Born in Nashville on May 13th 1986, Leila Fox spent the majority of her life growing up in Chicago with her older brother Andrew, and her parents Gregory and Meredith. While Leila claims she had an average childhood, the truth is that her early years were fraught with turbulence and chaos: Andrew was six years older than her and had suffered from mental illness as a young child, and with drug addiction once he entered adolescence. Because her older brother commanded both of her parents' attentions, Leila fell to the wayside and essentially became her own best friend and support. Both parents were career-driven when not otherwise preoccupied with Andrew, and could never seem to work out a happy balance between their son's issues, their career, and their quiet and plump daughter. When Leila was 13 years old, she returned home from school late one afternoon to a seemingly empty house. Upon further examination, Leila was terrified to find Andrew dead in his closet; suspended by his belt and metal shelving unit, he had committed suicide several hours prior. Too traumatized to react, she simply curled up in a ball next to his cold body where she was found a few hours later by her mother, who immediately became hysterical at the sight.

Andrew's suicide caused a massive ripple effect in the Fox family. A few weeks after his funeral, Gregory and Meredith separated, putting their remaining child directly in the middle. Leila was overweight, depressed, and barely scraping by in school; now she was tugged between her incredibly stubborn and manipulative parents, neither who seemed to truly care about what Leila wanted. As she went through adolescence, she learned how to use her parents to get what she wanted - and when her extra weight melted away just enough to give her ample curves and a small waist, she used her newfound looks to beguile for fellow classmates, particularly the boys. By the time high school graduation rolled around, Leila had improved her grades but showed no desire to go onto college. The trouble was, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with herself. Bored and curious after receiving an invitation to audition for a friend of a friend's new gentlemen's club on the north side of the city, Leila made her first foray into stripping. To her surprise, she liked it: she made incredible money, and it was a fun way to stay in shape. And besides, commanding the attention of every man in the bar every time she was on stage made her feel powerful. She danced under the name Athena and expanded her territory, going on strip-trips with fellow dancers and roadtripping all over the states to perform in other clubs.

A clever businesswoman, Leila was denied the approval of her parents, which she expected. Both Gregory and Meredith protested vociferously against her chosen occupation, but she told them both that she was no longer a child under their roof, was of legal age and financially independent, and could therefore do as she liked. Gregory renounced her though Meredith remained in contact with her, if not only to make sure that she was alright. And she was. Though Leila experienced the highest highs and lowest lows in the years that followed, she always landed on her feet and came out on top. Throughout her twenties she lived in California, Oregon, Colorado, and Tennessee, returning to Chicago in 2012. Back home, she met the woman of her dreams - who was semi-happily engaged to the man of her dreams. Leila's friendship with her naturally segued into a triad relationship with the couple that lasted for just over two years before it ended abruptly and messily: the boyfriend stepped out of the boundaries of his relationship with his girlfriend and Leila both and slept with someone else, ending his engagement and scattering the three. Leila crashed on the couches of a few different friends before receiving a phone call: her maternal grandmother had passed away, leaving her condominium to her only granddaughter, much to Leila's surprise. She decided to move to New York and moved into the Park Slope, Queens condo for the time being; Chicago held nothing more for her.

After moving to Queens in the autumn of 2014, Leila did attempt to get a legitimate job outside of the sex industry. A number of jobs, to be precise: from barista to data entry to personal assistant to sales clerk, Leila never lasted long at any of these jobs. She was far from incompetent; every employer would say that she was a detail-oriented, hard-working employee who they would gladly employ again. It was the tight scheduling, the routine, the same shit day in and day out. She hated punching in and out on a time clock, hated the restricted breaks, despised having to report to a superior. Worst of all, none of those jobs sufficiently paid the bills. After an old friend got in touch with Leila and invited her to move in with her and her girlfriend, Leila decided to sell her grandmother's condo and invest the money in a few key ventures. Once she moved to Bushwick, Brooklyn, she also made the decision to go back to sex work and be her own boss once more. It's still not quite what she wants to do with her life - because, of course, she has no idea what her end-game plan is just yet - but she enjoys the flexibility of the job, not to mention the lucrative aspect of her job. In some twisted way, she's the happiest she has been in a very long time, no small feat considering her battles with depression. She likes the idea of having control over her life, and that's the way she plans on keeping it.