- by Heloise Wilson
PIONEER WORKS BY LAURA LUX
DJ, GLAMOUR MODEL, CONTENT CREATOR, AND ACTIVIST TALKS ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF HER CAREER AND DIVERSE INTERESTS
Laura Lux is a groundbreaker and an innovator - you most likely have come across her name before. She is one of the top DJs working internationally, a popular and influential content creator, and a household name in the world of glamour photography. She has been a trendsetter of an electronic music movement in the US that inspired thousands of fellow DJs with its unique style. Her vibrant personality and charism light up the room, while her sharp wit and humor push us to think outside the box. We got to sit down with her for a chat and ask her about her career trajectory, what she is up to, and what she is passionate about.
Fig 1. Laura was one of the official DJs of the Monster Energy Supercross 2016. Picture of Laura DJing at the Rain Nightclub in Las Vegas during the Monster Energy Supercross 2016 closing party
Laura was born and raised in South Australia. She spent most of her childhood in a rural outback town in the Flinders Ranges with a population of just 50 people, surrounded by wheat farms, sheep, cattle, and kangaroos. As a child, much to her parents’ despair, she was constantly bringing home injured baby birds, mice, and rabbits, trying to save them, and this sensitivity towards animal welfare has carried over into much of her work today. She was a very active child who loved inventing choreographies and performing in school plays and always had dreams of moving to the big city and working in entertainment.
At the age of 18, after graduating high school, moving away from home, and stepping out into the world on her own, she landed her first modeling gig, a photo shoot that was part of a promotional campaign for a local cabaret club. From there, her modeling career quickly exploded. This new career path coincided with the dawn of social media and the rise of MySpace, where Laura began posting her modeling photos along with blogs about her life and video game reviews, and in a short time, amassed so much popularity on the platform that her account became the third most viewed in all of Australia.
Fig 2. Laura was regularly on the cover of the former Australian ZOO Weekly magazine and was a contributor editor for their sex column. Picture from the article"Oz's Hottest Gamer" (2015), which featured Laura and her passion for video games
It was through modeling that Laura found her path to DJing. She had been invited to a club called HQ Complex in her hometown of Adelaide as a celebrity guest judge for a modeling competition they were hosting. After the competition ended, she was casually invited behind the decks by the resident DJ, where her contagious lively energy caught the attention of the manager, who immediately offered her training and a weekly main stage show. Her high-energy shows and down-to-earth persona were a hit with the crowds, and she went on to get residencies at some of Australia and New Zealand’s most iconic super-clubs, such as HP Underground and Hush. Her career soon took her outside of Australia and all over the world, headlining main-stage DJ shows across Europe, Canada, and the US. Throughout this, her modeling career was also doing great in Australia, and she was regularly being featured in the most prestigious and high-selling magazines such as Zoo Weekly, Australian Penthouse, People Mag Aus, Picture Mag Aus, Post Modern Ink, InkedAustralia, and Official Australian Playstation Magazine. Her dreams were coming true.
Her social media channels were growing as well. Today she has more than 2.1 million followers on Instagram and almost 900,000 on Twitter. One could say Laura was one of the first content creators not only in Australia but in the world. It is a huge achievement, yet when Laura is asked to speak about her key milestones and what she is the most proud of, other things come to her mind. With such a large platform, Laura is aware that what she does and says matters. She defines herself as a content creator who is also an activist. Her values and ethics are actually what drive the work she does forward: “The biggest reason I do what I do is the fact that being on magazine covers/being in the public eye allowed me to grow a massive social media presence that I have been able to channel into activism for causes I deeply care about, for instance in 2016 my friend and I were the faces of a major Buzzfeed video and campaign about the prevalence of unsolicited photo depicting sexual content”. This viral video resulted in global coverage of the issue, with Laura speaking to media outlets in countries all over the world, and led to some basic forms of legislation being passed around it in the United States.
In the US, Laura is certainly an innovator; her skills are always paving a new way globally. She still cares about animals the way she did as a child, only now she is also using her global platform to support animal rescue and fostering through Austin Pets Alive, a groundbreaking no-kill animal shelter in Texas. She has personally raised tens of thousands of dollars for the shelter and helped countless cats get fostered and adopted. Laura’s love of the natural world and animals inspires her. One of her goals is to do a photoshoot in every US National Park.
Fig 3. Laura is also an animal rights activist and collaborates often with organizations such as Austin Pets Alive! Picture of Laura and Evie Wonder, her blind rescue cat, who helps her with her fundraisers and advocacy for special needs animals
In 2011, Laura won the title of Penthouse Pet of the Year. This annual honor, widely considered one of the highest titles a model can receive, recognizes Penthouse magazine’s top performer of the year. Once again, Laura was setting her own trends and changing her industry for good, as she became the first-ever heavily tattooed woman to win the award across 16 countries. This has had a ripple effect all over the world - soon, magazines and brands began to book heavily tattooed models, and tattoos became less of a taboo and more widely accepted as mainstream within the industry. Laura Lux was the precursor to this trend. It led her to be invited to be the face of the Sydney Tattoo Expo in 2012.
Despite all of her achievements and historical milestones, Laura is very down to earth. We asked further questions about her music career and what she is proud of, and she smiled when recalling her many memories DJing around the world for some of the most prestigious events and clubs. In 2016, she toured the USA with Monster Energy Supercross as their “Pit Party” DJ, providing entertainment outside the stadium for the tens of thousands of motocross fans who attended. From her first residency in her hometown of Adelaide at Australia’s biggest superclub, HQ Complex, to playing at some of the most famous nightclubs around the world: whether it was opening for Yo Gotti at Share Night Club in Las Vegas, playing to a sold-out crowd at Knoxville in Edmonton, Canada or keeping people dancing til 5 am at E4 in Berlin, Germany, she remembers them all fondly. In the music world, Laura is also known because she was one of the very first DJs to bring Australia’s signature electronic music genre, “Melbourne Bounce,” to the USA, playing shows around the country and introducing a new style of music to thousands of people. Once again, Laura was participating in the creation of a historical trend that was here to stay. Laura adds that seeing people dance and enjoy themselves gives her “the best feeling in the world.” She might be at the top of the field and might have contributed in a unique way to it; her intentions are still straightforward and simple: make the crowd happy.
Fig 4. Laura Djing at E4 Nightclub in Berlin, Germany (2015)
She now lives in Austin, where she enjoys being close to nature when she is not traveling all over the world for her gigs. In the Spring of 2023, she appeared at a gaming & anime convention called Waifu Expo as a guest of honor, where she spoke on industry panels and connected with her huge fan following. Laura is an inspiration to many, but she still defines herself as a down-to-earth “Aussie girl.” This trendsetter might have made all of her childhood dreams come true and changed her industry for good, yet she remains true to herself and her core values. The creative and brilliant little country girl who used to rescue rabbits is now an icon for millions.
LAURA LUX
AUSTRALIA
