Asia Carrera

Age 10

Asia Carrera, real name Jessica Steinhauser, was born on August 6, 1973 in New York City to a Japanese father and a German mother.  She is the eldest of four siblings, having two younger brothers and a younger sister.  Jessica was raised in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending the Little River School District and Red Bank Regional High School.  She was the New Jersey spelling bee champ.  She was a member of the National Mathematics League and the Spanish National Honor Society.  She placed in National Geography, Language Arts, and Mathematics Olympiads.  Jessica's studies during high school primarily focused on instrumental music and the visual arts.  She was a National Merit Scholar, having scored a 1440 on the SAT.  Her outstanding grades made her a Garden State Scholar.

Jessica studied piano as a child and by the age of 13, she performed music by Bach at Carnegie Hall.  She played the piano at Carnegie Hall again at the age of 14, performing Maleguena.  By 16, she taught Colloquial English at Tsuruga College in Japan. 

Jessica enjoyed playing the piano and hanging out with her friends, but her parents were exceptionally strict.  Her father, who himself had attended Cal Tech on a full scholarship for math and physics, and her mother wanted her to go to Harvard and become a doctor or a lawyer.  They would ground Jessica for each B that she made and they would beat her for any grade lower than a B.  Her parents wouldn't allow her to socialize or go to parties.  Jessica frequently would sneak out, and would get grounded and beaten when her parents caught her.  Jessica repeatedly tried to commit suicide during this time period, and eventually ran away shortly before her 17th birthday.

Facing homelessness, Jessica stayed anywhere she could.  She stayed with a rock and roll band, with friends, with strangers, in hotels, even a tent.  She had to beg friends to drive her to school and had to beg for food.  Everything she owned fit into two garbage bags.  She says she had sex with people she didn't want to have sex with, including strangers, just to have a place to stay or food to eat.  She lost 15 pound while on the street.  The state found out she was homeless and put her into a strict foster home.  She ran away from the foster home on her 18th birthday.



High School Senior

With her 1440 SAT score and numerous academic achievements, she went to Rutgers University on a full scholarship, double majoring in business and Japanese.  She says she didn't go for the education, but rather for the free bed and meals.  She worked as a bartender and eventually became a stripper after she heard they made a lot of money.  She had to drink vodka to work up her courage to strip.  She made $300 on her first night and was soon working every night, quickly becoming one of the highest paid dancers in New Jersey, saving at least $1000 each week.  Jessica stopped attending classes due to her busy schedule, only showing up to take finals.  She never graduated college. 

Hearing that girls in magazines and movies made more money than strippers, she wrote to various adult magazines and did shoots for Club magazine.  She called Bud Lee in Los Angeles and flew there in the winter of 1993 with just her suitcase and a teddy bear.



Asia Carrera retired from adult film in 2003, the same month she married her second husband, Don Lemmon.  They moved to Utah, where Asia enjoys raising her children in a conservative environment, so it will be more difficult for them to get into trouble.  They had a baby girl in 2005.  Her husband died in a car accident in June of 2006, a month before her first son was born.  She delivered her first son on her own at her home.  Worried about her livelihood and concerned about not being able to raise her kids on her own, she asked for donations on her blog.  Eventually, she received a message from an insurance company informing her of a life insurance policy on her husband.

In 2010, Asia wrote on her blog that she had become an alcoholic after the death of Don, but had joined Alcoholics Anonymous and was recovering.

 

In June of 2012, she gave birth to her second son.  As a widow with two children already, the third child was adopted by close friends of Asia who couldn't have children of their own.  Asia stays in her third child's life, however.

Raising two children on her own takes up a lot of Asia's time these days, but as a member of Mensa with an IQ of 156, she spends a lot of time reading.