Thirty-seven-year-old Jessica Herring faced ups and downs when she became the mother of her son at 20. First, she got divorced from her first husband in 2019, and then the world became a struggling field for her when she started looking for an opportunity to take care of her son.

“I found myself in a predicament where, here I am, in my 30s, and I don’t have a college diploma, I have little work experience,” CNBC quoted Herring saying. “I was like, how am I going to take care of my kid?”

Initially, she worked as a teacher’s aide at a local school in September 2019. Then, she started doing graphic design packages and videos on Fiverr as a side hustle.

Later she was laid off from her teacher’s aide job in September 2020, and she started making significantly more editing videos. She eventually started making about $12,000 per month on the website. By Jan. 2023, she made close to $215,000 per year. 

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According to the CNBC report, Herring works seven days a week and spends between 8 and 12 hours working daily. “I get to do something I love,” she said. “I’m happy working long hours.”

“I grew up in poverty. This is the first time in my life I can buy something, and I don’t have to budget for it. If I need something or if I want to spoil my son, I can do that,” she said.  

For Christmas 2022, she bought her son 22 board games, a new wardrobe, a PlayStation 5 and various games to go with it.

“He literally was like, ‘Are you kidding me? You did not have to do this,’” she says. “I was like, ‘Just open your presents, kiddo.’”

Herring remarried and now lives in Florida with her husband and her 16-year-old son.

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This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

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