21 amazing works of Snapchat art from a woman who makes bank on the app

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Cyrene Quiamco attends The 7th Annual Shorty Awards on April 20, 2015 in New York City. D Dipasupil/Getty Images

Cyrene Quiamco started on Snapchat in Jan. 2014, just sending out photos to her friends.

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Now two years later, she's literally getting paid to snap by big companies, eager to tap into her growing fan base numbering in the tens of thousands.

But how did she turn a hobby into a career?

"We created art when nobody’s watching," Quiamco told Tech Insider, of the top people on the platform. "And now everybody’s watching."

Check out some of her amazing snaps and you'll see why.

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Quiamco is a professional graphic designer. Soon after she graduated from college, she got her first job as a product designer, before landing at Verizon as a web designer.

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CyreneQ/YouTube

She did pretty well there. In Jan. 2014, her coworkers got her into Snapchat. "We were Snap-chatting in meetings," she said.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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"I really liked Snapchat." In August 2014 she made her story public, and with her awesome works of Snapchat art, tens of thousands of people have started following along.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

She takes plenty of selfies, which she sometimes transforms into something else, though she's not using her finger like the average user.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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"I have a really precise stylus that you can draw really intricate designs with," she said.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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Here she is with singer Bruno Mars.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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And with Grumpy Cat.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

But her favorite snap is with Ellen DeGeneres, which got her a lot of attention and publicity (and many more followers).

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

Source:Cosmo

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How many followers isn't known, even to her. Snapchat doesn't tell you how many followers you have, though it does say how many views you get per snap.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

These days, Quiamco claims, some of her snaps have been viewed up to 50,000 times.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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And companies have come along to take advantage of her highly engaged fans, like Burger King ...

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

... MTV ...

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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... and NBC's "The Voice," among others. She can't say which company paid what, but she told TI she's earned up to $25,000 for a snap story in the past.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

Not too shabby for roughly 10 snaps that will disappear 24 hours later.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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"Snapchat has become more than a messaging app," she told TI. "It’s becoming more like a TV show or a commercial."

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

Quiamco, who recently quit Verizon to join the small number of professional Snapchatters, has even innovated beyond pictures. “I create games on Snapchat. Like tap to see the next scene."

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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She also encourages fans to screenshot for gameplay, or to send her reactions to her stories.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat

These intricate snaps take some time, which typically involves storyboarding, writing a rough script, and multiple takes to get it right.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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It's clear from her recent series of the "Ele Machine" that she definitely can tell a cool story.

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CyreneQ/Snapchat
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Watch one of her recent Snap stories below:

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