Video models are what some men's dreams are made of. They have the ample bosoms, abundant buttocks and flat stomachs that make men go 'oooh' and tempt a jealous girlfriend to smack them upside the head.

Still the lifestyle is not all it's cracked up to be.

Some American video models get on average US$2,000 for a lead role (depending on whether it is a high budget video or not) and are often catapulted to stardom.

Jamaican video models, however, earn on average $12, 000 for a lead role and between $5,000 and $6, 000 for the role of an extra and then suddenly disappear from the scene. 'Hey, that's easy money for making my cheeks clap,' some may say, but there's an unwanted flipside.

Gracie-Ann Watson is a chestnut-skinned sister, with what men describe as a 'Coco Cola' shape and has been in more than 15 videos. The downside to this, she says, is that people often get the 'wrong' idea about her.

She spoke of appearing in I-Wayne's video, Can't Satisfy Her, where she played a prostitute.

More exposed

"With (that) video, people need to know that Gracie is actually different from the character; people need to know that it was just a character that I was portraying. Even when I was in Royal Palm playing 'Patience', people don't realise that I am Gracie-Ann. People are misled and are like, 'dance for me like when you dance on the show'," she said.

Tamara Murray is also a video model and if you've seen enough videos, you would probably recognise her derriere without a face shot.

She dismisses the view that local video girls are 'too sexy' and may lead impressionable minds astray.

"I don't think so. That doesn't happen only in Jamaica; overseas they have music videos and it's the same thing. All them pretty girls shaking them rump and sometimes much more exposed than we are. Young people know that it's just fun and nothing more, so people shouldn't be criticising us," she said.

Tamara also says she enjoys being a video model and always maintains a professional working relationship on set.

"It has been a nice experience. You get to know a lot of people, but when you are there you have to have your head on your body. You have to know that you are not there to flirt, it is all about working and after that just to get your money and leave," she said.

She says she has limits and says she would never get naked in a video.

Still, she says she has her eyes set on becoming an actress and an entrepreneur.

"I want to own my own business like a clothing store or something. I'm a certified nail technician, but in the future I would like to become an actress. I travel a lot, so that is probably in the making." Tamara is also the lead Magnum calendar girl for 2007, which is a far way from where she started as a model for Hardcopy magazine.

Gracie-Ann too has started to hit the stage more frequently, saying she is leaving video modelling: "Acting was always my number one dream ... I only decided to take it on full time after I left Edna Manley in 2005. Right now, I'm not really interested in appearing in anymore videos." She is currently doing live stage acting at Centrestage theatre.