DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T…...become a personal stylist

Every day, Abbey Booth helps others look great and feel even better

- MISHAAL KHAN

Rifling through the wardrobe, I pick out a printed top, maxi skirt and chunky leather belt and hand them to the woman standing in front of me. She’s in her underwear and looks apprehensive, but I put her mind at ease and remind her that I’m there to help.

After she changes into the outfit I’ve chosen, watching her expression change to one of joy makes me feel happy and content that I’ve finally found a job that I not only love, but I’m good at, too.

For eight years, I had a demanding job in marketing, but after my husband Gavin, then 32, and I welcomed our daughter Romily in August 2007, followed by our son Arlo two years later, it was time for a change.

I retrained in visual merchandising in September 2010 and started working as a window dresser for a local boutique near our Hertfordshire home. My own dress sense was colourful and quirky, and I wasn’t afraid to let that filter into the windows, too.