We recently sat down with the lovely (and gassy) Stephanie Matto. You might recognize her from TLC's 90 Day Fiancé, Pillow Talk, and Single Life. Or perhaps you remember Stephanie best as the woman who hospitalized herself after having a near 'fart attack' in December of 2021.
That's right, she put her stamp on the internet by selling her farts in jars. So many farts in fact, that she ended up in the emergency room.
We had the privilege of sitting down with Stephanie and getting the nitty gritty details of her flourishing business. What was her diet like? How did she deal with the smell? Farts aside, what other crazy requests has she fulfilled?
So without further ado, from 90 Day Fiancé to 90 farts in two days. Welcome, Stephanie Matto.
EBW: We're so excited to have you. We're genuinely curious. Why farts? Was it solely based on requests?
Stephanie Matto: Well, I think the better question is why not farts? You know, I think they're the most natural, renewable resource that we as humans have. I felt like I was getting a lot of requests for farts. People messaging me saying, Hey, Steph I've seen your face, I've seen your body. And I've always wondered what your farts smell like.
What went into the decision to start selling farts?
Eventually I was like, you know what? I wonder if these guys are all talk, let's put them to the test. So I decided to put up a batch of farts for sale, and it turns out that the first batch sold out. And that's kind of where things snowballed out of control completely.
And I remember the video. You kinda got your start on TikTok.
Subsequently I made a TikTok called 'The day in the life of a girl who sells her farts online' that exploded and went viral and then the rest is history. But yeah I wear a lot of different hats, which is pretty cool. I'm the CEO of Unfiltrd. I am a 'Fartrepreneur', the world's number one officially.
The OG of Fartrepreneurialship.
I saw some girls do what I do. And sort of, I'm not saying copy, but follow in my footsteps. And people in the comments are like, "Stephanie did it first." And I'm like, yeah exactly. At least mention me. "Hey, shoutout to Steph who did this months ago, who created this business model." It's okay, I understand. I'm glad that I've made selling farts more socially acceptable and have been able to pave the way for some people, at least.
For sure. So along those lines, let's get into the details. How did you deal with the smell when you were doing this? Did you have a specific fart room in your house where you were like "This is business, this is pleasure"?
So I live in a pretty big home and I have two dogs, so I'm pretty much used to odd smells in the first place. I open up the windows afterwards, so that isn't too much of an issue. Don't they say that you're generally a fan of your own brand anyway? It doesn't really bother me too much. I don't mind it.
When you were doing the fart jars you had a very strict diet, and we were wondering if you could go into that a little bit.
I figured out which foods were producing the stinkiest farts. I found that cabbage was producing the absolute nastiest. When you smell cabbage farts, it's too synonymous with an old man, you know, you think like a hairy old bearded man, right? And it was just not on brand for me.
Was it more about pumping out the quantity of farts?
So I was testing out different formulas and I really liked what I was getting with protein and beans. I felt like it was pungent. There was a little bit of a sweetness with it. So that was kind of my go-to, and I also liked the fact that it was a lot of kick with not a huge volume of food, so that you could just make a really nice big protein shake for yourself in the morning. You could do a black bean salad for lunch, and then run some errands. And what's good is you do a quick workout, and movement kind of helps enable that production of gas. I'm very scientific about it.
So was it really about the girth and stench?
You know, there was one guy who really wanted cheddar cheese farts, for example, that was his preference. So there was one day I ate a whole block of cheddar cheese. That was not pleasant. I was so f**ked up from that for like two days. I can't even look at cheddar cheese anymore. If I go to any kind of restaurant if there's a charcuterie board, if there's a cheddar cheese option, like f**k no, get that sh*t away from me.
I feel like cheese blocks me up, so I couldn't even produce a fart like that.
I mean, yeah. You learn very quickly on what is a no and what is a yes. So the protein was an absolute yes. Beans, chickpeas, any kind of high protein foods are gonna produce the best smelling farts. And then also these protein muffins, Kodiak cake protein muffins. They are actually referred to in the fitness community as fart muffins for a very good reason.
But I think that I definitely did some permanent damage to my colon during that time, because even to this day, I don't think I've completely gone back to regular bowel movements. Because I did some crazy things. I ate a huge volume of protein and fiber during that time. And it just wasn't healthy.
And it was around Christmas when you had to go to the E.R. for - was it about 97 farts in two days? Is that correct?
Mm, it was around that total. I don't know, that whole entire period of time was a complete blur because I was in the midst of completing so many orders. I was so motivated by the incredible amount of money that I was making at the time. And I was also so overwhelmed with how viral that story had gotten and how much media attention that I was getting. And it maybe got a little bit too much to my head and I - yeah I was definitely overproducing at the time. And I remember that night at the emergency room, it was a huge wake up call. And it really hit me that I have to put my health first. I have to put my body first.
Was it ever something that, you know, you wanted to sell something else?
So that was officially when I decided that I would retire and refocus my energy. I was really happy about that.
What is one of the most outlandish requests you've ever had that you were still like, "Yeah, I'll fulfill this. But this is weird."
I mean, one guy wanted to buy my mattress for $10,000. I've had my mattress for five years. Imagine the amount of farts that are in it. There's like thousands of farts in that mattress. $10,000 is a steal.
Did he get it?
F**k no. How many times did I do stuff on my mattress? There's not just farts in it. Right? There's other things in it. So like $20K minimum.
What's one that you were like, "Okay yeah, I'll do this."
So we have this feature on Unfiltrd, which I specifically developed in the beginning of building the site, because I have a lot of clients who love this. They have this like mommy fetish where they like when I yell at them and tell them to clean their room, and punish them and ground them and like tell them they can't leave their room for X amount of hours. I basically put them into time out. And you can set a minute call rate. So I set it for like a hundred dollars per minute with these guys. And they call me for 10 minutes. And I yell at them for 10 minutes at a hundred dollars per minute. And I basically f**king ream their asses out.
