October 23, 2025

Can Modeling Really Be Your Full-Time Career in Dubai?

Anastassiya, full-time model & Dubai kid, tells it like it is.

I still remember the day I gate-crashed my first casting. I was eight, tagging along with my mum to keep a family friend company. While she waited, I hopped into the line “just to see what happens.” Two hours later I had my first booking – a kids’ back-to-school campaign that paid me more than my monthly allowance in chocolate alone.

Fast-forward fifteen-ish years and that same city – Dubai – is now my 9-to-5 (or 5-to-midnight, depending on the call sheet). People slide into my DMs at least once a week asking: “Is it actually possible to survive only on modeling here?”
Short answer: yes. Longer, real-life answer: only if you treat it like a small business you never clock out of. Here’s everything I wish someone had handed me when I started taking it seriously three years ago.

1. The market is small, but it never sleeps

Europe has fashion weeks, New York has editorials, LA has influencers – Dubai has everything at once, just on a tighter loop. One week I’m shooting a Ramadan catalogue for a mall chain, the next I’m in stilettos on a yacht for a Swiss watch brand. Because the city’s population turns over every two-to-three years, clients constantly need fresh faces for campaigns that feel “new” to their newest customers. That keeps the calendar busy year-round – not always glam busy, but rent-paying busy. I first met the Paekar team at a casting last season – what started as a quick polaroid swap turned into a regular stream of last-minute showroom and e-commerce jobs that now fill the quieter gaps in my diary.

2. Your week will look like a colour-coded Tetris game

Monday: gym 7 am, real-estate client meeting 9 am, casting 11 am, fitting 2 pm, shoot 4-10 pm.
Tuesday: totally free – so I update my book, invoice two clients and stalk the agencies’ WhatsApp groups for last-minute calls.
Wednesday: four castings back-to-back, all in different places, so the Dubai traffic and I become best friends.
Thursday-Sunday: either slammed with a two-day music-festival gig or dead quiet, which means I batch-cook, hit Pilates and slide into creative meetings for my side hustle.
The unpredictability is not a bug – it’s the feature. You earn in bursts, then ration like a squirrel.

3. Money can be steady – if you run it like CFO-level

My first adult year I made every rookie mistake: blew a whole campaign fee on a designer bag, forgot to put tax money aside, assumed “more followers = more jobs.” Lesson learned. Now I:

Save 30 % of every cheque the second it lands.
Track slow seasons (mid-June to mid-August, plus post-New-Year lull) and pre-book extra castings.
Diversify: I pick up short-form content shoots—15-second reels, product teasers, lifestyle clips—for brands between bigger modeling gigs; quick half-day jobs that keep the cash flow steady without locking me into a 9-to-5.

Result: I haven’t had a “help-I-can’t-pay-rent” month since 2021.

4. Visas & agencies – the boring stuff that can break you

I lucked out: my parents are long-time UAE residents, so my visa was never tied to a sponsor. Most newcomers aren’t that lucky. If that’s you:

Land and get a residence before you burn your savings on tourist visas merry-go-round.
Line up at least two agency confirmations via Zoom; ask who pays the residence visa – some agencies invoice you later (AED 7-8 k), others fold it into their commission.
Read the contract like it’s your skin-care ingredients list – especially the exclusivity clause and the “6-month recovery fee” (yes, that’s a thing).

5. The biggest myth: “You just pose and get paid.”

Reality: you’re a shape-shifting entrepreneur. One day you’re a yoga mom in an infomercial, the next you’re a luxury-clad socialite in 40 °C heat pretending it’s autumn. Your feet blister, your agency WhatsApp never sleeps, and you still need to network harder than the PR girl handing out canapés. Glamour shows up for 0.3 seconds on the feed; the rest is spreadsheets and blister plasters.

6. The feel-good fuel

Last month a client emailed my agency: “Anastassiya was an absolute dream – professional, upbeat, took creative direction like a champ.” Reading that out loud to myself in my kitchen felt better than any runway applause. Those micro-moments – seeing your face on a mall pillar, watching a friend text “just spotted you on a billboard!” – are the dopamine hits that make the admin bearable.

7. Where we’re headed

Dubai is quietly becoming the region’s content-factory: vertical video, virtual runways, CGI billboards. Clients now ask for models who can also shoot 15-second TikTok hooks. I’m taking a short editing course because, frankly, the girl who can deliver finished Reels and poses is the one who gets booked tomorrow.
My personal 2025 bingo card: walk Dubai Fashion Week, book a regional campaign for a beauty giant, hit 100 k in savings. Ambitious? Maybe. But if an eight-year-old can crash a casting and leave with a job, anything’s on the cards.

Thinking of packing a suitcase and trying your luck?
Bring: six months’ runway (pun intended) of rent, an unlocked phone, two agency email confirmations and the discipline to treat every casting like the most important meeting of your life.
Then slide into the city that literally built islands for the sake of imagination and say hi – I’ll be the one balancing coffee, a ring light and stilettos in the Metro lift. See you on set.