Find your niche and treat it like your superpower and have fun with it! You already have a job people hate and judge you for might as well enjoy yourself.
At age 35 I quit an unfulfilling corporate job and started sex work as an independent full service kink friendly switch. My early days were filled with wild situations and marked by an utter lack of self preservation.
The lives of 19th century women are known to us today mainly through their letters and writing, but also through the then new (black-and-white) portrait photography, and the vivid paintings, pastels and watercolours of impressionist artists.