One woman is sharing how she managed to pull herself out of homelessness to earn a living as a beauty influencer.
Shantania Beckford makes £10,000 a month through her social media job and has over 220,000 followers on Instagram.
Moving to the UK from Jamaica at the age of nine, she helped her mum as a cleaner after she finished school.
At the age of 17, Ms Beckford was left without a home after her mum returned to Jamaica and had to rely on the support of family and friends.
To get back on her feet, the entrepreneur worked 45-hour weeks in her local chicken shop while still attending college.
Speaking to Shera, the now 30-year-old discussed how she managed to go from homelessness to the world of beauty influencing.
She explained: “After college, I would take an hour bus from Dudley, back home and then work till 1 am, then go home.
“I was making £400 a month. Sometimes there was no electricity [where I was staying] so I would just stay in college till it closed, then shower in the cold water.
“I was doing makeup throughout this as a way to escape. Creating helps me to escape and it gave me extra money, so make-up has been a side hustle for a long time.”
With the money made, Ms. Beckford was able to move into a hostel and practice her makeup skills with the other residents.
After making some extra money working at Wagamama, she was given her own council flat in January 2014.
Finally having her own space, the content creator decided to make the move into creating make-up tutorials.
Ms Beckford added: “I saved for a Canon camera, my lights, and for a laptop, and then I taught myself how to edit and the basics of YouTube.
“The first thing that I ever did was a zombie make-up tutorial. I went to Poundland and bought all the zombie make-up stuff which cost me about £6.
“It was finally a chance for me to be myself finally and show who I am.
“I started with pure intention to just have focus and do what I can. I was doing about 50 hours a week work plus doing my YouTube – I was on a mission.
“Within six months, I had 10,000 followers and I was so happy.”
