Leticia Sotelo has not had an easy path in life. From being a single mom of two at just 17 years old, to now being a multi-award winning esthetician, she has never stopped working for a better life. “It’s been a bumpy road, but it’s a great outcome, and I’m super happy with where I am now,” she said.
Sotelo was a member of the class of 2004, but when she was in 8th grade in 2000, she became pregnant and got married. She got a job at Golden Age Manor and worked both day and night shifts, and for a while she tried to take classes on the side.
“It was so hard, so I quit going to school and just started working full time because I wasn’t getting child support or anything like that,” she said. “I was able to get an apartment at the projects there in Dublin, and I worked.”
Sotelo soon got into another relationship. “I came from a dysfunctional home, so I didn’t have a lot of guidance,” she said. “Of course, I became pregnant again, and as soon as I let him know that I was pregnant, he left. So there I was, 17 years old, with two kids.”
Without help, Sotelo lost her apartment in Dublin, and became homeless. Her family called social services, and Sotelo’s two children were taken by the state.
“The state actually gave me a year to get everything together, like go to parenting classes and get a home, finish my high school education and get a running vehicle, just to show that I was stable, to get my kids back,” she said. “I did everything within six months, and then two months later, I had my kids back in my home.”
She found temporary housing with an acquaintance who later became her best friend, and passed her GED test without even taking classes. She also met her current husband, Servando Sotelo.
Servando had previously served in the military, and after the Sotelos married, Servando rejoined the military (special operations) to help provide for the family. The Sotelos relocated to the East Coast, where Sotelo focused on raising her children and began taking college classes on the side.
After more than a decade of staying home with her family, in 2018 Sotelo got a chance to pursue her own professional goals when her husband retired from the military. “I ended up going to school to be an esthetician,” she said. “I always loved makeup, I loved anything to do with skincare.”
The family decided to move back to Texas, so their children could take advantage of free college thanks to Servando’s military service (they had to attend school in the state he had enlisted). They initially moved back to Stephenville, but Servando had trouble finding a job, so they relocated to Plano and he found work for the state in Dallas.
Sotelo finished up her esthetician school at Salon Boutique Academy in Addison in 2019. The first job she got out of school was as a full body waxer, and she immediately found she loved the work.
“I guess you could call it a gift, but I’m able to make people feel comfortable in their own skin, and I was just really good at my job,” she said.
Sotelo was quickly promoted at the company, first becoming a manager and then the general manager for the franchise. In her new position, Sotelo would travel frequently, visiting franchise stores in Texas and Idaho, training estheticians and streamlining the finances for the business.
She found she was good at the business side of things, and began to consider opening her own salon. In 2022, she did end up starting her own waxing business, renting a room in a salon in Stephenville and commuting down from Plano a few days a week.
“I did that for a few months, and it started picking up and doing really well,” she said. “I told my husband, “I think I’ve got something here; I think Stephenville is going to be where I become successful at this.’ And he was like, ‘Okay,’ and he quit his job and we moved down here.”
Not even six months into her business, Sotelo was nominated for three Best of Erath County awards for esthetician, beauty services and skincare categories, and ended up winning two. Her business also continued to expand. “I started with zero clientele and ended with over 350 clients a month,” she said.
For the past few years, Sotelo has been figuring out the best model for her business. She tried out having her own location off the Lingleville Highway, which went well. She also started teaching waxing workshops to salons in the area. Now, she’s struck a balance between working, teaching, and spending time with her family. She currently rents a room at a salon one day a week, teaches once a month, and spends most of her time with her grandchildren.
“Right now, I am in the process of writing a book about my life,” she said. “I feel like, especially in small communities, and especially in the Hispanic community, like we’re not taught to pursue higher education or anything like that as women. They teach us how to be housewives, they teach us how to clean and cook and things like that. Education wasn’t something that was pushed on me or my siblings.”
Although Sotelo was able to pursue an education for herself, it took hard work and determination to make it work with her young family.
“You can do anything you set your mind to and you can achieve whatever goals you set,” she said. “You just have to keep moving. In Dublin and Stephenville, back when I was there, there wasn’t really any guidance to help me through it; I just had to kind of find the information on my own and then just pave my own way. I do believe that my story will be able to help many girls who come from this same background and are in my same situation and think, like, ‘Oh, my life is over.’ No, it’s not. Just get up and you’ve got to keep on moving. Keep moving, and eventually you’re gonna get somewhere.”
Throughout her life, Sotelo has found inspiration in trying to create a better life for her (now grown) children, Elyssia, 24, John, 22, and Nadia, 20. “I would look at them and I knew that I didn’t want them to go through the same things I went through, or to grow up the same way I did,” she said. “I wanted to break those cycles, and I’ve been doing that.”
Sotelo’s advice to future Dublin graduates is not to give up on their dreams, no matter the obstacles they face. “Don’t let fear be what stops you from pursuing whatever it is you want to do,” she said. “Fear could have stopped me so many times in my life — fear of failure — but I don’t see failure as a bad thing. That’s where you learn lessons and you grow. There’s no growth in being comfortable.”
Where are they now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.