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Yes, I have held an apple before.
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Plenty of coffees.
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Phones, makeup, lipstick, lots of nail polish.
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For the past decade hand modeling has been my full-time job.
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It really is funny work.
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I'm Adele Uddo and I am a parts model.
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Parts modeling is short for body parts modeling so I mainly do hands but I've done lips, legs, feet, eyes, chest, even ear lobes.
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I am generally known as a high-end hand--Dior and Christian Louboutin.
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Most parts models have a side gig.
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There's just a handful of us, so to speak, that do it full time.
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It's sort of a you know underground-ish subculture of modeling.
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It's something that I sort of fell into.
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I certainly didn't plan for a career in parts.
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I had been told a few times, mainly by my grandmother, that I had nice hands so I went on a casting once and ended up booking this big job, and thought, you know, maybe my grandmother is onto something.
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What they typically look for is like, the shape of the hand: Long fingers, thin wrists, great skin tone is crucial.
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If you look good cropped, you've got a career.
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I love parts modeling in that I can be, like, viewed by millions of people and still remain private and anonymous.
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For many years I felt almost ashamed to be a parts model and I think it was ultimately because I was raised by this hippie feminist mother and her friends.
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I felt like I was somehow betraying them by becoming this objectified body parts model.
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There was this girly part of me that just wanted to express myself and wear lipstick and somehow I felt guilty when I did that.
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I really love what I do, and I'm grateful for what I've been able to do.
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Sometimes I judge myself for not being deep enough, you know, I've wanted to contribute more to society than nice nail beds.
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I'm not too precious with my parts.
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I have learned to take pride in my work and to take it more seriously than I used to.
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But I also want to have a life and use my hands.
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I garden, I hike, I swim, I dance.
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I would say that when your body becomes sort of an object it's harder in some ways to inhabit it.
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Because my body parts are literally under a microscope, a macro lens and everything shows, I think I scrutinize myself more than actually I have felt scrutinized by the industry.
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I admit to obsessively moisturising.
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Probably five-ish to 15 times-ish a day.
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So every year I'm going through at least a gallon of lotion.
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I created a lotion actually, Essentiel by Adele.
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Sort of out of necessity because I had to keep my skin in shape for these macro close-up photographs where it's literally down to the cuticle.
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So I ultimately wanted, like, a premium face lotion I could afford to put all over my body.
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I don't believe you need a bazillion bottles in your bathroom, I believe it can be a lot more simple and more effective.
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It's not that difficult, it ultimately comes down to ingredients.
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I don't really consider myself a great cook but I can cook a good lotion.
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I don't think you can really miss that there's sort of an inherent absurdity to what I do.
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I'm always surprised at how natural the hands look when I'm hand doubling for someone because it's such an unnatural process.
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I'm, you know, underneath someone's arm pit like trying to gracefully put my hand on the side of their face.
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Parts modelling is what I do, it's not really who I am.
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It's part of who I am, and I've learned to appreciate it.
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But yeah, I don't take it all so seriously.
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Now I realize we can be many things, many parts we can have even conflicting parts of ourselves; I can be superficial and deep, you know, it's not an either or.
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Thanks for watching.
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