Customers wait for her to ring their doorbell, but Jazmín Martínez is nobody’s Avon Lady. Call her “Nasty Lady.”
That’s the name of her online business, which represents a big career change for the 24-year-old lawyer.
After being disappointed with Yucatán’s lack of good jobs, Martínez quit her job at a notario’s office and started selling sex accessories and toys in Mérida. She’s making more than 40 sales a week and told La Jornada Maya that she doesn’t regret her career move.
The business began almost accidentally two-and-a-half years ago when Martínez wanted to order some fishnet stockings online and realized that if she acquired more, she could re-sell them to her friends.
“All the stockings were sold and I bought more with the profit. People were asking me for more items and I began to look for more suppliers and prices,” said Martínez. “Suddenly I was already doing everything I do now without realizing it.”
When the COVID-19 contingencies began, Martínez put her law degree to work in a notary’s office. Although the paycheck afforded her some degree of comfort, she was dissatisfied. The Nasty Lady project was more demanding but more satisfying, she said.
Nasty Lady has grown during the pandemic, a time in which people are encouraged to occupy themselves at home. Martínez said she is happily surprised by the positive feedback in an outwardly conservative Yucatecan society.
From a home-based workshop, she now also manufactures body restraints, handcuffs, harnesses, garters and leather collars from raw materials. Each piece is made to order and home-delivered each Saturday. She also retails sex toys because her clients are requesting them.
“I started making simple lace necklaces and then I tried harnesses,” she told La Jornada Maya. “It helped a lot to see models from all over the world on the internet. In Mérida there was none of that and a friend who makes handbags gave me guidance on the materials.”
She works from 9 a.m. to 2 or 3 a.m., and has had to hire someone to help with deliveries.
Her better customers, she says, are women. Men have often misunderstood the business, making crude suggestions and sending the type of selfies that she’d rather not see.
Nasty Lady has over 8,500 followers on Instagram and is followed by over 11,000 Facebook fans.
