A lawyer taught herself how to DJ on YouTube after a divorce and has now turned her hobby into a side hustle.

Kavita Varu, 54, found herself newly divorced and balancing single motherhood alongside her career five years ago.

During the pandemic she decided to teach herself a new skill to celebrate turning 50 and purchased herself some DJ decks.

Kavita taught herself through YouTube videos and showed off her new hobby to friends and family on her 50th birthday on Facebook Live and ended up going viral.

She began performing DJ sets weekly in a livestream series called Funky Fridays and her new skill has now taken her to Ibiza, festivals and corporate parties.

She still dons her suit during the week but gets out her decks in the evenings and weekends.

Kavita, a government lawyer, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: "What it did during the lockdown is it built a community every Friday because people were isolated or on their own. "

"I was separated from my family, I couldn't go and see them, I was upset. It created a community of people and everyone felt happy because the music I was playing was happy and uplifting."

Kavita found her love for DJ'ing in April 2020 after the breakdown of her 24 year marriage.

She became so successful she began to get booked for gigs and played her first live crowd at the Leadmill, Sheffield in August 2021 - a club that has hosted bands including Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys.

Kavita said: "I was apprehensive but I was looking forward to it but I didn't know what to expect because I was only doing it in front of a screen and now I'm in front of thousands of people with their hands in the air. "

"But I absolutely loved it." "

Kavita has now played corporate parties, festivals, weddings, and has performed in Ibiza six times.



Despite her success, she still works full time as a lawyer while also looking after her kids and the household.

Kavita said: "I have managed to carve a second career out of it, but that's because I treat it as a business. "

"I treat it as a professional trade that I am doing. I'm a lawyer but I'm also a professional DJ."

"In lockdown it was fun and games, now it's real."

"I have a really good business now and I get to travel with it which is brilliant."

She says her biggest achievement so far has been opening for DJ Pete Tong and The Essential Orchestra at Scarborough's Open Air theatre in 2023, where she performed for over 8,000 people including her parents.

She has also started doing talks as a motivational speaker, sharing her journey and inspiring others to pursue their own dreams.



Kavita said: "As a single parent, and a lady of a mature age from Africa, people have found it really, really inspiring that I could change my career. "

"When everything is going wrong around them, they can change their life around."

"Never give up. Have a dream, follow it, manifest it, set a goal, do it with passion."