Mila M., a junior at the University of Texas at Austin, isn’t necessarily interested in conservative older men. But for a few thousand dollars a month, she could be.
About five months ago, Mila created a profile on SeekingArrangement.com, an online service branded as the world’s “leading Sugar Daddy dating site,” and started offering her companionship to older men in exchange for money. It’s not about the romance. For her, this is strictly business.
“You’re there for their service. It’s like a job,” Mila told me over the phone. “Like in the same way that, if you worked at a Jack in the Box, you would show up and you would be bright and cheerful about every taco that you served, even if you didn’t give a shit about tacos. That’s the same way that I am when I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m Mila.’”
Mila represents the average college user on the site. She’s middle class, attends a public university, and is looking for a lucrative, part-time solution to pay for her loans and living expenses. She’s also one of 425 UT students who joined the site last year, making her school the fastest growing “sugar baby university” in the country, according to the site itself. “Sugar babies” are young, attractive women who provide companionship for older, wealthier men, or “daddies.”
