This Montreal YouTuber found her calling in life coaching

This story is part of CBC Homerun'sseries onMontrealersmaking a name for themselves on social media.

When Alexandra Villarroel Abrego decided to become a life coach at 19, it wasn't because she had life all figured out.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, I was working at a dead-end job, I was over $20,000 in debt," she told CBC Montreal's Homerun.

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Despite it all, the Bolivian-Montrealer has managed to become a certified life coach, a self-published author, and a rising star in the YouTube world all inthree languages.

We receive message every day from people telling us 'You've changed my life.'- Alexandra Villarroel Abrego, YouTuber

Every Tuesday, Villarroel Abregopublishes a video in French, followed by English on Wednesdayand Spanish on Thursday.

Through videos like "How To Be Confident" or "Comment AvoirConfianceEn Soi" and "Cmo Tener Confianza Y Seguridad En S Mismo" the 27-year-old has amassed a following of nearly 65,000 YouTube subscribers and garnered more than six million views.

"My goal with thechannel is to inspire and empower women and also sometimes men because we do have some [male]viewers to love life, others and themselves," she said.

Undoubtedly,VillarroelAbrego's most successful videos have to do relationships with men how to keep them and how to forget them.

To get to where she is today, Viallaroel Abrego saidshe had to sacrifice her early 20s.

"Everyone around me thought I was crazy," Villarroel Abrego says of early efforts to become a life coach. Today, many are surprised by her success, but not her "that was the plan."

The plan, she says, is a mixture of destiny and controlling one's fate, a beliefthat she shares with her viewers.

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"When we're children, we kind of know what [our mission] is, but then with all the negative voices and influences of the external world, we kind of forget that or we kind of suppress it. We say 'I'm not good enough, I would never be able to do that. I'm not lucky,'" she said.

"At some point, you can choose to listen to that little voice inside of you. I truly believe that what I do today is my mission."

With YouTubeas her vehicle, Villarroel Abrego's life coaching business has taken off internationally and she's had the opportunity to travel to Paris and several Latin American countries for speaking engagements.

"We receive messages every day from people telling us 'You've changed my life. Thanks to you I'm doing this, I'm doing that,'" she said.

Last fall, she was among 15 Canadians selected for YouTube's NextUp program.

That her new life is a far cry from where she was at 19 is not lost on Villarroel Abrego.

"I wasn't born in a wealthy family, I've been through a lot of struggles in my life and for me to be in the position that I am today at 27, it's kind of a miracle in a way," she said.

"But for me, this is just the beginning of what I plan for my life."

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