Topics: Mental Health, Sex and Relationships
Finding the right person to hold you tight is one of life's great struggles, one that many dream of and not everyone achieves - but a growing number are paying for.
Roughly one in every three adults across the country feel lonely at least once a week, according to a 2024 American Psychiatric Association poll.
This stat gets worse for young men, with Gallup finding 25 percent of Gen Z males experiencing loneliness on a daily basis - with the size of male friendship groups plummeting over the past 30 years.
Now, just one in four young men have friendship groups of six or more, a figure that has fallen by more than half. So is it any surprise that there is a booming market for professional cuddlers?
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One of these paid-for huggers has shared the rules they follow when meeting a client for a 'platonic' bedside rendezvous, as well as how much they rake in from people in dire need of a loving embrace.
Now, while it is almost entirely men using her service, the Reddit user said during an 'Ask Me Anything' that her service is not sex work and that it is 'always over the clothes'.
But what do you do if a client gets a bit too excited from the intimacy of their paid-for hug? "I rarely run into customers like that because I vet carefully," the college student explained.
That is not to say that these things do not happen during her cuddling sessions, which can last anywhere from one hour to eight.
She went on to say: "But when I do, I calmly remind them of the boundary. And if they can’t respect it, I politely wrap things up and leave. I don’t compromise on my safety."
These situations are the exception rather than the rule for the professional cuddler, who said her clientele are a mixed bag, with some wanting a silent embrace while others are keen to chat during the session.
And while all her clients are male, the college student said that people who are willing to pay for a hug can be any age, with her oldest being a 65-year-old.
These lonely men are a good earner for the professional cuddler, who charges up to $100 per hour for a warm embrace. This means she earns between $3,500 and $5,000 every month, depending on how many clients she brings in.
It is not an entirely unskilled job either, with the paid-for hugger having to deploy a variety of cuddling tactics to satisfy their clients physical and emotional needs.
The hugger explained: "Most of the time my clients like when I rub their back and play with their hair. In a typical session the position change several times, so it’s not just a popular position.
"Every client is different. I have a specific client that just wants me to run my nails down his back and another loves being hugged from the back in criss cross position."
But even though it is all platonic and over the clothes, do your looks really matter if you give hugs for a living? Apparently, yes.
The cuddling pro said: "I am not like an Instagram baddie but I’m not ugly so… take as you will! Umm, I been told by my clients that they do go for attraction."
