"When you feel more confident, you can follow your own passions."

Emilia Ohrtmann is a German designer and entrepreneur. Her passionfor fashion and styling started at an early age; but because she did not have a natural talent for drawing, she was discouraged from studying fashion design.

“I was told that I could never make money from fashion design, so I should study something that will keep the doors open,” she told Euronews.

As a result, Emilia did Business Studies instead. But, her passion for designing clothes was reignited when she started working as a buyer for a large sportswear company.

She said, “I was taking evening and weekend classes and learnt to draw - finally.” Afterwards she met another designer and started sewing and selling children’s clothes. She then moved to Dubai with her husband after he got a job there.

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Once in Dubai, she was approached and offered a number of different business opportunities, but initially found it difficult to take these on as she wanted to spend more time with her three young children.

“I had to find a way to do both, be a mom and work” she said. Fortunately, she met many other women in Dubai who wanted to start their own businesses, so she spent the following six years helping them design their websites, as well as coaching them during the start-up phase of their businesses.

“Then COVID-19 came and I started writing a book for my children. I wanted to give them something they can read just in case that I am not there anymore at some point.”

In her book, 'It's Your Life: How to Choose Confidence', Emilia writes and tells her children to follow their dreams and follow their passion instead of listening to outside voices.

“That’s when I realised that I have always known what I