Train driver mum makes so much money from her nail art videos – seen over 12million times – that she’s now quit her job

A FORMER train driver changed track in her life to become a beauty blogger - and is now so successful she works full time on her own YouTube channel.

Natasha Lee regularly drove hundreds of passengers from North Wales to London - but swapped the far from glamorous world of delayed trains and anoraks for the bright light of the beauty salon.

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Now she gets millions of views for her videos teaching people to paint their nails.

Having nailed the career change Natasha makes a full time living from the box room that became her studio.

But she began her career pushing the snack trolley for Virgin Trains before taking a seat in the driver's cabin.

Natasha, 36, said: "I started out when I was 19 as a trolley girl in first class for Virgin Trains.

"It really wasn't for me.

"Working in such a confined space and the nature of the job means it can get really catty.

"I decided I wanted to work by myself so I switched to being a conductor, going through the carriages and checking tickets.

"But that was just horrible.

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"The verbal abuse and sexual assaults you got from drunk guys were just not on.

"I thought, 'gosh, I cannot do this anymore.'"

But Natasha felt trapped in her job.

Growing up in Anglesey, Wales, she could find little else to do than work on the railways.

Then a side comment from a driver in the staff room one day gave her a new idea.

She said: "I was sitting and painting my nails one day when an older colleague passed some comment about a driver vacancy.

"When I said I'd be interested, they laughed at me and said I could never be a driver, as I'm always too busy doing my nails.

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"And so I thought 'that's it, I'm going to do it!' I would rather be in the driver's cabin, isolated and safe than enduring the comments in the carriage anyway."

At 22, Natasha was accepted onto a driver training programme with First North Western, and spent a year studying and practising for the job.

However, not long after she qualified as a driver, Natasha reached a junction in her life and realised she needed to change direction.

While working for Virgin Trains she had met her husband Richard, 39, and they were looking to buy a house together in Chester, where he was based.

She applied for but was denied a transfer to join him, so she had to give up on her career.

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Natasha, who now lives in Mold, said: "It wasn't a great shame in the end.

"I didn't really have any desire to go into trains, and I was petrified of them when I took on the job."

After finishing on the railways Natasha tried to start a family with Richard, who already had a son from a previous relationship.

However, she found out from doctors that she was unable to get pregnant.

She said: "That news hit us really hard as we really wanted a child together.

"I went into hospital to have tests to see if IVF would work.

"Four days after they operated on me they I discovered I was, in fact, five weeks pregnant when I was admitted to A&E.

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The intrusive operation caused a complication in the pregnancy and meant that when her son James, now 8, was born he required round the clock care.

With childcare taking up much of her time, Natasha decided she needed a career that doubled as a hobby.

She said: "When James started nursery I had two-and-a-half hours of daytime to myself.

"But I knew whatever I did for work would also have to be a hobby, something creative, as I just didn't have time for anything else.

"When I struck upon the idea that I could always have nice nails and not have to pay for them I started to look into nail tech.

Natasha started a nail tech course when she was pregnant with her second son George, and was offered a space in a salon just two months before he was born.

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It was perfect at the time, as working for herself meant Natasha had time to look after her family.

But soon afterwards she discovered someone sharing their nail tips on video site YouTube and decided it was something she could do too.

Originally she started a blog, writing to people to pass on her tips.

Natasha said: "There was a finger nail artist on YouTube, the Fingernailfixer, who shared things and I liked that.

"I started out with a blog which just got more and more popular.

"It takes ages to type all your tricks out for people, and it's exhausting.

"You can just do video instead."

Just like Natasha's blog, her YouTube channel took off and she was soon on the company's radar as one of the top 18 accounts in the UK.

YouTube invited her to take part in a six month training programme to help her grow her channel as a business after a friend suggested she make money from it.

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It's now so successful she has closed down her salon and the account is her full time job.

Natasha said: "I had no idea you could make money.

"It was one video I did after I had been asked about marbling.

"I only thought it would be seen by nail technicians I had told but it has been seen over 12million times.

"A friend, Steve Grady, who works as an SEO expert, explained how I could make money from it.

"I explained that I hadn't gone into it with the idea of earning anything, but he pointed out to me that I at least had overheads to cover.

"In 2015 YouTube said I had come to their attention as statistics showed my site had massive growth.

"The people there are amazing and everything they have taught me has been so useful.

"I converted a small office in our house into my studio.

"I now do it until 3 am and I absolutely love it.

"It's unlike every other job and it's so random.

Natasha adds: "My subscribers are amazing and it's really lovely when I get nice messages.

"I did start out trying to reply to all nice comments but it's so difficult now as I get over 100 per day.

"I get my ideas for nails from everywhere.

"I'll be walking down the street and I'll notice things in shop windows or wrapping paper and feel inspired to copy it."