This influencer went from living in a very small town in central Italy to graduating with a degree in Psychology from the University of South Florida. Elisabetta Di Virgilio tells Furlough about her biggest passions and how she paid her own way to fulfill her dream of coming to America.

Born on March 18th, 1992, Elisabetta Di Virgilio (@elliemajesty) grew up in a small town in Chieti, Italy. Currently, she lives in Pescara, Italy – where she loves to work out at the beach and live a healthy lifestyle.

An influencer primarily in the fitness niche, Elisabetta always had big dreams. Since she was little, she knew she wanted to come to America and get an education. A place she has her eyes on is Miami, Florida.

At the age of 21, she saved up enough money to make her dreams become a reality! Ellie moved to Florida and got her degree in Psychology and also her NASM Personal Training Certification. 

During this time, she had the opportunity to start modeling and ended up pursuing her biggest passions – psychology, fitness, nutrition, and photography.

Unfortunately, her visa eventually expired and she had to move back to Italy. She currently is working extremely hard to maintain her career as a fitness influencer. 

My objective while in my country is to change women’s mindsets about fitness. Working out regularly and dieting/ meal prepping are still seen as “extreme”, “fanatic”, “obsessive”. My goal is to introduce the beauty and benefits of fitness to women like me, especially young girls, and motivate them to take care of their body and soul through exercise. In the meantime, I am still extremely motivated to moving back to the USA and immigrate this time!

Nobody’s success is easy, and Ellie faced many challenges to get to where she’s at. Moving to the U.S. all alone without speaking a word of English was one of her biggest challenges. 

Enrolling in college was even harder for her. At the time she enrolled, she thought she could speak, and understand at least some English. However, it didn’t take her long to realize this was far from the truth.

In reality, she could barely put five elementary sentences together and her use of syntax was absolutely terrible. She could understand pretty much zero English. 

What a dumb idea, I thought. Wanting to go to college in a foreign country, with a less than basic knowledge of the language. From being so overconfident I felt so absolutely self conscious, and I thought that if I were able to pass my classes it would be a miracle.

She was worried about passing her classes. Yet, Ellie stayed strong and stuck with it! Four years later, she graduated from the University of South Florida (USF) with a Bachelors degree in Psychology, a 4.0 GPA, and SUMMA CUM LAUDE. 

Ellie was the student of the year with the highest GPA on campus! She had received an A+ in every single course that she had taken and was even awarded the King O’ Neal Award and inducted into 5 international honors societies.

It was extremely hard for her. Sometimes she even cried and felt like giving up. Ellie had many sleepless nights and would sometimes fall asleep on top of her books. 

Attending university in America was a huge challenge for her, but she was highly motivated. She wanted to prove to herself she could do anything she set her mind to. 

I don’t regret anything I did because now the feeling is priceless. I never give myself any credit, but today I want to say I’m proud of myself for never giving up.

Did you know that Ellie is a book worm? She reads about 2-3 books a week! We weren’t too surprised to hear this since she is such an accomplished academic.

So far, she has collaborated with big-name brands such as @PrettyLittleThing, @CLS_Sportswear, @BodyEngineers, @boutinela, and @Fashionnova.

She would love to be part of the teams at Body Engineers, Gym Shark, and Bang because they are in line with her passion and lifestyle. She would also LOVE to collaborate with hotels all around the world because she absolutely enjoys traveling.

Some advice she would give to her fans is that if you have a dream, work for it because you truly are capable of doing anything you set your mind to. There may be many bumps on the roads, failures, and setbacks, but you have to be strong and keep going because dreams are meant to become reality! As they say “if you can dream it, you can do it!”.

To follow more of Ellie’s journey, you can find her on Instagram @elliemajesty.

For business inquiries contact: elliemajesty@gmail.com