HANDY HUSTLE
My parents were angry when I dropped out of uni… but now I make £5k a DAY on my nail business aged just 21
The 21-year-old had dreamt of start her own beauty brand but felt trapped during her bachelor's degree
AS well as getting to grips with your chosen subject, university can be a time when you learn a lot about yourself too.
Having struggled with student life, one young woman made the brave decision to drop out and now makes a staggering AUS $10,000 (£5k) per day from her new career.
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Like many students over the pandemic, Chloe Zhu missed out on the classic university experience.
Having started her bachelor's degree in 2021, the then-teen felt ‘extremely lost’.
Even changing courses didn’t help, with her switching courses twice to pursue finance as well as computer science.
Rather than just staying the course like most students, she made the bold decision to try and change her life for the better – by quietly dropping out.
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Around this time, the young entrepreneur focused on her dream of starting her own beauty brand with inspiration coming from the most unlikely source: COVID.
Seeing how many salons had closed over lockdown, she had found herself in need of a manicure and decided to launch the press-on-nail company, Glowie, from her one-bedroom apartment.
After stumbling on the idea in December 2021, it wasn’t long until her business began to boom.
Yet, she still wasn’t able to tell her family about her success.
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Knowing that her parents would be disappointed, the academically gifted student hid the truth for eight months and feared her loved ones’ reactions.
Eventually, the truth came out during family dinner with her brother dropping the massive bombshell in front of her parents.
Recalling the awkward moment, she admitted to , adding: “I felt bad I couldn’t give my parents the life they dreamt of for me. But I knew I would be able to make them proud.
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“They definitely weren’t happy at first and were trying to convince me out of the decision, even suggesting I take a break from my business to finish my studies first.
“But I knew that I would be able to make them proud and stay true to myself in my own way, and they eventually came around.”
Her rapid rise was made even more difficult, with the entrepreneur struggling with burnout and missing out on being with friends.
At one point, she became so exhausted that she felt like she ‘didn’t want to wake up in the morning’ having worked without stop for months.
Thankfully, her gamble more than paid off with the now 21-year-old earning AUS $10,000 (£5k) per day from her beauty brand.
In fact, the young woman struggles to believe how different her life is just a few years later.
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She said: “My life looks completely different and I’m still in shock at how you can change your career path in such a short amount of time.
“Now I’m in a job that uses so many different skills that are analytical, creative, and technical all at once - from building the website, optimising our SEO, and of course, designing our product launches - and I couldn’t ask for a more fulfilling job."
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