Advertisement
Life

Love Luxury boss Emily Abraham explains how she went from sofa surfing to CEO

The founder of Love Luxury experienced homelessness in her youth and is now using her platform to educate and give advice

Emily Abraham is co-founder of Love Luxury, which has become one of the most trusted names in the UK ‘pre-loved’ luxury market.

But the self-made entrepreneur, known as the Billionaire’s Wife online, is using her social media popularity to speak openly about her own hardships and turbulent upbringing, while giving a platform to others trying to help those in need.

“I love talking to people and hearing their stories,” Abraham says. “There were a lot of people I was desperate to meet and bring attention to. When you’ve been through harder life experiences than most it’s good to highlight other people who are helping those in need and educating the public about different walks of life and the issues people face. I’m lucky I have a platform to be able to do that.”

Change a Big Issue vendor’s life this Christmas by purchasing a Winter Support Kit. You’ll receive four copies of the magazine and create a brighter future for our vendors through Christmas and beyond

Launching earlier this year, The Love Luxury Podcast has welcomed a range of guests, from experts linked to her previous career in the beauty industry discussing concerns around aesthetics courses and safety issues, to Love & Hip Hop’s Chrissy Monroe, who set up the charity Survive to Thrive Global for women experiencing domestic violence.

Abraham also knows what it’s like to experience the crueller side of social media. She says: “You have to have a thick skin to be on social media sometimes and negative comments are an inevitable part of having a large following. The opinions of people I don’t know do not bother me.”

Advertisement
Advertisement

The podcast has explored topics ranging from inequality in the housing system to the importance of having a support network when struggling, as well as highlighting those helping fight food poverty in the UK. She also discusses her own experience of homelessness.

“I was very young when I found myself homeless,” says Abraham, who left home at 15. “I wasn’t on the streets, I was between different places and sofa hopping. There probably isn’t the stigma associated with this level of homelessness as there is for those that have had to live on the street.”

The reality of this kind of ‘hidden’ homelessness in the UK is stark. Homelessness charity Crisis has estimated that as many as 62% of single homeless people do not show up on official figures and run the risk of slipping through the cracks.

In another episode featuring her foster mum Elaine, Abraham spoke about the death of her biological mother at a very young age and the worsening alcohol addiction within her family in response, crediting Elaine and her husband for their love and hospitality. “Had I not been with you guys it would have been a very different story for me,” she told them.

Love Luxury boss Abraham believes resilience and being able to put things into perspective was essential in her ability to work her way out of hardship.

“It was the acceptance that life is full of lessons and bad things are sometimes inevitable,” Abraham explains. “It’s about how you deal with the tragic events and knock-backs that really shape your life. If you can see the lesson in everything that happens and grow wiser and more resilient from them then you can carry on, and life will get easier.”

It’s a self-belief that has always driven Abraham forward, even when she was experiencing difficult times.

“I was always confident I was going to have a good life,” she says. “Even when I was in some very hard situations, I always had belief that the bad times wouldn’t last and eventually I would find happiness and success. I wouldn’t say I predicted my life as it is now, but I envisioned and hoped.”

Emma Carys is a member of The Big Issue’s Breakthrough programme.

Advertisement

Buy a Big Issue Vendor Support Kit

This Christmas, give a Big Issue vendor the tools to keep themselves warm, dry, fed, earning and progressing.

Recommended for you

Read All
A clearer vision this Christmas with Big Issue and Specsavers
Advertorial

A clearer vision this Christmas with Big Issue and Specsavers

Letters: The UK government is assisting the dying every day of innocent Palestinians in Gaza
Letters

Letters: The UK government is assisting the dying every day of innocent Palestinians in Gaza

The remarkable story of how a stray puppy survived a Macedonian 'kill shelter' to find a loving home
Dogs of Big Issue

The remarkable story of how a stray puppy survived a Macedonian 'kill shelter' to find a loving home

Here's when pensioners will get the winter fuel payment in 2024
pensioner
Benefits

Here's when pensioners will get the winter fuel payment in 2024

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue