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From having an influencer pooch to selling photos of their feet, three women share their success stories

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'I TELL THE FUTURE THROUGH CHEESE'

Jennifer Billock, 41, lives in Chicago, with husband Forrest, 40.

Reading someone's future is a big responsibility. People come to me with questions about their career, health and love life. But I'm not reading their palm or studying a tarot card - I'm telling their future through a piece of cheese.

I've been fascinated with divination my whole life. On childhood trips to the bookshop, my mum would find me curled up reading about spirit oracles and fortune sticks. As a teenager, I would often read my friends' tea leaves or try to figure out which boy secretly liked me by using tarot cards.

Ancient practice

In my 20s, I worked as a waitress and then a pastry chef, and started a writing career, but I never lost my passion for the supernatural. In my 30s, I was still collecting packs of tarot cards and trying everything from crystals to spirit stones.

In late 2020, I came across the word 'tyromancy' online. It meant the practice of using cheese to tell fortunes, and dated back to the second century. It felt like a light-bulb moment. Scouring ancient manuals and reference books, I learnt I'd need to examine the surface of the cheese for any images, numbers, letters or symbols that would give clues about the future. Then there was the shape of the cheese as it crumbled, and any veins, cracks and holes that might reveal something about a person's destiny.