Vanessa · Founder
A life built with intention, one chapter at a time.
I did not start The Elevated Woman because I had all the answers. I started it because I wanted a different kind of life: work I choose, days I shape myself, and income that does not depend entirely on my hands and my hours.
This is the story so far — where I come from, what I have built, and what I am building now.
01
Roots · Suriname
Learning to make my own place.
I was born in Suriname and moved to the Netherlands at thirteen. Starting again in a new country at that age teaches you things without saying them out loud: how to observe, how to adapt, and how to make your own place instead of waiting for one.
Around sixteen I started doing hair — braiding for friends and people in my neighbourhood. It was the first time I understood something that never left me: a skill of my own could become money of my own.
That is where the entrepreneur began. Not with a business plan, but with a skill, a pair of hands and people who needed it.
Beauty & entrepreneurship · More than twenty years
I have always built things.
With Lace Hair I was one of the early sellers of lace wigs in my market. There were no shops to send women to, so I created the room myself: wig parties in homes across different Dutch cities, where women could see, try, ask and order.
After Lace Hair came Glam Diva, my first real salon — and a name many people still know me by. It brought several parts of the beauty world together under one roof: wigs and hair extensions, eyelash extensions, teeth whitening and other treatments. I also worked as a makeup artist, including for fitness models. Different roles, one pattern: spot the gap, learn the craft, build it myself.
I lived in Suriname for a while and ran a small boutique with fashion and accessories, then returned to the Netherlands and stayed in the hair industry — learning wig colouring, judging quality, and working with suppliers year after year.
A bigger life · Time of my own
I did not want more work. I wanted my time back.
When COVID arrived, beauty stopped. I moved into healthcare for financial stability and completed my healthcare education. It is meaningful work, and I do not regret a day of it.
But employment made something very clear. Holidays had to be requested far in advance, and sometimes leave was refused. Going self-employed in care gave me back some control — and showed me that even that control was borrowed.
Travel gave me the space to ask a better question: what do I actually want my life to look like? The answer was simple. Work I can take with me, income that is not tied to one place, and time I decide about myself.
Building The Elevated Woman
I decided to build that life instead of only thinking about it.
The Elevated Woman is my online business and personal brand: digital products, content, travel, fashion and beauty, and the collaborations that grow out of them. It is also where I show the work itself, honestly, while it is happening.
It is for the woman who looks at her week and thinks there has to be more than this. Who wants more freedom, more say over her time, perhaps travel or an income of her own online, but does not know where to start.
I am not promising anyone a fortune or telling you to quit anything. I am showing you what a real attempt looks like, so it stops feeling abstract.
What I am building
The pieces of an independent income.
Personal brand
An honest brand built around real experience, shaped in public rather than behind a persona.
Digital products
Twenty years of knowledge turned into something useful people can buy. The Vietnam Hair Supplier Guide is the first.
Content
Building visibility from zero, and showing what works, what fails and what changes next.
Travel & collaborations
Hotels, restaurants and brands that fit this world — and the partnerships that grow from them.
AI & tools
Thoughtful tools so one woman can run what once needed a team, with the real costs shared honestly.
Sourcing
Twenty years in hair and first-hand supplier experience in Vietnam, with new markets still to explore.
The first product
Turning years in hair into something you can buy.
Years in hair taught me how suppliers talk, how quality is judged and where women lose money. I travelled to Vietnam, visited suppliers and looked at the market with my own eyes.
The Vietnam Hair Supplier Guide is the result: the sourcing knowledge I would want if I were starting today, in one place.
See the guide06
Inspire · Empower · Elevate
Build. Become. Live.
The business, the woman and the life it is all for belong together.
Build an online business, a personal brand and income that is not tied to one place or one set of hours. Become the woman who can carry that life — with confidence, discipline, gratitude and self-belief.
Then live it: travel, beautiful places, good food, style and rest. Not as a highlight reel, but as the reason the work is worth doing.
In Vietnam, a conversation with a young woman brought it into focus. A woman's options change the moment she has her own income and her own knowledge — not for status, but for the freedom to choose.
What I believe
What I come back to.
Small steps count
If you believe a different life is possible and keep taking small steps toward it, every step brings you closer.
Gratitude first
I start my mornings with gratitude. Being thankful for what is already here is what makes the next beginning possible.
Follow your heart, then do the work
The feeling shows the direction; the work makes it real.
Trust the long game
Reputation, skill and freedom are built slowly. I would rather build something that lasts than something that looks fast.
An invitation
I'm still building it. Maybe you are too.
Read along through the newsletter, take the first guide, or simply begin with the next step that is actually available to you. No rush and no pressure.