QUITTING school to become a full-time influencer sounds like a huge gamble but Millie Taylforth decided to do just that.
And she has no regrets because at 23, she now rakes in up to £40,000 a month by sharing every snippet of her life with her 600,000 Snapchat followers.
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She first started posting dance videos on YouTube aged 12, and eventually began making money from her posts through ads and brand partnerships.
As her passion for social media grew, Millie, from Manchester, then began sharing content on Snapchat, which she says she loves due to its “rawness.”
“I love the fact that I can post as many times as I want to without feeling like I’m spamming my story”, she says.
“My followers really get to see the real me.”
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As Millie’s side hustle became more fruitful, she decided to leave education during school sixth form, and focus solely on creating content.
However, coming from a long line of teachers, her parents weren’t on board with the idea because she was expected to follow a similar career path.
Parent doubt
After showing them her earnings, Millie convinced her mum and dad to take her career choice more seriously and they decided that if she showed them consistent results for six months, they would support her dream.
Millie’s earnings skyrocketed over the following months, and in her best month to date she earned a whopping £40,000.
“That was just by being me and chatting to my fanbase.” she explains.
The influencer says she vlogs her “entire life” on Snapchat, and describes her stories as being like a “reality TV show.”
She shares everything from doing her laundry, getting her nails done and spending weekends in her dad’s caravan in Manchester.
Millie is an avid traveller and says one of her most viewed stories on Snapchat came after she lost her passport in Dubai.
“I was stranded at the side of the road for over a day with no means to check into any hotel because you need a passport to do that in Dubai,” she adds.
“That lead to me in tears on my Snapchat story, asking my followers for help.”
Millie posts over 100 times a day on Snapchat, and has almost 600,000 followers, meaning that she is eligible for the Stories revenue share programme.
The programme allows anyone who posts frequently and has over 50,000 followers to receive payments based on the revenue generated by the ads Snapchat posts between Snaps in a Public Story.
She says it takes her over two hours to post all of her stories, which she does once a day, so that her followers can “binge watch” them.
Side hustles in numbers
Based on new research from Finder, an estimated 22.8 million Brits are using side hustles to top up their income.
Among those aged 18-23, 68 percent have a side hustle in 2024.
Those aged 24-42 aren’t far behind, with 65 per cent having an additional source of income.
Side hustles are less popular among older generations, with 40 percent of those aged 43-54 having one.
Whereas 23 percent of people aged 55-73 and just 7 per cent of those aged 74 and over are earning extra cash this way.
“Snapchat does a great job at paying their creators. The more you post, the more you earn,” she explains.
Sharing advice for anyone thinking of starting their own Snapchat side hustle, Millie says: “I would advise posting at least 40 times a day, and staying consistent.
“You should also be as real as possible, and show plenty of personality, as a lot of social media lacks authenticity.”
Millie says her unfiltered content is similar to having a “video call” with her fan base, as she takes them through her day.
“My subscribers say this is exactly the kind of content they want to see.”
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