A Wall Street accountant quit her job to become a 'professional girlfriend' to wealthy executives

• Mia Lee worked as a forensic accountant on Wall Street before being diagnosed with depression.
• She decided to become an escort for wealthy businessmen and now works full-time as a professional girlfriend.

Mia Lee is a former Wall Street forensic accountant who loves collecting scotch, racing fast cars, and fighting mixed martial arts.

These interests, and her inability to feel shame, guilt, and fear make her the perfect girlfriend-for-hire for wealthy business and tech executives in New York City, Lee told Insider.

Every month, Lee accompanies men on business trips and fancy dinners. She charges a minimum of $3,000 for up to two hours of her time.

"My tagline is, 'You can take the girl off Wall Street, but you can't take the banker out of the whore,' and it turns out that that plays really well into a lot of professional gentlemen's dream-girl-from-the-office," fantasies, Lee told Insider.

In 2018, Lee was diagnosed with depression and went on medical leave from her accounting job. During leave, Lee realized the pace required to work in a firm wasn't good for her long-term health, so she quit her accounting career to become a high-end escort, or "professional girlfriend."

In January 2019, Lee made her escort work her full-time job. Now she makes her own schedule, which has helped keep her mentally balanced and present in her personal relationships, said Lee, who is in an open marriage.

This year, Lee said she expects to make $400,000 to $800,000 before taxes and expenses and taxes, after making $29,000 her first year as a full-time sex worker. Lee said there's "extremely high variance" in her earnings due to the volatile nature of sex work, so she diversifies her income with camming, stripping, and phone sex.

The first time Lee had sex for money, she didn't feel any shame

While working in finance, Lee was perplexed by the stigma surrounding sex work. She didn't see how a woman saying yes to sex for money was inherently wrong.

When a co-worker told her he'd been moonlighting as a sugar daddy on the adults-only website Seeking Arrangement, Lee said she signed up and quickly arranged a dinner date followed by sex as her first escort job. After 20 minutes of "pretty bad sex," Lee was $1,000 richer.

"Instead of feeling dirty, I remember depositing that money into my bank account and being like, 'I have gamed the fucking patriarchy,'" Lee told Insider. After a few more escort outings, she was hooked.

At first, the money was inconsistent. But she quickly learned that growing her social media accounts was the best way to find new clients, many of whom are now regulars.

During business dinners or conferences, she'll introduce herself as a client's colleague or girlfriend, but for the most part, no one asks, she said. Besides concealing her job and real name, Lee is herself, giving accounting advice, chatting about investments, and sipping on scotch.

Since Lee doesn't feel guilt, enforcing rules she sets with clients is simple

Lee has created rules for all of her clients to follow. This way, there's a standard for respect and her job is streamlined and less stressful, she said.

Her cheapest offering is $3,000 for up to two hours of time, which includes any of the sex acts she's comfortable with in that pay range. For 48 hours of Lee's time, clients can pay $20,000, and there's also an option for clients to fly Lee to their preferred destination.

If a client tries to negotiate the prices Lee has set on her website, she considers that a rule violation and doesn't respond to their messages.

Lee said she doesn't feel guilt like most people do. She said she believes she's a psychopath, a term that refers to a person who has difficulty feeling pity, remorse, love, or fear.

Psychopathy isn't a diagnosis, but a continuum of traits that someone possesses to varying degrees, forensic psychologist Darrel Turner, who assesses psychopaths in criminal court, told Insider.

"I don't really have empathy," she said. "I'm much more cut and dry. I'm much more transactional."

She operates in relationships "very algorithmically," picking up on how people behave and emulating it in a way that works for what she wants. It was a skill that made her a top-performer at her accounting job, and now makes her successful in her sex-work career, she said.

Lee said she only behaves in ways that add to her overall happiness — which she defines as the ability to minimize the negative emotions she feels, like frustration and anger. Sex work adds to her happiness because it gives her career autonomy, lots of money, and time to enjoy her other hobbies.

That's why she won't be giving it up anytime soon.