Teacher quits job to become princess and makes enough to buy …
A primary school teacher ditched education to become a full-time princess – raking in so much cash each year she’s been able to buy a £250,000 three-bed semi-detached house.
Olivia Cutforth started children’s entertainment company Beyond A Princess in 2021 during lockdown alongside her role as a performing arts teacher.
After just 10 months of running the business, Olivia was so busy with bookings she decided to quit her day job in November 2021 and ‘princess’ full time.
The 27-year-old now runs her business full-time along with a cast of other princess impersonators attending children’s parties, corporate events and working with brands.
But it’s not just the traditional royal roster that Olivia provides, she also offers Wednesday and Enid from Netflix smash Wednesday and villains such as Maleficent too.
Olivia, from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, said: “I was working as a teacher alongside it.
“Just 10 months later I had to quit my job because I was so busy with the princess work and I was able to do it full time.
“I saved up everything I made from school and put it straight into princessing.
“My first two big dresses were my Cinderella dress and Belle dress, which were my ‘wow’ dresses.
“I got them from a designer in Vietnam and they were about £500 each. Then on top of that you’ve got the wigs, which were a couple of hundred.
“I saved up and got six or seven good high-quality characters and then went from there. Within a couple of months they made the money back.
Olivia Cutforth (Kennedy News and Media)
“Now I’ve got a team of between eight and ten girls working for me and performing every weekend.
“I made sure all my team are trained singers, dancers and actresses so the kids are getting an authentic experience because all the girls sing just like the princesses.
“I had a vision that it was going to be high quality, interactive and different and that’s how it blew up a bit.
“I make a lot more than I was making as a performing arts teacher, or anything I’d done before.
“Buying my house [with a mortgage] was a really big achievement, I remember thinking ‘wow I’ve done this from princessing’.”
Olivia had worked as a princess performer elsewhere for six years but dreamt of running her own company.
After having ‘a million different careers’, Olivia said she’s finally found her dream job.
Olivia said: “I’ve always been someone who’s never known what they wanted to do.
“In my early twenties I had a different job every week because I was just waiting to find my passion.
“I had a million different careers but nothing was grabbing me.
“Within six months of me going full-time [with the company] my boyfriend and I bought a house.
“It was amazing to finally have financial security but also be like ‘I’m really good at this and people love what I’m doing’.”
Not only does Olivia offer in-person performances, but she keeps her army of fans fascinated with her TikTok account, where the princesses perform the latest dance trends.
Olivia said: “I started in lockdown on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, making all these TikTok videos and Instagram reels.
“You think of the classic princesses like Snow White, their stories are so old, the film was from the 1930s.
“As much as I’m accurate to the characters I try to make them more current and more of a fun experience for the kids.”
“I was so desperate to start my own company because I had all these ideas.
“I had this ambition and vision to run my own company, never thinking it would take off the way it did.
“I thought I’d just keep it as a side hustle, do some stuff at the weekends and carry on being a teacher.
Olivia Cutforth (Kennedy News and Media)
“But I think the fact that what I was doing was different to a lot of other companies out there – people were so receptive.
“Everyone loved all the fun videos I was making on TikTok – Taking TikTok trends and relating them to the princesses.”
Olivia said it takes two hours to transform into full princess mode – putting on costumes, make-up, wigs and even coloured contact lenses for that authentic look.
Olivia said: “One of my many jobs was as a make-up artist.
“The make-up is a huge part of it as it does change for different characters. I also wear coloured contacts to suit whoever I am.
“The make-up and getting prepped for the wig takes an hour, hour and a half, and then you’ve got to get the costume on and just make sure the wig’s sitting right, get the accessories, so it’s a two-hour process.
“It’s also knowing the character inside out, making sure you know everything that the kids could ask you, as they say the most random things.”
Two years on, Olivia claims her job is ‘magical’ as she loves seeing the reactions from delighted kids.
Olivia said: “Princessing is magical. It’s so heartwarming as you know you’ve really made their day and you know they’ll be talking about it for years to come, that’s so special.”