Girls Know Nothing - S2 Ep12: Vickaboo - Superdrug, TikTok & Love language
Episode Date: April 26, 2023Welcome back to Girls Know Nothing! 🧡 GKN is a female focused podcast hosted by @SharonNJGaffka ! New episodes of Girls Know Nothing 🧡 will be released every Wednesday, and will also be av...ailable on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcast fixes! GKN Social Channels: Https://linktr.ee/girlsknownothing Instagram: @girlsknownothingpod Tiktok: @girlsknownothingpod TikTok: @girlsknownothingh
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Like I love pulling out like an aeroplane fact.
That's my love language, like way of flirting.
It's like I'm signing to the DM like...
Welcome back to another episode of Girls Know Nothing.
You'll probably recognise the next guest as the big sister we all wish we had growing up.
Year of the Bad Bee, Not the Sad Bee,
inspires and encourages young women to be the very best version of themselves.
Victoria Wright, also known as Vicaboo,
has amassed over 800,000 followers on TikTok
by speaking candidly on taboo subjects such as periods and mental health,
as well as general life problems including insecurities and relationships. Welcome to the studio Vicaboo.
I actually can't believe that this is your first podcast. I've never done a pod. I feel really
upset for you that no one's invited you on to talk. I was happy this is my first pod. Well I'm
really glad I got I got the exclusive first and now if anyone else poaches you as a guest for the podcast i'm just gonna say i started
it first yeah i was here first do you know what it is i think it was when we did the super drug
event together and you told me that you'd used to work in engineering and you'd lived in the
philippines and this stuff and i was like i did not know this stuff about you and I was like maybe it's just that I'm not as OG on TikTok because it
would take me a while to get TikTok or that I just feel like there isn't that much known about it on
the internet about you it's like one of those like tell me a fun fact about yourself things I think
because it's so different to what I do now like I don't maybe I should speak about it a little bit
more but it's just not something I really delve into or like talk about so when I tell people
they're like what like yeah like a stem girly I think it's like because there aren't that many
women in stem especially in public facing roles like on TikTok that it actually does shock people
yeah I think so as well and when you told me some of the things you have done in the past I mean we
can't talk about all of them but I was like oh my god like you have done the stuff that I would
never imagine yeah I don't think anyone expects it either which is like what makes it so fun
like I love pulling out like an aeroplane fact that's my love language like way of flirting
it's like I signed into the DM like tell me an me an airplane fact so my favorite one do you watch
friends i do do you remember on the one episode of friends when they made up the plane part and
they're like there's something wrong with the flange and they're like there's no such thing
as a flange yeah that is actually a part called a flange it's in the a350 galley that's like my
favorite thing i i love it i thought the flange was a completely made up thing no it's a real thing that's my new hinge line you know that that prompt and it's like
tell me a fact I'm gonna I'm gonna steal it actually a thing called a flange I'm gonna
quote you on that though that's amazing but what made you want to get into STEM in the first place
it's so funny like I would love to sit here and say it was like my lifelong dream but it actually wasn't like I genuinely didn't have an interest in anything to do with engineering until I was
doing it like I completely fell in love with it but it just wasn't something I thought was going
to happen like even when I got the job I remember I was working in customer service for like a
fashion company and I wanted to work in fashion and um my dad
worked for the company I worked for he still works there now um at the time he's like why
didn't you apply for a job here I was like no I'm not really interested and then this one job came up
and he was like just let me give you your CV and because it's like fine you'll get to travel
like it's a really great job really good opportunity you can go back into fashion
after you've got some experience and um they just weren't interested in me at all they got rid of my cv and I was like cool I don't
really bothered like it's fine and then it was so weird so like my dad works on the shop floor
so one of the procurement like commodity managers had had like an issue on the shop floor and my
dad had fixed it and he's like I owe you a favor and my dad being like my biggest cheerleader's like actually can I cash in on that favor could you
give my daughter an interview but not on the premise of getting the job yeah just for interview
practice for her but when she's going because she wants to work in a more corporate role so
that'd be good to get some feedback and they're like yeah yeah no problem and then he came home
that day and was like I've got you the interview go and get yourself the job and then I got the job the next day that's amazing I love that I think when you
hear about girls in STEM it's always that their lifelong career and they've had to like work
against the men in their life to get to it but to hear that your dad actually kind of yeah he was
like go for it he's like trust me you will love it and I was like and it took like a few months
I think to like get settled and actually really get into it but when I was working I worked there for years I absolutely loved it.
