A beauty entrepreneur who was told she would never succeed has shared how the teacher who doubted her later asked her for a job. Raneen Awad, 23, spent much of her childhood dreaming about cosmetics, fashion and fame. School did not interest her, but she held big ambitions from an early age.
Raneen said: "Even when I was in fifth grade, my teacher asked us what we wanted to become when we grew up. Other students were saying doctors, teachers and lawyers. I said, 'I'm going to be a model, and I'm going to be famous.' Everyone laughed at me."
A teacher's harsh words
One comment stayed with her. Raneen, who has over 264,000 followers on Instagram (@Raneenawad1), said: "I always remember a sixth-grade maths teacher asking me a question that I didn't know the answer to. She told me I would never become anything useful in the future."
Seven years later, things had changed. Raneen had built a large social media presence and started her own cosmetics brand, RENO. Then an unexpected message arrived.
She said: "Years later, after I had become a business owner and had built a large audience on Instagram, that same teacher contacted me and asked whether she could become a representative and sell my products. It was a very full-circle moment for me. It reminded me that sometimes people who doubt you at the beginning have no idea what you are capable of becoming."
From hardship to entrepreneurship
As a child, Raneen's family faced financial struggles. Her father, Zidan, 63, earned modest wages in construction, while her mother, Saira, 60, stayed home to care for their five children. Raneen, the youngest, remembers her mother going without new clothes so her children could have what they needed.
She said: "My mother would often go without buying clothes for herself so that she could buy clothes and other things for us. When I was a child, I didn't fully understand what she was sacrificing for us. As I grew older, I realised how much my mother had sacrificed for her children."
Her family's money problems partly pushed Raneen to start working young, though she says her main drive was chasing her dreams. At 14, she joined a professional makeup course with students in their late 20s and 30s. By 16, she began modelling for a beauty salon after a makeup artist noticed her while she was preparing for her brother's wedding.
Piercing and building RENO
It was an unusual career path that funded her future business: piercing. At 18, she gained a following by doing cheek piercings, which were popular among young women wanting the look of dimples. Clients queued at her parents' home, each paying 500 shekels (£110).
She said: "I was welcoming girls into my parents' home and working from a small room there. Eventually, I became so busy that there were days when five to fifteen girls would come to me."
Spotting a gap in the market, Raneen began offering piercing training and taught around 80-100 young women. She invested about 100,000 shekels (£22,000) into starting RENO, covering regulatory approvals, production costs and initial setup. Raneen says she founded the business at around 17, with a lip-enhancing product as its first big success. She ran it from her childhood bedroom, taking orders by hand and packing everything herself, with help from her mum.
Her elder sister drove her around for deliveries. Raneen said: "I started everything from my bedroom. I stored the products there, took the orders myself and packed everything from home. At the beginning, I didn't have a delivery company or a team. I personally delivered the orders, and my sister would often drive me around."
Already known on Instagram, Raneen says buyers were excited to meet her when she brought their orders. Her first batch of 500 lip-enhancing products sold out in just four days.
Success and giving back
On her first day of deliveries, Raneen made $5,000 (£3,700). She said: "Looking back, it's crazy to think about how everything started from my bedroom." Within her first month running RENO, she earned enough to buy her first car, a pink Mercedes worth around 280,000 shekels (£62,000). She had moved out of the family home and rented a place with more room for her growing stock. Twelve months later, she bought a red Corvette costing about 560,000 shekels (£124,000).
Now, Raneen says RENO sells roughly 3,000 products a month and has expanded beyond the lip enhancer. The range now includes a brightening cream for face and body, skincare serums, an eye cream, and a facial soap.
She said: "Financially, I now have a level of freedom that I could never have imagined when I was younger. I can walk into a restaurant and order whatever I want without constantly thinking about the price. If I want something like a Rolex, I can buy it without having to worry about whether I can afford it. But for me, the biggest difference isn't really the cars, watches or material things. It's the fact that I built this myself and that I'm now able to give my family things I once only dreamed about."
Raneen has also been open about having rhinoplasty and says she had an unconventional procedure to change her eye colour from black to blue. She explains she sought an alternative after years of wearing contact lenses left her eyes dry and sensitive.
She said: "I honestly don't know how I found the courage to do it, but I did. Today, I am very grateful for the decision I made, and I consider it one of the best procedures I have ever chosen for myself. I don't regret any of the procedures I've chosen to have."
Despite the cars, supporters and financial success, Raneen says being able to repay her mum for her sacrifices is among her proudest achievements. She said: "I think 16-year-old Raneen would look at me and say, 'You were always ambitious. You always had dreams that were bigger than your age.' Most importantly, I think she would be proud that I'm able to give back to my mum after everything she sacrificed for me. Knowing that I can now give my family things that my mum once struggled to provide is one of the things I'm most proud of. And if there is one thing I would tell my 16-year-old self, it would be this: this is only the beginning."
