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"  A stripper&amp;#039;s pole punctuates the center of Leah Bay&amp;#039;s sparsely furnished dining room in a working-class section of Queens, NY. Plastic gold trophies--Miss Nude Brunette among them--line shelves along the wall, and large cardboard boxes brim with the glittery outfits Leah wears onstage: drum majorette, Catholic schoolgirl, even a Nintendo Mario Brother. Within eyeshot is Leah&amp;#039;s daughter&amp;#039;s pink bedroom, with butterfly stencils on the wall and a Disney-princess quilt on the bed. Workbooks for the ERB--the test to get into New York City&amp;#039;s most exclusive private elementary schools--sit on the 4-year-old&amp;#039;s desk, dog-eared. &amp;quot;We go over them every night,&amp;quot; Leah says. &amp;quot;Every night.&amp;quot; On Leah&amp;#039;s website, she fully embodies the stripper stereotype: The home-page features a photo of her in a bra and patent-leather spike heels. But in her living room, wearing sweats and a T-shirt, she looks like anyone you might pass on the street. You&amp;#039;d never guess that she performs at strip clubs on weekends, hoping to give herself and her family a better life. Leah started dancing when she was 19 years old, to supplement her income as a screener for the Transportation Security Administration. She&amp;#039;d head to a club once a week or so, sometimes earning up to $1,400 a night, and that was strictly for dancing--no grinding on men&amp;#039;s laps or sexual favors. She quit in 2005 when she met her now-husband, Joseph, who also worked at the TSA. Right away she knew she loved him, and she was afraid he wouldn&amp;#039;t think of a stripper as marriage material. Flash forward two years, and Leah, Joseph, and their baby were doing okay, but not as well as they had hoped. She wanted to live in a house that she owned. She wanted her daughter to go to private school in Manhattan, which can cost $40,000 a year. (They&amp;#039;re currently applying.) And she wanted to be home with her little girl. So when her daughter was 5 months old, Leah left her with Joseph for the weekend and headed to a New Jersey strip joint, where, unlike in New York City&amp;#039;s glitzy clubs, dancers didn&amp;#039;t &amp;quot;have to have the perfect body,&amp;quot; she says. There she put on a bikini top and boy shorts--baby weight, stretch marks, and all--and wrapped herself around a pole. &amp;quot;I felt self-conscious and scared,&amp;quot; she says, admitting that the 60 pounds she&amp;#039;d kept on since her pregnancy put her at a disadvantage. &amp;quot;When I made only $200 that first night, I called my husband crying.&amp;quot; Joseph calmed her down and encouraged her not to take it to heart--a huge relief for Leah. She once feared that he&amp;#039;d judge her for stripping, but instead he had emerged as the support system she needed. &amp;quot;I understand that her job is to arouse men,&amp;quot; says Joseph, who asked that his name be changed in this article so that Leah&amp;#039;s fans don&amp;#039;t try to connect with him on Facebook. &amp;quot;But there&amp;#039;s no intimacy with them. It&amp;#039;s a service. A guy she meets in a club is not going to come between us.&amp;quot; With Joseph&amp;#039;s go-ahead, Leah kept stripping. &amp;quot;I needed more time with my daughter, and in order to get that, I needed more money,&amp;quot; she reasons. There was something else, too: When Leah was a child living with her dad after her parents&amp;#039; split, she didn&amp;#039;t want for much. Then, at age 14, she moved in with her mother and six siblings; it was a loving home, but money was tight. Leah left her private school, and collected soda bottles for change so she could do things like go to the movies. &amp;quot;I never want my daughter to struggle like that,&amp;quot; she says. Peter Feinstein, managing partner of Sapphire Las Vegas, the largest strip club in the country, estimates that as many as 25 percent of his dancers are mothers. &amp;quot;We get moms from other states who come to dance for the weekend,&amp;quot; he says. Adds Angelina Spencer, a representative of the Association of Club Executives, a trade organization catering to the adult entertainment industry: &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re now seeing women who would never have considered this line of work.