So what were you actually doing? So I started off as like a buyer so where I had no qualifications
in that field no experience didn't really know what I was doing um it was like a almost like
an unofficial apprentice role. Okay. So they took me in as a buyer and at doing um it was like a almost like an unofficial apprentice role okay
so they took me in as a buyer and at that time it was in what like engineers call like firefighting
mode so there really was no time to train me or teach me anything about the inside of the aircrafts
the galleys the crew the no time whatsoever so they kind of put me in as like a admin type
job and I didn't have a manager either when I joined like the day
that I turned up they were like your manager left yesterday so I didn't have a manager and I was
literally like what am I doing so I ended up like literally raising purchase orders for things I
didn't even know what they were I was just copying off of paper for quite a long time and then I got
this like new manager came in she's a woman fantastic like literally she's like shaped me as a
person she's amazing and she was like what do you do like on your day-to-day I was like I just raise
purchase orders just do invoices and she's like but you're a buyer and I'm like it's just everyone's
busy like it's fine and then she ended up saying like okay if you're going to be the admin girl
you're going to be the admin girl and she sent me to the Philippines to like basically learn all of the admin come back train everyone and then
focus on the buy-in so I went from like buyer to tactical buyer to strategic buyer procurement
specialist and in my last role I was like a procurement manager that's amazing how what was
it like to live in the Philippines I was there like on like a secondment yeah so I was just in
a hotel um I think I spoke
to you about this at Superdrug Presents it was such a culture shock for me because I've never
really been out of Europe so for me like I didn't really know what to expect and my dad had traveled
out there himself like quite a few times with the company because a lot of our manufacturing
was done in the Philippines and um it was amazing i loved it i've made such good friends there like
i still i miss the girls there so much like we used to send each other like gifts through the
office post so like if there was like shipments manufacturing shipments going to the philippines
we'd like pop something on there or like if anyone else if anyone else was going out there like we'd
be like i just give you some bits just to give to the girls and then they would do it back so we were constantly just had things going back and
forward like the relationships i built there and it's so different to the uk office because the
uk office is predominantly men yeah in the philippines it's just all girls girl power
i love that it's amazing the culture shock as well yeah literally i was oh my god there's so many women i loved it yeah i would have loved it and it's sunny yeah and it's sunny but i guess
when you say it's a culture shock i think i made this joke to you at super drug because you're
so tall as well in the philippines i bet it was like oh my god tall girl literally i went to a
shopping center i think i told you before because i where I stayed was like there wasn't really too much to do and I think when you say the Philippines people instantly
think like by the beaches yeah like these beautiful tranquil be like I was like just
outside of Manila in Alabang so there wasn't too much to do other than just shop and go out to eat
and even like the restaurants were not like Filipino restaurants it's like a fish and chip
shop was so random but I went into the super um the shopping center and like Filipino restaurants, it was like a fish and chip shop. It was so random. But I went into the shopping centre
and like all these school kids like ran over to me
and were like, can we take a picture of you?
Can we take a picture of you?
I was like, yeah, sure.
Like why?
Why?
I don't get it.
I think it's because I'm Western and tall.
Yeah, literally.
That was what it was.
I was like, oh, okay.
