Jessica Lira’s life took a dramatic turn in June 2024 after a customer at a Joinville supermarket was struck by her uncanny resemblance to Brazilian singer Sandy. Otto Compiani, the customer who noticed the similarity, captured a video of Jessica working at the checkout counter and shared it on social media. The video quickly went viral, with viewers around the world amazed by the striking resemblance.
The viral fame brought Jessica a surge of followers, interview requests, and an opportunity to pursue her passion for art. Jessica, who had been drawing since childhood and specializing in realistic illustrations for the past six years, saw her work gain immense popularity. As orders and commissions poured in, she found herself struggling to balance her artistic ambitions with her supermarket job.
“I gained 39,000 followers and continued working for another two weeks. I wanted to keep working at the supermarket and also do my drawings because the orders started to increase,” Jessica shared, according to NSC Total. She soon realized that managing both her job and her art was becoming impossible. “I started to realize that I couldn’t reconcile the two things. I came home tired and then started drawing, doing live streams. The clients themselves started encouraging me to dedicate myself to art. After much analysis and realizing that I needed time to fulfill my commitment to delivering the works, I decided to leave,” she explained.
Jessica made the leap, leaving her cashier position to focus entirely on her artwork and her burgeoning role as an influencer. She now boasts over 50,000 followers on social media, and her days are dedicated to creating art, posting on her platforms, and collaborating with brands on marketing campaigns. She’s even taken her art to the next level, participating in exhibitions.
“I had never done an exhibition before, my dream was to have an opportunity like this and with the repercussion, I started to receive invitations to various events, including exhibitions at a shopping mall, Tiradentes Square, Opa Bier, among others. People come up to me and say “you are the Sandy of drawings,” she said. Jessica Lira’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of the internet, and her story proves that dreams can come true even when they arrive in the most unexpected ways.
