Finding a new DIRECTION

Meet the women who have stepped outside their comfort zones and tried something different

- FIONA FORD

‘WHAT WAS STOPPING ME FROM LIVING MY DREAM?’

Justine Warwick, 51, lives with her husband Andy and two grown-up children in Stock, Essex.

As the YouTube make-up tutorial ended, I eagerly found another to watch. It was 2015 and I could happily lose myself in tutorials like these for hours.

Married to my husband Andy, then 47, and mum to two beautiful children, Alex, 13, and Lily, 11, I was a happy stay at home wife and mum.

Although I never regretted my choice to give up my career in investment banking to focus on starting a family with Andy, there were times when I missed the hustle and bustle of working life in the city.

Of course, being a mum was the best job I could have ever had and I enjoyed every moment with my children. I knew I was lucky that I was there to witness every milestone, but now they were at secondary school and I couldn’t help feeling like my role was being made a bit redundant. The kids needed me so much less, and I had a lot more time on my hands (hence why I whittled away hours watching tutorials). In all honesty, I felt a bit lost and began to question who I was. For so many years I’d been just ‘Mum’ but now, I realised how much I wanted to do something just for myself.

As I watched another online make-up tutorial an idea dawned – what if it was me that was making up faces? What if I became a make-up artist? What was stopping me from living my dream?