Johannesburg- Self-taught makeup artist and now businesswoman, Elinah Mangena, has penned her first book, “Diary of a Self-taught MUA”, where she speaks of how resilience and the will to survive made her a success at only 30-years-old.
She had a dream of coming to South Africa from Zimbabwe, where she was born, to study law.
But she ended up being homeless in a foreign country.
She said she has never had an easy childhood either.
“I was hardly in any stable family set up, but I somehow managed to adapt to any environment that circumstances threw me in. I did yearn for love, though, especially when I stayed with my stepmother soon after my parents divorced,” she writes in the book.
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Speaking to Sunday World, Mangena said her upbringing was quite different from others, because she grew up in a polygamous family, with three stepmothers and two dads and ten siblings.
She went on to work as a fruit and vegetable merchandiser directly after matric.
“Through that job, a stranger tipped me with money that was enough for me to apply for my passport that led me to moving to South Africa to study,” said Elinah.
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But her arrival in the country was not smooth sailing.
“A few months after I came to South Africa I had to drop out of school and could not afford rent because I was financially disadvantaged. I ended up being homeless, but fortunately for me, church people took me in and that is when I taught myself how to apply makeup,” she said.
Her very first client was a big cheque.
“I was booked by someone who was getting married in Drakensberg, and I never looked back. I worked for two days on ten people, which meant double the amount. So, I wrote the book to guide people on knowing their niche, pursuing purpose, how to become a makeup artist without going to school for it, challenges that come with the job and how to overcome them,” she said enthusiastically.
A day she says she will never forget, is when she had to work on Chi Mhende’s face, who was a Generations: The Legacy actress at the time.
She said that as a result of being homeless she also started an initiative, which now provides sanitary wear, stationery and skills development programmes to girls like her.
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