Oh my God...
And there's one, his name's Brandon, and I've been doing this with him for the past few months. I don't even know where he gets the money for this. He spent literally almost $10,000 on me grounding and punishing him.
Shoutout to Brandon. You're a real one.
You've paid my mortgage. I'm almost done paying my house off because of this man.
That's incredible. It's almost like financial domination a little bit. Where these guys know they can- they're spending ridiculous amounts of money on some pretty weird things, but it's almost the novelty of it you know?
Absolutely. And that's the whole thing, I know everybody likes different things and I try my best not to judge. And I went into developing Unfiltrd with an open mind.
Like you said, you have every type of creator on Unfiltrd. So what are the basic things? Maybe more simple things that people ask for?
Unfiltrd is one of the most up and coming brand new fan subscription sites. And we're constantly pushing boundaries and finding new, innovative ways of monetizing ourselves. We have your influencers. Your reality TV stars. Your girl next door. Your mom next door. We have your very normal couple on there looking to do a quick side hustle to spice up their love life. People use it to sell photos. People can use it to sell videos. People can use it to sell panties or whatever they want to. I think that it's a very exciting and fast developing website and I'm very excited for the future.
Were you disappointed to have to retire from selling fart jars? And then, can you talk about how that led into the fart jar NFTs?
It was sad having to break it to a lot of my very loyal customers who came to love my fart jars, and became a little addicted to the smell. But then I like to try out new things and it led to a lot of new ventures. It opened the door into fart jar NFTs, which was a very cool thing. The NFTs were definitely a success and something I'm still very much involved in. So anybody who mints a fart jar NFT will eventually unlock access to a build-a-brand program, and unlock one-on-one coaching with me as a part of that.
That's great!
I think there's even the option to get a rare fart jar. A real fart jar, so that's pretty cool.
Can we get into life after fart jars? Do you have any regrets selling your farts?
I think the only regret that I have is not taking better care of my body. I regret going so overboard and so hard with that protein and bean diet. I feel like I really put myself at risk, and put my life in danger for a minute there. And I never feel like it's worth putting yourself in danger for financial gain.
Did you get any feedback that was either positive or negative?
I got a lot of hate, I got death threats. I even had family members calling me saying that they were disappointed and all this and that, but I don't care what people think about me. I live my life completely 100% for me, as long as I'm happy and I'm living my best life. I'm surrounded by people that I love and my dogs are living an amazing life. That's all that really matters to me.
So obviously you're a reality TV star. Have you ever been recognized in public either for 90 Day Fiancé, or your fart jars?
I get recognized a lot for the reality TV stuff. Especially my hometown, like I was at Home Goods the other day and someone was like, "Oh my gosh, are you from 90 day Fiancé?" And they wanted a picture with me. And I love that. I think it's so cute when people recognize me.
Now, how has your fart jar experience either interfered with, or even complimented your career as an actress?
I thought that it was going to interfere in a lot of negative ways. Sex work is very taboo and there's a huge stigma surrounding it, but I am trying to break that stigma any way that I can. In the beginning I was so nervous. I thought that like, oh God, my network, they're gonna fire me. I'm gonna be shunned from society, yet somehow I'm still here.
You're doing an amazing job, because it is- It's still taboo for some reason. And this is just opening, I think so many doors for so many people.
Like we all have sex. We all have these body parts. We're all into weird stuff. Like everybody farts, it's okay. Stop being so weird about it.
That's a great point. So just back to you real quick, how did the reality TV thing start? Were you like part of a casting call? Were you genuinely looking for love or were you trying to just get your foot in the door as a successful actress?
So I think it was a little bit of both. I mean, if you go on a reality TV show, there's gotta be a little bit of a business motive. Otherwise you're just gonna get ripped to shreds and be left with nothing. But I really had feelings for my partner that I went on the show with. We agreed to go on the show together and explore these feelings that we had for each other. Unfortunately I can only speak for myself. I did not really have super deep feelings when I arrived. And we just weren't compatible. But despite that I did make the most of it. I took those villain shoes that I was dealt and I wore them. I wore them nicely.
And so as far as being a reality star and being known for your farts, how has that affected trying to sustain a relationship? From a partner's standpoint knowing that, okay, some guys out there have smelled my girlfriend's farts...
Well, I am with someone right now and, this person's super private and loves what I do. He's kind of like a managerial type where he's behind the scenes. And he's my support. That's exactly the type of person that I need. He doesn't try to be a part of the spotlight. He doesn't try to control what I do. He doesn't have an issue with what I do. He just helps. It couldn't be any more perfect. And '90 day' wants in on that so bad. They're like, "get him on the show." And I'm like, no. Oh my God. Nope. I would never want it to be destroyed by a show or social media or anything. It's just perfect. I'm gonna keep it for myself.
Yeah. And that's how it should be, you know?
Yes.
Anything else you want to tell our audience?
I'm working on a new feature for the site right now. It's the auction feature and I'm gonna be actually working on auctioning off some items. There's one item that I'm looking to auction off soon. It's the last remaining fart jar. But I also have a waitlist right now of people who are waiting to purchase my bedsheets. People just want ways to get close to me and to get my possessions. I think it's the novelty of really just being able to experience me in all ways. So I'm calling the business venture, "Holy Sheets." I've had about 87 people get onto the waitlist for them. It's f**king nuts. I can't believe this is my life right now, but it's pretty amazing.
Stephanie Matto, ladies and gentlemen.
Watch our full interview with Stephanie below!
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