Aditi Agarwal grew up in the narrow lanes of Prayagraj, living in a one-room rented
apartment with her parents and sister. Life was simple, often cramped, but one where imagination could run free.
Her mother was into sewing and crocheting, and her father, with his neat and tidy ways, instilled in her a
quiet appreciation for detail and craft.
Her family couldn’t afford fancy or luxurious things, so Aditi used her creativity to keep up with her peers.
She stitched her own birthday skirts as a teenager, shaped pencil boxes from scrap cardboard, and learned to see possibility
in the most ordinary objects.
Her mother, a home tutor, taught 40 students in the same one-room apartment, where the family of four lived, ate and slept.
Amidst this, Aditi found joy in her tiny craft box and in turning the ordinary into something magical.
Crafting an Escape: Aditi in Wonderland
Aditi’s art and craft were her escape. In this world, nothing was impossible. Greeting cards could become
larger than life, they could have pop-up inserts, and boring stationery could be jazzed up.
“I’ve made clothes for dolls and pencil boxes countless times,” she recalled.
“It gave me butterflies to create something from nothing.”
It gave me butterflies to create something from nothing.
One school teacher, impressed by her giant handmade greeting cards, told her,
“Aditi, you can make a career out of this.” That simple encouragement planted a seed that never left her.
Sometime during her teenage years, she started recording and posting this content online.
She’d go up to the terrace of some of these rented houses to shoot in natural light. Once, a landlady found out about kids
sneaking up to the terrace and permanently locked it. Aditi had to work hard to make a corner of the balcony work as her shooting space. Her crafting box also shifted houses each time they moved.
Shifting so many small houses while living on rent and working out of a
box made her resolute about helping her parents buy a home one day.
Post-school, she cracked the NIFT entrance examination without formal training, but could not
the college due to a lack of funds.She opened a Facebook page to sell her crafts while pursuing a correspondence course.
Two years later, she opened her YouTube channel. Since then, there’s hardly been any looking back.
What started as a hobby soon snowballed into a career.
Today, “Crafter Aditi” commands an audience of over 14 million on YouTube, earns a steady livelihood,
and works out of a dedicated craft studio in her spacious Lucknow apartment.
Jumping Into Full-Time Content Creation
Her first taste of social media recognition came via TikTok, where she was close to hitting a million followers when the app was banned in India in 2020. She felt disheartened,
but was resolute about finding alternative means of making content creation work for her.
When it shut down, a competitor app onboarded her, and she’d get some money from it every month. The family then decided to invest in a house in Lucknow,
where most relatives were, and she started repaying the loan for it with the money that had started coming in.
Around the same time, the pandemic brought further uncertainty. The algorithm stopped favouring her.
Her family shifted base to Lucknow, and she hit a creative block and stopped being regular with
posting. 2020 and 2021 were her most stagnant years, with YouTube videos barely managing to get 300 views.
“It was a very depressing phase, and I’d almost lost all hope.
I then decided to start as if she was starting from the beginning again, with renewed commitment to
regular content creation,” she said.
This jump, and a renewed sense of commitment to her craft,
were crucial. Slowly but steadily, her videos picked up again.
Building “Crafter Aditi” As A Brand
So far, her content mostly showed her hands, her tools and was laid over with a voiceover. They’d show a corner of her desk, or a room, or sometimes have her making things against a plain background. One day,
Aditi met a woman who happened to be watching one of her craft videos on her phone. Curious, she asked, “Do you know who made this?” To her surprise, the woman didn’t recognise her!
Aditi’s handstitched dress.
That moment planted a seed in Aditi’s mind — her work was reaching people, but her identity wasn’t. People would recognise stuff she’s made, but not know who she is. It made her realise the importance of
putting herself forward, of turning her face into a brand as much as her crafts.
In 2021, she experimented with jewellery-making videos for the first time.
This gave her the opportunity to flaunt the jewellery and appear in front of the camera. This was when
the audience finally got to see the crafter.
This move made quite a difference. In mid-2022, a short video of her making earrings went viral, crossing 22,000 views overnight. “It was the first time after a long stagnant phase that something clicked.
My sister told me, ‘Maybe this is the kick you needed.’ And she was right.”
From there, her channel grew exponentially, thanks to YouTube Shorts. Within months, Aditi had crossed one million subscribers. The numbers skyrocketed,
her content began trending, and she soon found herself in a whole new phase of her career.
Brand deals started flowing in, and Aditi then understood the true meaning of financial freedom.
She has now even helped buy another spacious 3bhk, where the family lives now. Here, she has a dedicated crafts room, complete with corners she needs to shoot,
studio lights and recording equipment.
Commitment, Consistency and Dreaming Big
From May 2022 to December, Aditi never took a single day off. Her sister’s wedding,
which took place during this time, was no exception; she was working right up to the day before.
Her drive, commitment and consistency have borne fruit, that’s available for everyone to see,
and draw inspiration from.
Her ultimate goal, though, was different all along. It wasn’t just about the houses, or money,
or finding her footing.
It was about the two people who sacrificed everything for her.
The most important motive for me to be successful was that I could get the respect for my parents in society... I wanted to give them a life where they can live their old age comfortably,” she said. Her financial success has allowed her mother,
a dedicated home tutor who taught for over 40 years, to finally retire.
The most important motive for me to be successful was that I could get the respect for my parents in society
Her parents gave up a lot of their own dreams and luxuries to bring up their children. She hopes for her parents to age without worrying about how to make ends meet,
something they’d done almost all their lives.
But Aditi continues to dream big and harps on how everyone should do the same.
“I believe everyone should have the biggest dreams, because if you settle for less, you somehow condition your
mind that, 'Okay, I'm done with this much.' So, I'm never, never ever settled for less."
Aditi’s story is more than just that of a small-town girl making a profession out of her passion.
It’s a testament to how creativity, perseverance, and the digital era together can rewrite dreams and destinies.
It’s about a girl loving crafting, and believing in possibilities. It’s a story of a small-town girl, with big dreams,
crafting her own adventures, and being successful while at it!
