Getting fired right before Christmas isn’t ideal for anyone. You likely still have presents to buy, food to pick up, and maybe even travel costs if you don’t live close to family.
And while there tend to be seasonal jobs clamoring for employees this time of year, by the week before Christmas, they’re likely all staffed up and don’t have the time or capacity to train a whole new person.
So this woman had to do some quick thinking to figure out what job would hire her on such short notice and still pay her as quickly as she needed. What she ended up doing may surprise you.
From Server To Midnight Ballerina In 1 Weekend
In a trending video with more than 140,000 views, Leslie Golden (@lesliehannahbelle), who appeared on “Love Island” season three (before the USA version became the sensation that it’s been the last two seasons), shared the chaotic story of how she became a “midnight ballerina” (she’s self-censoring for TikTok) all the way back in 2015. Golden explained that she’d just graduated from high school in Texas and moved two hours away from her hometown, where she picked up a job at a Texas Roadhouse (despite having just been fired from the location in her hometown).
She admitted that she’s great at chit-chatting with customers but had a tendency to forget to put in their orders.
“Forty-five minutes into sitting there, you’re gonna ask me where your food is, and I’m gonna say, ‘Oh my god. The kitchen is so backed up,'” she explains. “And then I’m gonna have to run back there and tell them that I forgot to put your order in.”
Sure enough, she says she got fired again.
Golden immediately walked into another restaurant, audaciously still wearing her Texas Roadhouse uniform. She says she told them the story of what happened and said she needed a job quickly.
While they were willing to hire her, finding the story funny, she says they told her to come back the next day for training but that she’d need a Social Security card.
Being “type B” and 18 years old, she had no idea where hers was or what it even looked like. Getting a replacement would mean waiting until Monday to go to the DMV (she was fired on a Friday), another week for the card to arrive, then two weeks of training before getting paid. (To be clear, that’s not how replacing your social security card works.)
With Christmas just around the corner and not being able to depend on family support, Golden says she couldn’t wait that long.
What Did She Do Next?
So she says she called her best friend V from the college cheer team.
“I was like, ‘We gotta go strip. That’s the only option,'” Golden recalls.
The pair headed to Time Out Gentleman’s Club—a famous Tyler strip club that’s been mentioned in songs like “Early Morning Shakes” by Whiskey Myers—armed with her prom heels and a matching Victoria’s Secret cheetah print set.
“We were like, ‘We’re college cheerleaders. We pick up on dances really fast,'” she recalls telling them.
“I think we both thought it was gonna be a lot like ‘Burlesque,'” she says, referencing the Christina Aguilera 2010 film.
It wasn’t.
“I’m talking like 40-year-old women with ankle monitors,” Golden says.
When it came time to choose stage names, her friend chose the classic “Mercedes,” while another girl anointed Golden as “Holly” since it was right before Christmas.
She says her first lap dance was to “Big Green Tractor.”
“I will never, ever forget that,” she says.
The plan was simple: Dance just long enough to make rent. Then Golden would get her Social Security card sorted and start the restaurant job. But they made double their rent that first night and blew the entire paycheck shopping the next day.
What started as a desperate solution turned into something Golden actually enjoyed for a while, and the pay was good.
“I’m not saying it’s for everybody, but that was some of the most fun that I’ve ever had,” she admits. “Because if you asked me what I wanted to be when I was little, I would have said a dancer on ‘Step Up.’ And stripping is the closest I ever got.”
Golden admits that she was naive during those early weeks. She says she was “super oblivious to anything else that was going on in the club.” She was “just in la la land dancing with my best friend.”
Golden ended up dancing for the next four years at several clubs across Texas before turning to social media influencing.
How Much Do ‘Midnight Ballerinas’ Actually Make?
On average, a night club dancer can earn anywhere from about $14,000 a year to $266,000 a year, with the average landing around $45,000, according to salary comparison site Comparably.
A dancer chronicled for The Financial Diet back in 2017 that working six hours a day, four days a week, and averaging $400 per night could earn $76,800 annually before taxes.
That’s more than a typical server makes. Servers make closer to $51,000 a year, according to Indeed.
The same source notes that some dancers would quit after a single night if they made less than $400 since they expected to rake in much more for their performance. But that’s not quite how it works, dancers say.
But the financial reality of being a dancer is more complex than most people know. How much a person makes in a night can be impacted by some factors out of their control, like weather, the economy, or even what outfit they wore that night, Business Insider noted.
According to Bucks Cabaret, income varies significantly. Some entertainers take home $200 in a night, while others regularly earn several hundred or over $1,000 on good nights.
The industry particularly attracts college students facing financial pressure. Bucks Cabaret reports that one in three entertainers are putting themselves through college. They reportedly use dancing income to pay bills and tuition.
@lesliehannahbelle Retired midnight ballerina reporting for duty
Commenters React
“Midnight ballerina is my all time favourite term in the world,” a top comment read.
“Girl I was the same kind of waitress … I’ll yap but wake up at 2am remembering I never brought ketchup back lol,” a person said.
“I mean…. It’s cause you’re hot…..” another wrote.
BroBible reached out to Golden for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message.