Online lives: Meet Sinead Cady aka TheMakeupChair

Cork-based beauty vlogger Sinead Cady overcame her anxiety, quit college and, in 2010, developed a successful YouTube channel which today has almost one million subscribers and over 100 million views, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Sinead, who is better known to many as TheMakeupChair, says a combination of luck and timing helped to ensure her videos became hugely successful.

“I started it when I was in college, it took about a year for things to take off and then they really took off but I was just one of the lucky ones, honestly,” she said. “Back then you had to apply to become a YouTube partner so you could start making any money, and sponsorship deals were pretty non-existent for Irish YouTubers, so I was doing it for free for a long time. Now it’s a different ballgame.