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A-level students across Caerphilly County Borough received their grades on Thursday August 15, with many of them now set for pastures new as they move on to university.

Among those is 19-year-old Coleg y Cymoedd student Tayla Williams.

Tayla, from Caerphilly, used her passion for makeup to help her overcome her social anxiety – and it is now taking her to the University of South Wales in September.

She has landed a place studying Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for TV and Film, after earning a distinction in her hair, makeup, and special effects diploma at Coleg y Cymoedd.

Having been bullied in secondary school, Tayla decided to swap traditional education for homeschooling at 16. However, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold and lockdown restrictions were imposed, Tayla found herself feeling more isolated than ever and ended up developing social anxiety, becoming increasingly afraid of leaving her home or being in intense social settings.

Determined to overcome her struggles and face them head on, she decided to throw herself into the deep end and apply for college to pursue a fresh start and step outside her comfort zone.

While at college, she started a side business through Instagram, designing logos for other companies, something she still manages today.

Speaking about her experience, Tayla said: “I had a really difficult time in school. I was the victim of intense bullying, and it led me to make the decision to try homeschooling. I became very isolated and spent pretty much all my time alone. I developed really bad social anxiety as a result and got extremely nervous leaving my house or in any basic social setting.

“I knew that to help myself that I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone and the best way to do that was to tackle the challenge head on.

“I’m so happy I did as I’ve had the most amazing two years at college. My tutor Victoria Northbrooke has been brilliant – she’s gone above and beyond to help me, including out of hours which she didn’t have to do. She helped me prep for interviews and create my CV.”

She continued: “Drawing for me has always been a way that I detox and relax so during the pandemic I figured I could put my time to good use and start up a branding and logo creation business. It’s been steadily growing since then and I’ve had no problems balancing committing time to it whilst concentrating on excelling in my course.

“I love all things creative so for me, studying hair, makeup and prosthetics is the perfect option. I can’t wait to get started.”

Looking ahead, Tayla’s dream is to work within the makeup and styling teams for periodic television and film dramas.

She said: “I absolutely love how transformational this work can be and the freedom it would give me to work on multiple projects – that’s really appealing to me.

“I love the idea of working collaboratively to create a set look that will be seen by so many people, and with this kind of job, there’s an opportunity to travel which is a big selling point.”