It used to happen to me when I was a baby in Indonesia
because I was like the biggest white baby
you've ever seen in their life. So no, I I get it I think that's that's quite funny but
little did they know they're probably looking at your TikToks now being like I've got a picture of
her could you imagine the day gonna get all of those out I still speak to a lot of the girls
that live there and like they it's so weird because they've like had children they're married
and I like if I was still working with the company I probably would have like tried to blag a trip to
get out for one of their weddings or something like that but I obviously
can't now but I still like when I do lives and TikTok lives and stuff like that they always pop
in and like say hi I'm like oh my god I know you um said briefly like you didn't go to uni
would you ever consider studying for an engineering degree now I think I would like as a when you
think of procurement you don't typically think of engineering
and I think for a long time I never acknowledged myself as a woman in STEM because I didn't have
a degree in it my job title wasn't such and such engineer but my job was easily like 70%
engineering based the first job I had to do in the daytime was log on to an engineering database go
through parts look at raw materials like
it was very heavily engineering based job so actually yeah I think I would love to do some
sort of like mechanical engineering if I was to because I think that's the route I was probably
going down with the company maybe looking at going into mechanical engineering but
I downloaded TikTok and here we are. What was the hardest part of working in your old job I think it's it's a very
male-dominated industry and I don't until you're in that environment and in that space I don't
think you realize how masculine and how male-dominated that kind of space is it's very
hard to team up and build relationships with women in the industry when there is hardly any women so that was quite difficult for me I think being so young and inexperienced as well as being a young
girl that was really difficult as well because I feel like I was fighting to be taken seriously as
a woman be taken seriously as like a early 20 year old girl and to be taken seriously as somebody
with no qualifications in this field no experience literally just literally fresh set of eyes that was quite difficult but then it took
time but I got there you said you downloaded TikTok what made you want to download TikTok
in the first place so I'd moved jobs from this aerospace company and I'd ended up moving cities I moved to Stevenage
and I didn't know anyone like even in my house share that I'd gone into I was like the first
one in there was like a new house nobody lived there so I didn't really have like a social life
my mum would like come down on the weekends and like stay with me and stuff like that but there
was just not an opportunity to really mingle and meet people. And then lockdown hit. I think I was two months, maybe a month into the job.
Okay.
And lockdown hit.
And they literally were like, just take your stuff and go home.
Like, you're all going to be working from home for the foreseeable.
So I ended up going back to Milton Keynes for a bit.
And then it's so funny.
Like, don't people say, like, oh, I downloaded TikTok because I didn't really have anything else to do.
I was on furlough.
I had stuff to do.
I should have really, should have been working. Queen of procrastination. Literally. I was't really have anything else to do I was on furlough I had stuff to do I should have really should have been working queen of procrastination literally I was
like I had stuff to do I was still working all through lockdown and then um I went back to
Stephen I was bored lonely didn't I wasn't clicking with the job as well as I did the other job and I
think I had such a like passion for aerospace I still do I love it I didn't it
something wasn't clicking with this other job I didn't really get it I didn't really like it and
I just would come home from work and just be like oh I hate this I hate life why did I leave
downloaded the app just to mingle make some friends here we are because it three years later
yeah literally a whole new career yeah what was the
kind of content that you were originally putting out on tiktok i feel like we're one of the dancers
no absolutely not i feel like any of my followers that are watching this probably going to crack up
because i used to have this like i'd like the apple um not airpods like the earphones i used
to speak into a little microphone and i think where i was so just angry at the world i used to just let out like vent onto tiktok and i used to just come out
with the most not controversial but just like the swear words i used to say on that app like i used
to post something and then it'd be like community guidelines strike i'd be like what's going on but
i think because i was so frustrated with life i would just let my daily frustrations out on TikTok and people ended up resonating with them and then
gradually as time went on and I started filming other things like self-care routines that I do
and why I do them and things like that I think we ended up forming like quite a nice little community
of a space where people can just relate to but my initial TikTok content then to now is just so
different how come you made that like transition was it just gradual or did you actually think
well I want to do more of this like community style content yeah I think originally like it
was like a gradual transition I guess but at the same time I think when you accidentally
build a platform you do have almost like a duty of care for those people in a way.
You're like, I don't like I want to be a role model.
