Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
This pretty influencer is following in the footsteps of her lorry-driving mum who racked up millions of followers after sharing clips of her trucking across Brazil in her bright pink HGV.
Brazilian mum Sheila Bellaver, 38, real name Sheila Rose Marchiori, is a trucker who regularly posts content showing her driving her pink Scania across the country.
Her lorry is fully equipped with a kitchen, a TV, and it even reportedly has curling irons.
Sheila, from the municipality of Lagoa Vermelha in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, has worked as a lorry driver for 12 years, transporting fruit and vegetables to major cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais.
She told local media that she originally started posting content online because she knew that “it made money” and today she reportedly makes more money as an influencer than as a lorry driver.
As a result, the yummy mummy has racked up 2.2 million followers on Instagram.
While she cannot use a proper bed for days at a time, she has made sure that her lorry is fully kitted out and said: “It has everything you can imagine. TV, refrigerator inside, a fridge outside, DVD.”
Bellaver, who is also a mum of four, said she started working as a trucker, which is hard work with few hours of sleep on each journey because she wanted to support her children.
She said: “People who transport fruit and vegetables only sleep when they arrive. It’s been 12 years of sleeping well two nights a week and look, your body gets used to it.”
Sheila explained that she had always wanted to be a lorry driver but that she “got married as a child” and her dreams had to be put off due to her responsibilities running a home and raising children.
Finally at the age of 27, her dream came true and she began driving heavy vehicles.
She said that the reason she chose pink as the colour of her lorry was simply because it “represents for me the milestone of a winning woman, who came from nowhere, from the countryside, and today has her own things. Yes it is marketing, but it is also a symbol of women in a very masculine world”.
She says that she has travelled over about 70 percent of the country, no mean feat given that Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, USA, and China.
Sheila also explained that she had silicone implants in her bottom but had them removed in 2019, saying: “My back hurt, I work a lot while sitting down. I no longer recognised myself.”
She added: “What moves me is my dream! The goal I set for my life. This is my future, giving my children the life I didn’t have. I am a mother and father to my family. I think about seeing my family far away from the poverty and misery that I faced a long time ago.”
Her daughter Gabriely Franciscon, 20, who used to accompany her mum on long trips, has now decided to follow in her footsteps.
Gabriely, who recently passed her trucking test and is fully licensed like her mum, already boasts 514,000 followers on Instagram.
With hopes of combining trucking with influencing, the young woman told local media: “Even though I sometimes travel alone, many people did not believe me and said I did not have a licence, that I don’t know how to drive. They said ‘what is this girl doing here?’ and ‘you will never become a lorry driver’.”
Gabriely, who has joined Sheila’s husband’s fleet transporting fruit across Brazil, said: “I always used to travel with my mum, so it was all down to her.
“I’m really proud of it now because it’s something I did for myself. Every day, people recognise me more and more.”
The 20-year-old trucker added: “My mum was supportive, but she never hid that she wanted me to become a lorry driver like her. Her dream is for me to replace her in the future. Her dream is to buy me my own lorry.”
