She looks like Jessica Rabbit brought to life—scarlet curls, ample curves and a smoldering stare that yanks the camera’s attention. Jessa Hinton could get away with just being gorgeous, but that’s not really her style. Next to an Instagram shot of the model and influencer splayed on a beach in black lace lingerie, the caption has nothing to do with her love of the ocean, being a Cali girl or feeling #blessed.
“When you fall but play it off,” the text reads. Oh great, she’s funny, too.
Hinton, who lives in Los Angeles with her son, has been in front of the camera for most of her life. A child actor, she got her start in modeling after moving to Las Vegas in 2009, working as a cocktail server on the Strip and posing for ad campaigns for Light nightclub and Ditch Fridays.
“I thought it was pretty cool to be kind of the face of Las Vegas,” says Hinton, who appeared as Miss July 2011 in an issue of Playboy magazine.
Bucking conventional wisdom, Hinton says that her career hasn’t fizzled as she’s grown up. “The more that I aged, the more that I worked,” she says. “I’m not a spring chicken. I’ve been doing this for a while.” These days she’s focused on building her following on social media, where 1.2 million people tune into her Instagram posts under the handle @jessahinton. Soon she’ll be expanding into YouTube and launching a mom blog geared toward working women who want frank talk about raising kids while running a business.
“People tend to connect more with realness,” Hinton says. “I air all the hard stuff. I air the stuff I talk about with my son.” Of her modeling and influencer career, Hinton stresses that it’s far less glamorous than what appears on the screen. “I work very hard for the things that I have,” she says. “You have to keep evolving. Then you’re going to be fine.”
Click here to follow Jessa on Instagram.
