TIKTOK sensation Rachel Kgapola woke up one morning in 2018, and her whole life changed.
Rachel opened her mouth to speak and realised she suddenly had a deep man's voice.
Before that, Rachel had a normal female voice.
But overnight, something changed in her voice, leaving her confused, shaken, and terrified.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Rachel from KwaThema in Ekurhuleni, said her life had changed overnight.
"I was born with an ordinary female voice. I started having this voice in 2018 after I had flu. I went to mute for a week. I couldn't speak, I didn't have a voice due to the flu and then when it came back, it was changed," she said.
At the time, Rachel was living alone. When she called her mum to explain the sudden change, even she didn't believe it was her daughter.
"My mum called me. She wanted to speak to me, and I said, 'Mama, it's me'. And she said, 'No, I actually want to speak to Rachel'. I told her it was me. I even tried calling her by her name to show that it was me. She didn't believe me. I had to go home and explain everything in person."
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Rachel said doctors found nothing medically wrong.
"I went to the doctors. Everything was fine. They just gave me a few antibiotics and said everything was just normal," she said.
Although her health was fine, her confidence suffered a severe blow.
"I would not answer my phone in a taxi, I wouldn't talk to anyone in public most of the time. For the most part, it was being judged. Why do you speak like a man?" she said.
Today, that same voice is her blessing.
She's a TikTok sensation and has landed her first advert with Nando's, where she also works as a waitress.
"I think with the support that I had, life just became easy. They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Now I'm drinking the lemonade, and it's very sweet, I'm putting ice on top."
Rachel said the experience changed her life and helped her fully embrace her unique voice.
"I'm just an ordinary woman, a lady, a mother of three, who's just living a nice ordinary life, who loves making people happy and laugh. That's why I'm famous right now."
