A teenager has told how she earns around £40,000 a year as a social media influencer alongside her class work.
Tia Christofi, aka @tiachristofi, has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and more than 3,000 subscribers on YouTube.
The 18-year-old, of Melbourne, Australia, has built partnerships with brands who pay her up to $450 AUD (£246) per post earning her around $70,000 AUD £38,300) per year.
Tia said she is able to manage her school life and her influencer career by working in the spare time she has in between classes during the day.
She said: “I have school Monday to Friday with spare classes in between.
“I try to complete as much work as I can so that I have less school work to do at home and more time to train, reply back to emails, post on my social media, engage with my followers and spend time with my family.”
On the weekends Tia said she spends a lot of her time catching up with her friends and eating Greek food with her Maltese and Greek Cypriot family.
She said: "Sometimes I get a late-night souvlaki in the city!”
But her time at school has never been easy, Tia recalls times when classmates would mimic her videos and photos in an attempt to bully her.
But she has not let the jibes upset her.
She said: “This taught me from a young age to not let people’s negative mindset affect my outlook or rule my emotions. It was more a reflection of their own insecurities than anything else.”
Although she's ridiculed by some classmates, Tia says her teachers are very supportive of what she does even after all these years.
Tia starting posting images to Instagram aged 14 to keep her friends updated with pictures of her trip to Europe.
She said: “I set up my Instagram when I was 14, I was overseas and wanted to post my Europe photos.”
But it was when she began to post photos and videos of herself working out and showing off cheerleading outfits and stunts that she began to gain a serious following.
According to Tia, it was posting pictures and videos of her real-life that built up her following to a staggering 104,000 people.
“I posted my real-life events, I went overseas a few times with my family and travelled for cheerleading competitions twice in the USA.
People knew I was in school and I had a passion for fitness, food and loved to travel.
My followers ask questions from what hotels I stay at, to what the best booty exercise is…”
So far in her four-year career as an influencer, Tia has been signed by several sports apparel brands.
She said: “I was emailed by a sports apparel company and was contracted with them at the age of 16. I was their youngest ever athlete.”
But unlike other influencers her age and older, Tia is keen to only work with companies that have the same outlook as her brand.
“I’m selective with who and what I represent as I want my followers to know that I promote products that I actually like and believe in.
”Tia kept hum about her early earnings from the social media app and in response said that her parents approve of her career."
Tia advises other teenagers who are aspiring to be an influencer like her to: “Post what you’re passionate about and don’t care what anyone thinks of you. Be true to yourself.”