&amp;quot; Eventually, Leah started earning several hundred dollars a night stripping while she continued to work for the TSA, enabling her and Joseph to buy a brick town house. At first they believed they could cover their mortgage by renting out two of the three floors. But even with tenants, they couldn&amp;#039;t make their payments. &amp;quot;I tried not to be scared,&amp;quot; Leah says, &amp;quot;but my husband was freaking out.&amp;quot; Leah began working double, sometimes triple shifts at the TSA, and Joseph searched Craigslist for odd jobs--a painting or moving gig that might pay $100. One weekend the couple drove around their neighborhood collecting cans for money. &amp;quot;We only got $50,&amp;quot; says Leah, who was reminded of her teenage years. With few options, they cut their cable and sold their car. All the while, Leah continued to dance on the side. Then, in 2009, she quit her job at the TSA to become a &amp;quot;feature entertainer,&amp;quot; an exotic dancer who travels to strip clubs around the country and does stunts--like twirling a fire baton or taking a shower onstage--during a 20-minute show. Now, Leah typically earns $3,200 for a three-night gig (admittedly on the low end of the scale, she says), including tips. She made $73,000 last year, and expects to earn more, while Joseph continues to work at the TSA. But the money, Leah admits, can&amp;#039;t always compensate for the job&amp;#039;s humiliation factor. &amp;quot;Guys have said, &amp;#039;Get away from me, you&amp;#039;re ugly&amp;#039; or, &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;re too fat,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; says Leah. &amp;quot;I can say &amp;#039;Hi&amp;#039; and then get called every name in the book because some guy is drunk. It gets to you.&amp;quot; It can also get to your husband, as Rachel, a married mom of three young kids, told us. She graduated from a prestigious university and once held a well-paying finance job before quitting to stay home with her children. But that was a luxury her family could no longer afford last year, when her husband lost his job and they racked up $30,000 in debt. A few months ago, the couple decided that Rachel should make use of the &amp;quot;skills&amp;quot; she&amp;#039;d learned at pole-dancing lessons--a fitness trend she&amp;#039;d tried during better times. With the help of a friend, she got a job at a strip club about an hour from her home. The gig is still new, but she&amp;#039;s been working two or three shifts a week, earning as much as $600 a night. The money has helped Rachel catch up on her family&amp;#039;s bills, as well as buy new clothes for her kids. But the cost to her marriage has been steep. &amp;quot;My husband has a hard time dealing with what he imagines is going on,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I told him I would quit and find a full-time job, and he said, &amp;#039;No, the damage is done.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Perhaps it was her husband&amp;#039;s attitude that caused her to stop speaking to REDBOOK, even anonymously. After several phone conversations and email exchanges, Rachel canceled plans to meet in person and cut off all contact. &amp;quot;Stripping is an expensive job emotionally,&amp;quot; says former stripper Lily Burana, author of Strip City: A Stripper&amp;#039;s Farewell Journey Across America. &amp;quot;A woman has to ask herself if the money is worth the tremendous strain on her relationship.&amp;quot; Presumably, most strippers dream of the day they can afford to leave the business. But then there&amp;#039;s Leah, who dreams of the day she can afford to own it. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always wanted my own club,&amp;quot; she says. The stripper lifestyle has become Leah&amp;#039;s norm: She has no problem describing herself as a &amp;quot;feature entertainer&amp;quot; on her daughter&amp;#039;s school applications, and even though she&amp;#039;s had other career opportunities, she&amp;#039;s happy to stay put. &amp;quot;I love what I do,&amp;quot; she says on the phone one night, while watching Ghostbusters with her daughter. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m very proud that I&amp;#039;ve come this far.&amp;quot; *Some names have been changed. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a13508/moms-who-strip/?click=main_sr>