Paola Merrill (TheCottageFairy)

Paola Merrill is an artist, writer, and a popular YouTuber.

She has more than 1.4M subscribers on her YouTube channel, ‘TheCottageFairy.’

Introduction-

Paola (Paolita) Merrill was born on 5 December 1997.

She is a Puerto Rican American.

Paola grew up for a while in Puerto Rico and then, she grew up mostly in the Southern United States.

She also spent a couple of years in Cuba and a couple of years in Ireland and Italy.

Paola’s father hails from Washington and he is a former Navy Captain.

Her mother, Carmen Merrill, is a native Puerto Rican and she shifted from Puerto Rico to New York at 22 and later, joined the Navy Reserve.

Paola has two siblings, a younger brother, Rohan Merrill and an elder sister, Liana.

Rohan is also a YouTuber and has a YouTube channel, Letters From Ro, and Liana is a martial artist.

Education-

As Paola has always been an animal lover, as a teenager she wanted to grow up to become a veterinarian.

But later she studied an English language course from University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.

Then, Paola moved to the United States and studied for a literature degree from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.

Career-

At 15, she got her first job of helping a librarian sort books and process returns.

While studying at the university, Paola wanted to become a professor.

But later she didn’t choose to become a professor as she wanted to choose an even more creative profession.

While living in the university town, Paola was working in customer service but as she was receiving only a minimum wage in the town, she decided to find a new job.

After university, she worked at an independent bookstore in the city.

As the job wasn’t a decent paying one to support her independent lifestyle, Paola worked in multiple jobs and worked as a freelance editor and writer and also sold art at craft fairs.

Prior to this, she did a few other jobs which she despised.

Moving to a cottage in a valley-

After quitting the customer service job, Paola applied for and obtained the job of a preschool art teacher in a rural town in the Okanogan County in Washington State and started living in a rental cottage here.

As she was very inspired by the nature in the valley, she started focusing on her art business and soon, her art business started succeeding.

For a while, Paola also worked at Village Books, a local bookshop as a bookseller and she has been a booklover herself, she loved this job.

Later, she started focusing full-time on her art business.

Paola is a watercolour and ink artist and she also does craft projects and sells them through Etsy.

YouTube channel-

On 21 March 2020, Paola started her YouTube channel ‘TheCottageFairy.’

She started her channel to showcase the beautiful natural landscape of her area and also help in its preservation.

Paola started working with her iPhone and eventually became a successful YouTuber.

As of November 2023, she has 1.46M subscribers on her YouTube channel and 235K followers on Instagram.

Paola earns from a variety of sources like advertisements on her YouTube videos, affiliate marketing, selling her book and art and she also accepts donations on PayPal.

On November 22, 2022, she published her book, ‘The Cottage Fairy Companion.’

Personal life-

Paola got engaged to Luke in 2021 and got married on 21 May 2022.

They met on a blind group date, and they went to Cutthroat Lake for their first date.

Luke works as a surveyor.

In March 2022, Paola shifted to a new cottage in the forest located in the foothills of a mountain range.

A booklover-

Paola is an avid reader of books and also loves listening to audiobooks.

She loves reading historical children’s literature as she finds it very positive.

Also, her dream is to create a picture book for both children and adults to enjoy.

The Snow Child and Once Upon A River are Paola’s all-time favourite books.

Some interesting facts about Paola-

Paola is an introvert and prefers simple living and living below her means.
In 2021, she planted 200 trees in the forests of British Columbia which were destroyed by heavy wildfires.
Spring is Paola’s favourite season and she is at her most creative self in spring.
She is an animal lover and has a pet Labrador dog, Aegir and a pet rabbit, Mr. Darcy. She also loves horses.
Paola loves travelling, hiking and walking and gardening, decorating, art supplies and collecting old books and antiques.
She is obsessed with flowers and loves supporting small businesses and second-hand shops.
Paola is fluent in Spanish and English.
She is a nerd and loves playing board games especially the Everdell game.
Paola also loves lightening candles, listening to ambient music, drinking tea and visiting fantasy fairs and renaissance festivals.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Paola Merrill?

Share with me in the comment section below.