I think the most common misconception about becoming a sugar baby is that sugar daddies are looking to date only 18-year-old blond models. (And I've had men straight-up message me, "Thank goodness you don't have a dog-filter picture!") While face-altering filters exist and can help mask your identity, apparently it's a turnoff for men. The key thing is honesty, both in your self-descriptions and your pictures. I described my personality and wrote a few charming epithets that I thought might be appealing to the kind of man I'd like to spend time with. Getting started with a dating profile as a sugar baby is pretty simple. Marcus Hessenberg/BarcroftImages/Barcroft Media via Getty Images As a woman in a major city with an appreciation for societal deviance, I figured the lifestyle might suit me well. I wanted to supplement my income and have some fun doing it, so I decided to try finding a sugar daddy.įor the uninitiated, "sugaring" is a form of dating in which one partner financially supports the other, often in the form of cash or gifts. My day job offers me control over my schedule, since I don't work a traditional nine-to-five. I'd grown frustrated with dating men in my city - maybe I'd just had one too many Tinder dates end in mediocre conversation. Six months ago, I decided to become a sugar baby. This story was originally published in 2019 as part of a series on the financial side of relationships you can read other entries in the series here. While some people consider sugar relationships a form of sex work, it's a label rejected by sugar dating sites and some members themselves. Note: The author is a freelance writer in her 30s whose identity was verified by Insider.