Like I have I think at one point I had like one hundred and fifty thousand followers.
I was like, oh, that's one hundred and fifty people that are tuning in.
One hundred fifty thousand people that are tuning in to me.
I want to make a difference with that.
And then I think as I started growing gradually, it was like I can actually do something with this rather than just sit and moan on on TikTok I want to
make it a safe space because I'm all about the girl power anyway I always have been so
yeah I think it was at that point I was just like hmm. Is that what made you want to quit your job
and start doing TikTok full-time? I think I really wanted to do it full-time I didn't know if
I'd be able to do it full-time and I was very nervous and the job that I was in was a really
well-paying job like it was a good big girl money like it was a good corporate paying corporate job
and it paid so well my dad was so proud of me for getting in there as well like obviously I just
moved from his working space and um I was a bit like, oh, I don't want to disappoint anyone.
If it doesn't work out, I don't know what I'm going to do.
I can't go back to the aerospace company just yet.
They've just all bought me loads of presents because I've left.
So it's like, I can't just go back there.
So I was like, I don't know what to do.
But I'm a creative person.
I've always been creative.
I love being in a creative space.
So I just thought, just F it. I'm just going to do it. I saved up. I've always been creative I love being in a creative space so I just thought just effort like I'm just gonna do it I saved up I think I knew I was gonna leave
in December saved up until February March time left I was on gardening leave for two months
then I was gone so I'm just gonna try and just see what happens that that must have been really
really scary it was do you ever sit there and regret that decision absolutely not I miss the
aerospace industry sometimes because I feel like it shaped me a lot as a woman but then also I'm
like I love what I do now like I'm so grateful for I wouldn't ever want to do anything else
but I do I do miss like the the rush of like being in that industry but I don't think it's something I
regret I know like briefly you just said that you felt like you you started to feel like you
had a responsibility to your followers to promote a positive safe space do you ever get really
paranoid or self-conscious or overthink the content you are creating because of that responsibility
yeah I'm one of those people I never want to upset anyone like if i upset one person by saying something that isn't even offensive like i'll
just delete the whole video and i'm like i'm so sorry so sorry that offended you like i'm honestly
i hate offending people so i feel like sometimes there is a little bit of pressure but you know
you can't please everyone tiktok must be a really scary place for you to be there because you should
never make everyone happy i'm, let's not say that.
But I love your TikToks though,
because I find that they are very raw.
And I think that's one of the best things about TikTok
is that the content that's created is very raw, very open.
And there's a lot of things that I've seen you put out there,
like about your niece and about your mum
that you probably don't see from many other content creators um I guess
what was the biggest achievement you've had since doing TikTok full-time um do you know what was
really nice stem and influencing like you said there's not really a crossover with that and
last year I got to present on the blue carpet which is like the Disney red
carpet for the new Buzz Lightyear movie and I did that with the female lead and I never thought
there'd be a day where I would be doing something in influencing that has that little kind of
sprinkle of stem women in stem but it because it was the Buzz Lightyear like premiere I was speaking
to so many people and they'd invited so many women in
STEM so many and it was like oh my god I'm like interviewing people that I genuinely have quite
a lot in common with and it was actually really interesting like for me that was a huge achievement
because I just never thought I'd see the day that the two cross over I think I'm quite jealous that
you're invited to Buzz Lightyear to be honest like wow no I think maybe have you ever like considered probably starting to do more content for stem girlies
I would love to it's just the only thing that like doesn't put me off because I would I could
talk about it for hours it's more so like it's such a difficult role to explain and it was such
a like a different position like on paper like I paper, you'd probably think if you heard of a procurement or a supply chain person,
you think of just number crunching and tapping on a computer, filling out spreadsheets.
And then you look at an engineer and it's like two completely different,
literally exactly the same what we were doing.
