I’m going to continue doing what makes me happy,” she says.
For someone who could probably afford to stop working given her earnings, the choice to continue indicates genuine fulfillment from the work.
Or perhaps recognition that her medical expenses require ongoing income to manage.
What this reveals about creator life
Cayla’s story illustrates how much audiences don’t see behind the glamorous content.
Fans subscribing to her OnlyFans see an attractive, seemingly healthy woman.
They don’t see the weekly medical treatments, the batch filming during good days, the constant infection risk, or the year of diagnostic uncertainty.
This gap between image and reality exists for all creators to some degree – but chronic illness makes it particularly stark.
From mystery illness to rare diagnosis to weekly infusions while earning six figures monthly, Cayla Smith’s hidden health battle reveals how even seemingly glamorous online lives can mask difficult medical realities – and how the flexibility of content creation can be both a financial blessing and a necessity when traditional employment isn’t an option.
