A few years ago, while at uni, I was craving the feeling of independence that I couldn’t shake off whilst being partially supported by my parents. I had a part-time job at a fashion magazine but as anyone who’s ever worked at publishing will know, this was barely enough to cover food, let alone any of my petty fashion and foodie “needs”. 

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I met a friend through the magazine who was making (to my university student eyes) a lot of money selling pictures of her hands and feet. This all seemed really scandalous to me. This was around 10 years ago in Mexico, and anything that was slightly outside of the realm of “conventional” work was completely rejected and frowned upon, especially if it was related to the female body. 

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But I was fascinated! After she told me more about it, I discovered that it wasn’t actually as outrageous as my aunties and catholic school friends had made it sound. She became my sort-of-feet-pics-mentor, if you may. From the start I decided that I didn’t want to include my hands and I would strictly stick to feet. She helped me set up a new, private Twitter account, which is where she’d had the most success, so it made sense for me to start there. 

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The whole thing required way more effort and curation than I was expecting. I needed to find a tone, the right angles, I had to develop an eye for scammers and I had to prepare for the whole thing to get very weird, very quickly, and stop it immediately. Boy oh boy, did it get weird quickly. 

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I wouldn’t say my feet are particularly appealing or captivating, but they did the job. After a week of trying to break into #FeetPics, #FeetFeetFeet and #FootFetish and swerving pretty creepy messages and very obvious scammers, I got a DM asking for pricing and transfer details. Their profile struck me as way too normal for it to be true; a fairly acceptable profile picture of a guy in a suit, who joined Twitter in 2010 and had around 200 followers, although he wasn’t very active. My friend advised me to start at £20 for a simple picture of my feet, plain background, no props or accessories; any special requests outside of that I would charge for. And I was NEVER to do anything that I wasn’t completely comfortable with! 

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The stranger accepted and disappeared for what felt like hours, but was really only 20 minutes. When he sent a screenshot of the transaction, I did everything through Paypal and obviously included no real personal details or info. I couldn’t believe it and ran to my bank account only to confirm that the £20 were actually there. Time to pay up: I chose a very simple picture with a red pedi, feet resting on my dark green couch. He thanked me and blocked me right after the exchange. 

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Over the course of 3 months I: sent 36 simple pictures of my feet and took 10 requests. I would only reuse a picture once and then delete them. I got 3 pedicures, all of which were paid for, one of them filmed for £50. I sent 9 requested videos, had 14 pretty creepy interactions, two horrible ones and made around £1,370. 

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The following is the worst interaction I had. A person asked for two regular feet pics on Twitter and sent me the money. I did the deed and as soon as he got the pictures he asked for a very specific video. He wanted a video of my feet “being covered in chocolate”. I didn’t think of the request as that unusual but unfortunately I didn’t have any melted chocolate to hand, and Kitkats don’t melt that well. I had to explain and politely decline. He then offered me £100 for a ‘special order’. I took the bait and asked what he wanted.

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“I want you to tie ropes around your tiny, darling feet and film yourself trying to get out of the hold”, creepy right? It gets worse. I was a little put off by this at the time, but I was young and naive, always liked a bit of a thrill and it seemed like a good way to buy some independence. I didn’t try too hard to get out of the ropes in the video, just moved my feet around for 30 seconds and stopped recording. I messaged to let him know that the video was ready and would send it over as soon as he sent me proof of transfer. He was silent for a bit so I went on with my day. I was having dinner with my cousin when he sent me the screenshot and I saw the money in my account. Drinks were on me.

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On my way back home I was doing some feet-pic admin: deleting scammers or fake messages, giving prices to new potential customers (there were 6 new people asking for pics and prices). The last one to answer was the ropes-guy, which I was only expecting a quick “thank you” or maybe another easy request for more money. I tapped on the conversation and got flooded by dick pics and videos of him masturbating. I immediately closed Twitter and threw my phone into my bag. I couldn’t deal with that on the street, by myself. I felt sick but managed to block him after another influx of dick. 

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After my bad experience, I started blocking every single person after I sent out whatever I was meant to send, and only told three people that I was doing it. 

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Why did I stop? Uni got heavy, more work came up with new opportunities and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable and guilty. 

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It’s an experience that has always been in the back of my mind. I've thought about getting back into it several times, especially since it blew up on TikTok. I have a full time job, I live a very comfortable life and I’m a bit jarred thinking back on some of those interactions. On the other hand: I’m older, more experienced and aware, or at least I’d like to think so. I now live in London, a city that charges 50p per breath you take, and still have the same feet. 

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Side hustles are now way more mainstream. Some girls sell notepads on Etsy, some girls will manage social media accounts and some girls sell pictures of their feet. 

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This is the ever-changing economy that we’re living in and it’s time to get smart. That in mind, we’re cooking up an event for you: Good Jobs for Bad People. Opportunities that work for you and are good for the planet! Register for the event here. 

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If you’re interested in having your own little side hustle, we have an offer that you won’t want to miss. Free products, cash and save the planet! Join our exclusive community of Video Reviews here and earn extra £££ real easy, real quick. No feet necessary. 

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