Zoe Harrison felt backed into a corner in 2024 after her corporate job told her she should resign or face an investigation. Now she has created a business that helps children grow their confidence
After training professionally at London drama schools throughout her teenage years and seeing the ‘toxicity’ there, a woman has created her own company where she does things differently.
Zoe Harrison, 28, is from Essex, but between the ages of 11 and 21, she trained at a lot of London’s top drama schools. Even though the experience was great and she learnt a lot, she also noticed its shortcomings.
Zoe told MyLondon: “When you train in London, it’s very competitive. The schools enjoy putting you up against each other. The industry has always been like this, and competition is healthy; you can’t shield them from it, but there is a way to prepare them for it and introduce it in a healthy, non-toxic way.
“Everyone in the class would have issues such as anxiety or depression. You would see girls throwing up to stay slim or be told you’re too fat to perform at a dance exhibition. I commuted to London every day for 10 years. The schools were really good, but there was a level of toxicity to it.”
After graduating, Zoe fell out of love after transitioning from the training environment into the real world. She started a corporate job, but she still couldn’t find that spark. She started teaching her own classes on the side, helping young children.
“I was working all ridiculous hours,” Zoe added. “I worked all weekend and in the evenings after work. My manager was aware of what I was doing and suggested I teach my own classes. Then a new manager came in, and around Christmas 2024, they called me in and said the classes were now in breach of my contract.
“They said they’ll give me an option to resign, or if I stay, they’ll do a formal investigation. I nearly lost everything. I felt pushed into a corner, so I immediately left. This was around Christmas, and I was in a stressful place. I felt anxious and had a lot of worry. I had just moved out and had a lot of bills to pay. It was also kind of empowering because I thought it’s now or never.”
Zoe decided to open up her classes even more. She started her own studio, ZLH Studios. Now, she has created a business that helps young people develop confidence in environments where they ‘feel safe, supported, and challenged’.
Zoe and ZLH Studio now help over 700 students at schools running 27 different classes across London and Essex, building a six-figure company where she and her team go in and help build students’ confidence in a way different from what she experienced.
She said: “We use performing arts as a vehicle, instead of the main focus. It’s more of a confidence-building class. That’s our main focus. We have a lot of anxious teenagers who join us, and they don’t have many friends, or they are homeschooled; they deal with issues such as anxiety or depression, and we want to bring them into a space where they can be themselves and share that with other people their age, when they wouldn’t find that in a mainstream school.
“I didn’t want to replicate traditional, pressure-led models that can prioritise results over people. We partner with schools and deliver our sessions in schools. We’ve had parents say their daughter couldn’t order her own food at a restaurant because she was socially anxious. Now, she’s getting on stage and performing. A lot of the children we work with come in shy or anxious, and watching them grow in confidence is honestly the most rewarding part of what I do.
“By the end of the year, we are looking at 1200 to 1300 students. It’s about growth and reaching as many children as we can – that’s my main mission at the moment. I knew at the moment of leaving my job that I had no real plan – it ended up being a blessing in disguise.”
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