I’m a teenager and made £56k in six months thanks to a secret side hustle I started from my mum and dad’s home
A TEENAGER made £56k in six months thanks to a side hustle she started in the pandemic.
When her university degree was moved online, 19-year-old Nina Alston, from Australia found she had a lot more time on her hands she told .
To keep herself busy during lockdown she took up jewellery making - getting tips from YouTube videos.
“I really wanted to do something valuable with my time,” Alston said.
“I was fortunate to be living at home with my parents throughout the pandemic and only had my online university course to fill up my day, so I had a lot of spare time to dream up new ideas.
“I love jewellery, have lots of piercings and I was always on the hunt for fun, high quality, low cost earrings — and so I decided to start making my own jewellery for fun”.
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Thanks to an excess supply of materials, she decided to make a few extra pieces and start selling them on Depop under the name (TMA), later moving onto Etsy.
In 2021, she took her one-off gold plated and filled pieces to their own website.
“I started accepting custom designs and then was able to purchase my own packaging,” she explained.
“(Being) forced to stay at home enabled me to create this business, so without Covid-19 I don’t think I would have the business that I do today."
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Now 21, she said: “In the first six months of selling on our own website, we made over $100,000 in sales and we hope to triple that figure in 2022."
She’s even caught the attention of a range of influencers — including Olivia Rogers, Tammy Hembrow and Isabelle Mathers — who have all been snapping sporting a piece from the TMA collection.
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“I have a lot of amazing influencers who reach out to us directly with requests of gifted and paid collaborations,” Alston explained.
“Having an amazing group of influencers to help us create amazing content for our socials and websites has been so helpful.
“A lot of influencers also purchase from us directly which is mind-blowing.
"It's lovely to have so many industry leaders following our social accounts, including stylists for Olivia Rodrigo, Hailey Bieber and Willow Smith”.
