Learning What Comes After Graduation
When Jermilyn graduated from high school in 2023, she already knew where she wanted to begin.
That October, she enrolled in La Vie Academy’s Medical Aesthetics program, completing the hybrid curriculum before returning to continue into Advanced Medical Aesthetics. By May 2024, she had earned both certifications and was ready to enter the profession.
Like many new graduates, she expected the next stage of learning would happen in the workplace.
It didn’t unfold the way she had imagined.
After accepting her first position at a cosmetic clinic in early 2025, she found herself questioning whether she was developing in the ways she had hoped. Rather than gaining confidence, she felt she needed an environment where she could continue asking questions, refine her skills, and grow as a practitioner.
The experience forced her to think beyond finding another job.
It made her consider building something of her own.
Finding Confidence Through Practice
Before making that decision, Jermilyn returned to La Vie Academy as an student intern.
The internship gave her something she felt she had been missing. She brought in her own clients, performed consultations, completed treatments, and knew experienced instructors were available whenever she needed guidance on a protocol or a second opinion.
Working independently while still having that support changed the way she viewed herself as a practitioner.
“I started building up so much confidence in myself,” she recalls. “Having the support of my instructors, my friends and family around me made me realize I was capable of going solo.”
By the time the internship ended, opening her own studio no longer felt like a distant goal.
It felt like the next step.
Building a Business One Decision at a Time
Leaving her job was only the beginning.
Jermilyn had no background in business ownership, and much of what came next had to be learned through research and persistence. She spent weeks understanding licensing requirements, registering her business, opening professional supplier accounts, choosing skincare brands, and arranging the funding needed to get started.
Some lessons were surprisingly simple.
She discovered that registering a business name and obtaining a business licence were separate steps. Opening professional accounts with skincare companies required its own process. Each answer seemed to reveal another question she hadn’t expected.
She eventually chose Circadia and GlyMed as the brands she wanted to build her practice around and financed the business using her savings alongside a $5,000 business credit card.
For several months, she wasn’t able to rely on the studio for an income.
Instead, she worked four jobs while preparing to open the business she hoped would eventually become her full-time career.
Looking Ahead
Jlynaesthetics Studio opened in Edmonton in 2025.
Many of Jermilyn’s first clients found her through TikTok, Instagram, and Google. During her first month, she welcomed forty-five clients in a month, an encouraging start for a new solo practice built from the ground up.
Looking back, she doesn’t describe opening the studio as the hardest part.
She talks about everything that happened before the doors opened—the research, the uncertainty, and the steady process of figuring things out one step at a time.
Today, she continues growing both her business and her experience as a medical aesthetician, knowing that learning didn’t end with graduation.
It simply changed.
Reflecting on her experience, her advice to future graduates is shaped by the challenges she worked through herself.
“Don’t be afraid to start before you have everything figured out. You’ll learn so much along the way. Trust yourself, ask questions when you need help, and remember that confidence comes from doing the work.”
For Jermilyn, success wasn’t built around a single decision.
It grew through dozens of smaller ones, each bringing her a little closer to the business she had set out to create.
Jermilyn
Medical Aesthetics & Advanced Medical Aesthetics Graduate
Current Position: Founder, Jlyn Aesthetics Studio
City: Edmonton