Hi everyone,

As many of my friends, family and supporters already know, I’m Kornelija: currently in my final year studying Hair, Makeup & Prosthetics for Performance at the University of the Arts London (London College of Fashion). My final major project centres around trinket collecting, a personal hobby and love of mine and, honestly, probably relatable to quite a few of you too. The project involves designing and creating full hair, makeup and prosthetic looks for both a photoshoot and short film.

As I’ve developed the project over the past months and completed my design development presentation (For which I got an A, thank god!) I’ve realised just how expensive it is becoming to achieve the level of design I’m aiming for now being in the making process. A lot of people don’t realise that my university doesn’t supply most of the specialist products I need, we mainly get access to facilities and some equipment and tools. Materials like professional silicone, wigs, prosthetic supplies, set dressing, and shoot costs add up very quickly, and silicone alone is genuinely astronomically expensive!

I’m 25, financially independent, studying full time while working self employed part time in a hair salon as well as doing some freelance work where i can, and I don’t receive financial support from family. Living in London as a student during a cost of living crisis means most of my student finance goes straight to rent and essentials, leaving very little for project materials. On top of that, I’ve been dealing with recurring kidney infections over the past 7 months, which has meant hospital visits, recovery time, and me loosing out on money and work; something that has definitely affected my ability to save for this project how I wanted. All of this has created a situation where mentally I’ve been struggling alot in the last couple of months, but getting by.

This isn’t meant to be a sob story. I know many people are facing much harder situations. But as a queer, autistic young woman from a working class background trying to break into the film, TV and theatre hair & makeup industry, projects like this are genuinely crucial stepping stones for my career.

Beyond materials, I’m also trying to support the amazing creatives collaborating with me, including photographers, performers, costume/stylist creatives, videographers, nail techs and sound engineers. Even when people generously volunteer their time, there are still costs like materials, travel and food that I want to help cover so the project can be the best it possibly can be for everyone involved.

I completely understand that everyone has their own financial pressures right now, so there is absolutely no expectation of exactly how much this GoFundMe will help. Frankly, being the type of person wanting to do it all myself, I’m very sheepish about sharing my situation publicly; however, if I wasn’t struggling to get by in life right now, I wouldn’t be asking for the help or support. Truly, any contribution (big or small) would mean so much to me and help bring this project to life. All the funds would go to paying for products, materials and production costs. Even sharing this page helps massively!

Thank you for supporting my journey, I really appreciate it more than I can say. There’s also some pictures to look at attached that show the experimentation and work I’ve done so far leading into my making process for those who are interested. If anyone wants to reach out to me and talk to me more about what I’m doing I’d love to speak about my project and what I hope it becomes!