37-year-old Alexandra Berrocal from New York works hard as a model. However, her job does not require full body appearances or random posing in front of the camera. The beautiful model earns US$30,000 by just showing her beautiful hands on camera.
“Hand modeling is all about doing the simple actions that we usually do, such as picking up a product, putting something down, but making it look pretty,” Alexandra said in a TikTok post.
Alexandra protects her hands by always using a moisturizer. “Before I go to sleep, I lather on some shea butter, and that’s it. I don’t use any special lotions. I just use 100% shea butter,” she revealed.
“It’s a very niche industry,” Alexandra added. “There’s not that many people that know it’s even a real thing.”
She said that when she mentioned her job to her friends, they were surprised that she earned money just by showing her hands on camera while endorsing a product.
“A lot of times, I’ll tell my friends like what I did for a gig, and they’re, like, ‘What? You got paid to pour coffee into a cup or, like, squeeze product into your hands and rub it around like that?’” she said.
Alexandra started working as a hand model in 2019. Showing only her beautiful hands, she endorsed products for brands such as YSL, Microsoft, Brandon Blackwood, Macy’s, Zales, Shake Shack, Kiss Nails and Serena Williams Jewelry. Although she earns $30,000 per year on her hand modeling stint, she also has a full-time job in the shoe designing industry.
“I submitted my portfolio, and then my agent got back to me in, like, 10 minutes, and I was, like, ‘Wow! That’s only the favor of the Lord right there,’” Alexandra recalled.
Alexandra still takes care of her hands, although she is aware that her hand-modeling job is unstable. However, she is content to have made anywhere from $750 for a five-hour shoot to $1,200 for a 40-minute shoot.
“One month can be two to three times, and then another month could be, like, 10 times,” she said. “You never know.”
Additionally, she credits her beautiful small hands with helping her land more casting opportunities. “I actually have small hands, but I feel like it works in my favor because I mostly do a lot of beauty product shoots. And I think because my hand is so small, I make the product look bigger,” Alexandra claims.
Alexandra also ventured into other modeling opportunities and auditions, participating in castings for feet, eyes, arms, legs, and shoulders. However, it seemed that it was only her hands that were preferred by the agencies.
“I’ve done two casting calls for feet, which I’m not surprised I didn’t get because I don’t think I have nice feet, but my agent asked me to go, so I went,” she joked.
For women or men who want to consider a job in hand modeling, Alexandra says there are things to remember when caring for your hands, such as wearing gloves when washing dishes. “If you wash your hands, make sure to put lotion on immediately after because your hands are one of the first places that show aging,” she said.
Alexandra hopes to keep her hands in good condition all the time and does not intend to retire from her job as a hand model soon. “I would love for it to be my career,” she gushed. “I’d like to do hand modeling for as long as I can.”
You can follow Alexandra Berrocal on her social media pages: @iamalexberrocal on Instagram and TikTok.
Images credits: © Alexandra @iamalexberrocal/Instagram, @iamalexberrocal/TikTok, and New York Post
