Maria Jannie Baluyan, better known as @mariajanniebee on Instagram and a London-based content creator, has built a life across several worlds: fashion modelling, content creation, travel, art, and higher education.
Jannie, an Economics graduate and MBA holder, is about to complete her second master’s degree, this time at University College London (UCL), a milestone that carries special meaning for someone who never had the chance to experience student life in the usual way.
While other teenagers were focused on school, friendships, and discovering who they were, she was learning how to manage adult responsibilities at 16.
“I became responsible for another life before I had fully understood my own,” she said. “I never really got to experience what it was like to simply be a student, and I understood that I had to take responsibility for the choices I had made as a child.”
She recalls going to college with only a few pennies, taking freelance jobs to cover her daily needs, and splitting her student allowance with her mom, who had no income. Studying was never separate from survival; every class, assignment, and examination had to be balanced with the demands of everyday life as a single mom at 16.
In 2016, her mother suffered a stroke. Together with her sister, Jannie later helped support her family after finding stable employment, taking on even more responsibilities while continuing to pursue her education.
“Most people will never know what it feels like to choose between your own dreams and the needs of the people who depend on you, but I kept believing that my time would come.”
Even with those challenges, Jannie continued to build a life through her creativity and the internet. Over the years, she took on various roles as a content creator, broke into the fashion and modelling industry, and walked in international fashion shows, until she finally landed her dream job, while also selling her paintings to help support her family.
Her journey to UCL was not straightforward. It was shaped by difficult choices, long periods of sacrifice, and years of putting other people’s needs before her own. Yet she continued to return to her education and her ambitions.
“When I look back, I realise that I did not lose my dream,” she said. “It simply took me longer to reach it because I had so many responsibilities along the way. Being a student again has been surprisingly rewarding! Budgeting my allowance, walking to campus, and learning to make the most of what I have. I always tell my friends: once you get used to living with less, you discover just how adaptable you really are. Rock bottom starts to feel familiar, not as a low point, but as the place where you find your strength and begin building back up.”
Now, as she nears the end of her studies at UCL while still providing for her family, Jannie is finally experiencing a chapter of student life that began much later than expected.
“Finishing at UCL feels emotional because I know what it took to get here,” she said. “I am not only completing a degree. I am reclaiming a part of my life that I never had the chance to experience.”
For those people, the dream may feel distant, buried beneath bills, responsibilities, and years of sacrifice. But distance does not mean the dream is gone. Sometimes, it waits quietly until the moment you are finally strong enough, ready enough, and free enough to reach for it again.
“Your circumstances may delay you, but they do not have to define your destination,” she said. “A delayed dream is not a defeated dream. You may have to take a longer road, but every sacrifice, every setback, and every difficult year can still lead you somewhere meaningful.”
As if to prove that good things often arrive after the hardest seasons, life began to open new, gentler chapters for her. In 2022, she met tech entrepreneur and world-renowned artist Luis Buenaventura II. They got engaged in 2024 and are set to marry in the last quarter of 2026. Even as she planned their wedding, Jannie was deep into writing her dissertation, drafting vows between regression tables and thesis chapters, proofreading both her arguments and her ceremony script in the same quiet London nights.
She carried responsibilities that were never meant for a child, yet she still found a way to build a future. Her degree will not simply mark the end of her studies; it will stand as proof that even the dreams we are forced to postpone can still be reached. She is now grateful for the support of her scholarship provider and eager to begin the next phase of her journey: starting a family and serving her country with everything she has learned.
