Editor's note:

More and more women are determined to pursue “difficult” jobs because of their passion. They not only earn money and gain social recognition, but also contribute to breaking gender stereotypes in the professional field.

VietNamNet respectfully introduces the series Strange jobs, women make money, sharing stories about women who "dare" to do jobs that are considered to be for men, even jobs that are not for the faint-hearted.

Farmer's child has "golden" hands

Bui Thi Thu Tuyen (born in 1995, from Quang Ngai) is the daughter of a farming family. Since childhood, she has been familiar with cooking, washing dishes, cleaning the house and doing farm work. In high school, Tuyen studied far from home so she had to be more independent in everything.

She has been complimented many times on her slender, long hands, but Tuyen has no means to maintain them. She simply thinks that “hands are for work, beautiful or ugly, we need to work.”

Long, soft hands of 9X Quang Ngai

It was not until he graduated from university and became a screenwriter that Tuyen realized his long, slender arms were a gift from God.

“I learned about hand modeling through the media. I thought my hands were pretty good, but I didn’t dare think I could become a hand model. In mid-2022, when I accidentally saw an advertisement clip of an acquaintance’s company, I decided to create an opportunity for myself,” Tuyen said.

Seeing that the model’s hands had many flaws, Tuyen proactively texted the company, asking to be a free hand model. After just one photo, she was invited by the company to be an official hand model to advertise a food product.

“I love expressing emotions subtly through my hands, so when I had the chance, I decided to try it,” Tuyen shared.

The job of “making money with your hands” seems simple, but when she started, Tuyen found it was full of difficulties. When she first started her career, she struggled with how to create a soulful hand shape that expressed the spirit of the product.

Tuyet in a model shoot

To keep her hands from getting stiff when filming, Tuyen searched for images and videos of hand models around the world, learned how to pose her hands to be soft and flexible, cultivated her visual thinking, learned how to feel objects with her hands...

After three years in the profession, Tuyen has been invited to model for many brands, each job has different requirements. When taking photos, she only needs to pose in accordance with the spirit of the product. When filming videos, she has to move her hands continuously, creating soft and flexible poses.

“Depending on the job and scenario, there are different ways of doing things. The more high-end the product, the higher the requirements for the hand model, they must have many skills to express their spirit,” Tuyen said.

Tuyen's hands after being on camera

Hand dancing seems simple but it is not easy. Working under high-power lights for long periods of time makes her hands sore. Holding her hands in the same position for many hours makes her body ache.

However, for the girl from Quang Ngai, every job has its difficulties and pressures and the only way to overcome them is to love the job.

Take care of your hands by all means

According to 9X, the biggest challenge for hand modeling is that this profession is not officially recognized. Many people do not know that hands to be models not only have to be beautiful but also need to meet many strict standards.

The hand model profession has many unspeakable sorrows.

Since then, she has encountered many "difficult" situations such as being disrespected and being forced to pay a higher salary.

“Someone told me, ‘You’re just doing hand gestures, it’s not a big deal’ and offered me the same salary as an extra. Of course, I refused,” Tuyen said.

Another difficulty is that hand models are not very recognizable, because they appear in images and videos with their hands, not their faces. Therefore, it is very difficult for hand models to affirm their personal brand and get noticed by brands.

“I have to ‘build my brand’ through social media platforms. It could be taking a beautiful photo series of my hands and posting it on Facebook groups, or creating a TikTok channel to share about hands and how to beautify them.

They follow me first for my beautiful hands, then for my stories about self-care. By developing those sustainable values, I help my hands become more recognizable, and my image is associated with the values ​​I share.”

Tuyen must hone hand shaping skills

Hands are involved in most daily activities and work, so hand models face many inconveniences. Since taking up this job, Tuyen has not been able to use her hands as freely as before. Her hands always have to be in “safe mode”.

In the past, Tuyen liked to do everything herself, but in recent years, she has been forced to become weaker and lazier. She rarely does housework and often has to ask others to help her with things like opening bottle caps, carrying heavy objects, etc.

Hand care is done by the 9X every day. She applies moisturizer, exfoliates and masks her hands at home, and goes to the spa for intensive hand care every week.

In all activities, she must be as careful as possible so as not to injure her hands.

“I also pay attention to my diet to have healthy white skin, and my hands will also be healthy. Being a hand model requires using my whole arm, sometimes my shoulders and neck as well, so taking care of my whole body is essential,” Tuyen shared.

Modeling helps Tuyen increase her income significantly. The average salary she receives from this job is from 300,000 to 1 million VND/hour of filming. Depending on the brand and the complexity of the script, she earns 1-5 million VND for completing a job.

“However, the work is not steady, sometimes I am busy, sometimes I don’t have any invitations to cooperate for a whole month. With the hand modeling profession, I believe that as long as I am happy, I will continue to do it, and for me, this job is still fun,” Tuyen said.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/co-gai-quang-ngai-mua-tay-ra-tien-tiet-lo-ly-do-khong-mo-nap-chai-be-vac-nang-2388940.html