How I became successful on social media

At the age of 11 I was watching the Disney show Lizzie Mcguire and said to myself "I want to do that!" Ever since that day, I couldn't get the idea of being an actress out of my head. I started my first acting classes in middle school and progressed to professional classes at a theater. I cried every night because I wanted nothing more than to be in L.A pursuing my dream but of course this was an impossible thought since I was so young and my mom didn't want to move to California. I ended up doing some independent films in Florida to get my feet wet and ended up going to FSU to major in Psychology and have a back up plan. A part of me regrets not moving to LA right away but I definitely got caught up in normal life and having the safe, normal job. Plus I had the most fun in college than I have in my entire life, so I can't regret it too much. At 21, I decided I was done with my partying days and moved out to California. I ended up finishing my degree with online classes so I could finally pursue my acting dream. In the first year I was in LA I worked as an background actor full time. While on set I booked one line on an ABC show which then allowed me to be admitted into the Screen Actors Guild. I was ecstatic because I heard from actors that it takes years to obtain enough SAG vouchers to become SAG and I got mine on one job! I also signed with one of the best mid level agencies in LA. I was consistently booking myself on independent feature films and even got the lead role in one of them. I kind of set an idea in my head that if I didn't become "famous" in a year, I would move back home. Unfortunately, I abided by this thought. I've always been a perfectionist and always wanted to be successful and never settled for less. Looking back I regret being so hard on myself and not appreciating what I did accomplish. But, I made the mistake of moving back home after my year was up. I ended up going back to waitressing and having a normal life again. I thought that was it and I was content. Later I ended up dating a few people and dated one guy for 4 years. We moved in together right away. Later during the relationship, with his encouragement, I realized I wanted to act again. He always wanted to move to LA, so with that, we moved back to LA where I pursued my career the second time. This time was much different. I was older and things that were easy back then were much harder. I couldn't get the same agent I had, I wasn't getting auditions, and I wasn't booking much. This lasted 3 years. Eventually I heard about the app called Vine. I actually went to college with King Bach and saw how he blew up into a mega star just from posting 6 sec comedy clips. Unfortunately, I found out about vine when it was already dying, about a year in. But nonetheless, I jumped in 100%. I started shooting vines everyday with my actor friends. Wrote them, directed and edited them all so I had 1 to post every single day. I even invested money into it by having someone who owned large vine accounts revine my vines onto his accounts for massive exposure. With doing this, I gained 125k fans in less than a year. Eventually, I took over that business and started promoting my friends for income. A year later, vine crashed. Luckily, a friend of mine through vine told me about a live streaming app called Live.me and said how he's been making money just by talking to people. I jumped on right away and started my first broadcast. It was mostly just my friends who I told about that joined. I saw the top broadcasters of the app that had already made a ton of money and I said to myself "I want to get on their level". I started streaming everyday for around 5 hours a day. The first night I made $200, then $500, and one night I made over $1k! I was shocked. From that moment on I have streamed for 8-12 hours every single day for a year straight. The night I hit 1 million diamonds (the form of currency on the app), was very emotional for me. It was a groundbreaking moment and I was in tears. The owners of the app even joined the stream and sent me virtual gifts congratulating me. I got verified on the app soon after that and in a few months I had become the number one diamond receiver on the app. In laments terms this essentially means the person who made the most money on the app. I still can't believe that someone can make an upwards of 6 figures on a social media app merely broadcasting and just talking to people. It had been the most amazing experience for me and I have met the most amazing people and friends from across the world I would have never have met before. I was told that I stopped kids from suicide just by being there to talk to them after they had a bad day. I have made ever lasting friendships, reached financial stability and I feel it has helped not only accept and become more confident with myself but that I have helped countless amounts of people escape the struggles of their life by being that friend they can come home and talk to after a rough day at work or school. Not only did I change the lives for so many which gives me great reassurance but I also realized this has helped me become more confident with myself and what I will be capable of in the future.