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A 6ft 2in ex-accountant has cured her embarrassment about her height by turning it to her advantage on the subscription video site OnlyFans where she rakes in up to £80k ($100k) a month from punters who pay to see her standing on the camera like a giant and kicking her leg to the top of the fridge.
Marie Temara’s good fortune came in August 2021 after a run of bad luck that saw her relationship end and her job axed in the pandemic, when she turned to TikTok, roping her 6ft 5in dog walker mum, Christine Temara, 60, and her 6ft grandmother, Susan Clifford, 82, in to make tall-themed videos that went viral.
More used to ducking in photos and slouching in corridors to disguise her height – which she reached at 12-years-old – suddenly Marie, 27, of Florida, USA, was celebrating it online and now has 379.5K views of her body positive content on TikTok.
She has even started maximising her stature by wearing toweringly high heels when she goes out, saying: “I’ve started to feel proud of being tall. “I wore six inch heels out to a bar with my friends for the first time last year and I felt amazing. Everyone looked but I was proud. If people don’t like me because I’m tall, that’s their problem.”
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Now making a fantastic living from being tall, for years Marie loathed being from a “family of giants,” which included her 6ft 2in dad Mike Temera, 61, and her 6ft 9in basketball player brothers Shane, 26, and Troy, 24.
She said: “I always hated being so tall and wished I could be like one of the small girls. When I first posted a video saying I was 6ft 2in and weighed 200lb (14st 2lb) I couldn’t believe the response. Everyone was so positive and lovely.”
She added: “I went from being the person who no guy ever wanted to everyone thinking I was good-looking. So many girls messaged me privately saying it meant so much for them to have someone to look up to.”
Taller than her brothers until she was 13, when they suddenly shot past her and buying clothes in the adult section throughout secondary school because of her height, standing out from the crowd also led to bullying.
She said: “I was always a head taller than everyone else. I used to get bullied for being so tall. People would call me a boy because I was taller than everyone else, which was really hard.”
Marie added: “It was hardest when I reached middle school, because that’s when you start liking guys and I was so much taller than them. “I would like them, but they wouldn’t like me back. I would slouch down hallways and in pictures. I would slouch down or lean to the side to look shorter.”
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Being taller also seriously cramped her style. She said: “The girly clothes I wanted to wear didn’t fit. I had to go to the women’s section, but I always wanted to wear the cute little girly prints. At school, some of the desks and chairs were too small for me, so they had to get a special chair for me because my knees hit the desk. It was stuff like that, which made me realise I was different.”
Back home the family had fun seeing how they were all measuring up. Marking their heights on the wall as they grew up, Marie revelled in being taller than her younger brothers, until they had a growth spurt and overtook her. She laughed: “It was a competition in the family to be the tallest. In complete contrast to school, at home I wanted to be taller. In class, I was desperate to be shorter.”
Encouraged by her mum, who played basketball professionally for six years across the world, Marie found some pride when she also played the game, but she still felt cripplingly self-conscious most of the time.
She said: “It was nice to be around other girls who were tall playing basketball, as there are so few, but I still wanted to be shorter.
“I was such a girly girl and I loved all the hair and make up. I desperately wanted to wear heels but I never did, I was so scared of being too tall.”
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After leaving college, Marie went to state college Morrisville and graduated in accounting. Thriving as a working accountant, which she did for four years, her personal life was far less successful. She said: “Dating was really hard. I used to only look for tall guys.”
She added: “But now it is a big thing to like ‘short Kings’ so I like the short guys now, too, and since I’ve been making videos, I’ve realised they like me, as well. They say they’re short but they like that I’m tall and want a tall woman.
“There were a lot of guys who used to say that I was too tall, or height would come up while chatting on a dating site and most of the time, they weren’t interested after that.”
But Marie was dating for a year and a half, only for her relationship to come to a natural end in August 2021, a year after losing her job in April, 2020, when the pandemic hit. Still, refusing to be broken, Marie turned her losses into an opportunity and began making TikTok videos about her height, which went viral, getting 3million views.
She said: “I lost my job during Covid and then I had a break-up and I decided to post something on TikTok about what it was like being so tall.” She added: “I didn’t know what to expect but it blew up and it instantly went viral. I was so shocked – I thought, ‘Wow, people actually like this.’
“So many people commented saying they thought I looked so good and thanked me for sharing, saying they finally have someone they can look up to. I even got my mum and gran to join me for videos, too!”
Quickly gaining thousands of followers, Marie discovered a newfound confidence and was soon working with a variety of brands on Instagram as a fitness model.
Keen to promote body positivity, Marie is also eager to share videos about her weight on TikTok. She said: “I have always weighed over 200lb and right now, I am 207lb (14st 7lb).”
She added: “I used to hate my weight – I would never step on the scales and I would feel so ashamed at the doctors.But now, I love it. I am hugely into my fitness and have worked out for 15 years, which is probably why I weigh what I do. I do about two or three hours every day, mainly weightlifting. Still, when I say how much I weigh, so many people are shocked. They don’t realise that it is okay to be over 200lb – it doesn’t look bad.”
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Selling photos of herself and posting on OnlyFans means Marie is now able to make between £60k to £80k ($75k – $100k) a month.
She said: “Someone suggested I should try OnlyFans after seeing my TikTok videos, so I started in 2021. Now I earn what I used to make in a year in a month.”
Despite the lucrative advantage she has now found in being tall, Marie says there are still drawbacks. "My feet always hang off the bed,” she said.
“I have a Ford Mustang and it’s so small, I have to squash myself down and stretch my legs out the whole way – I need a truck! I have to duck under showerheads too, because I’m always too tall to fit underneath them.”
Marie has still not turned her back on accountancy – a career she loved – and is thinking of starting a business of her own in the future. But, for now, she is happy to make the most of her newfound fame while spreading a positive message about looking different.
She said: “When I think about how far I have come, it does make me feel emotional. I just don’t want any other young girls to feel the way I did and if I can help people feel more confident and proud to be tall, then that means everything to me. I want people to know that it is okay to be different.”
As a regular co-star in Marie’s TikTok videos, her mum, Christine, is proud to see her daughter finally happy and embracing her height She said: “We have always been a very tall family. I used to be quiet and shy at school, because I felt so different being tall. But now, being at home with the family, it just feels normal. It’s only when you leave the house, that people come up to you and ask how tall you are or what the weather is like up there!”
She added: “It makes me happy that Marie is now happy. I feel so proud she is spreading such a positive message.”
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