Marie Claire
Julie and Esther, co-owners of the prestigious Women of the World, now called The Courtesan Club, talk about their lives as owners of an erotic company. In the article in Marie Claire of December 2005, they explain how it all started and what it takes to work as an escort for a high class escort company.
These women could work in any industry, but they have chosen the world of sex and erotica. Here too, you can climb higher as a woman and change the industry in a positive way. Julie Ryan (31) and Esther Meppelink (32) own escort agency Women of the World.
They’re making careers in sex-biz
Esther and Julie’s escort agency Women of the World isn’t easily noticed. There’s no sign, not even a nameplate on the door.
Behind the windows of the corner building from where Esther and Julie run their escort agency, the blinds are closed. Inside, nothing reminds you of sex or prostitution. It is an office like any other, only this office has a living room where the escort girls can wait for their appointments for that night.
Julie started the agency seven years ago with a friend who, through various business connections, heard that there was a demand for highly educated women who look and behave like a ‘real’ girlfriend. Starting an escort agency turned out to be not easy.
Originally from Australia, Julie was initially denied a residency permit because the authorities thought she would be forced to work as an escort herself. In addition, it was difficult to find a bank that wanted to open an account for the agency. Nowadays Julie has a new partner, Esther, who was originally hired as a telephone operator, and the ladies run the successful agency together.
Pretty Woman feeling
Julie: ”We didn’t have any background in this business so we were able to develop our own ideas without being bothered by a past. That’s been very refreshing.”
Esther: ”When I saw the vacancy as a telephone operator in the newspaper, I got the ‘Pretty Woman feeling’. I’ve always been fascinated by prostitution, Especially the luxury escort has something mysterious about it. We now have a pretty solid clientele. 
Foreign businessmen call us every time they’re in Amsterdam. We’ve both been approached by clients to spend a few hours with them, but we’ve never done it. We like to keep things separate.”
Esther and Julie decide together whether a girl who wants to become a high class escort is suitable.
Julie: ”Somebody has to want to do this job for the thrill of it. If money plays too much of an important role, we won’t collaborate with them. Most of the girls we mediate for are longing for adventure. We’ve seen plain and timid girls blossom into beautiful, confident women.”
Esther: ”We want to get rid of that dark atmosphere you all too often encounter in the escort business. We try to be open, to get escort out of the illegal atmosphere. Especially in this industry where so much is wrong, it’s a challenge to create something new. We can change this world.”
Esther and Julie kept their work hidden from no one
Esther: ”I told everyone who wanted to know that I worked for an escort agency, I thought that was cool. 
Now I’m a little more careful. I don’t care what people think of me, but I don’t want others, my parents for example, to be looked at strangely because of my work.”
Julie: ”My friends and acquaintances think it’s all great what I do. Only at my son’s school I’m not going to talk about it openly. He’s five years old now and knows that I ‘make phone calls’ and sit in the office, nothing else. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to tell him the whole truth yet. It seems very difficult to me, but it won’t influence my choice of work. I want to do something that makes me happy. And this makes me happy.”
The escort agency mediates for about 35 girls and receives a mediation fee per hour. Esther: ”At the moment it doesn’t make us rich, but I’m very happy that we do everything by the book. Otherwise I would be less able to justify my work for myself. The choice it therefore not to swim in the money.”
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