A YOUNG woman who dropped out of school at 16 has now managed to buy her own house aged just 20.
Kirsty Belle Addison quit her A-levels just three months in to pursue her dream of becoming a professionally-qualified make-up artist.
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And her whirlwind progress has seen her become a viral sensation on YouTube and TikTok, attracting millions of hits – despite her dad being furious when he first learnt of her plans.
Kirsty, from Kew in south-west London, has travelled the world attending events and was able to afford her own home as a 20-year-old.
Now 21, she told MyLondon: “Ever since I was a kid, I knew I didn’t want to go to university. I was taking my A Levels but I never felt passionate about it.
“I always thought if I wanted to do what I actually wanted to do, I had to start now.
“I left school around three months into my A Levels then went and did a nine-month hair and make-up course to become a professionally qualified makeup artist.”
It did initially mean a falling-out with her father, however.
She said: “When I first told my dad, he ignored me for like two weeks!
“He came back from a trip and couldn’t believe my mum helped me leave and he was like, ‘You can’t just drop this on me after I’ve been away’.
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“Now, they are really supportive of me and seen everything I’ve done and I think they are pretty proud of me. I think they think it’s quite cool instead of following the path everyone else has done.”
She began by posting make-up tips on her own YouTube video channel – going from 1,000 to 10,000 subscribers in just weeks.
Kirsty then threw herself into a “Get TikTok Famous in a Week” YouTube challenge, at a time when TikTok “was still relatively small”.
She said: “I made the video as a kind of a joke as it was a trend at the time and TikTok was still relatively small.
“All of a sudden, my TikTok blew up as well and went from 1k to 10k within a week as well.”
Her YouTube channel now has 125,000 subscribers while her TikTok account has 1million followers and 49.4million “likes”.
It is weird sometimes to think a lot of people my age are at entirely different points of their lives compared to where I am.
Kirsty Belle Addison
She has since gone on to work with major make-up brands including Charlotte Tilbury, L’Oreal Paris and Maybelline and attended events such as the BRIT Awards, the Cannes Film Festival and Paris Fashion Week as a brand representative for Benefit Cosmetics.
Kirsty added: “I’m trying to balance working with also growing up because at the time when everyone was experiencing that at 18 and 19, I was working.
“It is weird sometimes to think a lot of people my age are at entirely different points of their lives compared to where I am.
“I always wanted to do something different and my sister absolutely loved university and her stories are always great – I just know it wasn’t for me and everything I’ve done so far I’m proud of.”
Kirsty is not alone in finding a way to buy a first home at an early age.
Earlier this month another successful young TikTok influencer celebrated buying her own first home, aged 21.
Katylee Bailey, from Bradford, posted a video to her 2.8million followers showing her opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate snapping up the new property without needing a mortgage.
But she received not only congratulatory messages of support but also carping from people jealous about missing out themselves.
She later posted a tearful follow-up video, saying: “I just wanted to come on here to say that I’m sorry to anyone who feels like I’m bragging about the house thing.”
Meanwhile, The Sun has also told of how 23-year-old gymnastics coach Jess Keast managed to achieve her dream of owning her own home by the age of 25.
Last December she and her partner Jack Lorys, 28, bought a £200,000 two-bedroom house in Penzance in Cornwall, after the pair devoted themselves to canny saving back in 2020.
Government savings schemes offering £1,500 in fresh cash towards getting on the property ladder have also been credited with helping young people.
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