I was doing so much engineering work and I think it's just it would be a difficult kind of role to
explain to people but at the same time like I would love to educate people on
you know creating that space for themselves particularly women and like getting involved
like for your career for the next year what do you think is like the next big goal for you
I'd love to write a book I've actually written a book
little dropper yeah what would you write a book about I've um so it's like a self-help kind of planner but it's a little bit different to ones that are on the market now because like for me
I really struggle with routine and that's something I'm quite open about on TikTok as well
is if I try and get myself in in a routine I end up a mess like it just doesn't work for me um so it's
kind of catered around people that can't get into a routine and don't like to commit to like
manifestation planners and stuff because a lot of the time you do fill them out and then you just
put them in the drawer and you're like oh I forgot about that at one point you stop filling it out
you stop reading it and it's I've kind of created something that's a little bit different but
we'll see where that goes I'm a little bit like that I feel like I've got 10 million manifestation
planners or like financial planners and I've done half it and I'm like yeah I'm done with that now
and then I'll come back to it and I'm like yeah this isn't for me so I actually think when I saw
your like um routine content I felt like I'd been seen yeah because like especially when you yeah
when you post like stuff about um tidying your room
sounds so weird and small but sometimes I just look around be like it's not just me my room is
so messy all the time but again it's like trying I try and get myself in a routine
it ends up making it worse it actually ends up making it worse and I'm like okay maybe I should
just tidy as of when I can well would you with your career it's probably like
never right because you're always really busy like um and I've seen you've worked with brands
like super drug and w7 and you have your own makeup range with w7 how did that come about
that was another thing I feel like everything I do is by accident like I never intend to do
anything it just I accidentally keep doing these things that end up being like quite iconic I'm like oh excuse me but I um I always use W7 makeup my sister used W7 makeup it was like a
brand I grew up with and then when I like edged into like doing a little bit more beauty content
absolutely not a makeup artist not very good at makeup but it was that relatable kind of like
well this is what I do like not right but it works um and I was using W7 products and
they were the first company to ever send me like PR um so I made like a little video about their
eyeshadow palette I was so excited about that like PR package I was over the moon like I've still got
the palette that they sent me I loved it and um yeah they basically sent me PR and made a few videos and then we just
basically ended up teaming up together oh I you shouldn't say it's an accident you you know having
to make that content it's the best accident yeah well like accidentally manifested yeah no literally
um I know that you've done other things as well like you've written an article for Grazia I know
this is quite a few years ago but I still think that what you wrote about was is really relevant
and I even now look at it and related to it so much um and you wrote about how you wouldn't wish
things like tattle on your worst enemy and one thing that I found really shocking surprising and actually really
irritated me was that when I was looking you up for things to talk about and things that you'd done
tattle was quite high on the search list which blew my mind because it's not normally for a lot
of people no for mine's like quite up there and it's like I think I've got like a 30 page
thread like what is there really to talk about I'm not that interested but I don't think like
I find that that because you're not a bad person how is there 30 pages of things to write about
I think the justification is like oh you you chose to do this as a job you should accept critique and my argument always is
like there's critique which in a in a nine to five workspace I would accept and take constructively
but then there's like I wouldn't go into a workspace like a nine to five workspace and
expect my manager to be like by the way your forehead's massive or like by the way your tan
looks crap or like by the way your boyfriend's cheating on you by the way your forehead's massive or like by the way your tan looks crap or like by the way
your boyfriend's cheating on you by the way your boyfriend's scruffy do you know what i mean like
you wouldn't expect that so like i think saying that it's like constructive criticism because i
chose to put myself out there it's just ridiculous i don't think anyone deserves that they don't but
also i want to know what makes people think that their opinion is so important that they can voice nasty things on the internet in that way or who has the time so true and it's
always voice behind a fake account the thing is if things like tattle and like gossip threads were
okay why do you have to do it behind a fake like a fake name and a faceless profile like if it was
okay to do do it with chess do it with your own profile
did it ever make you question the chosen career path you had gone down at one point yeah because
I got a little bit obsessed with it like I was constantly reading it and I think as I told you
earlier like a rumor was was put on there about my boyfriend cheating on me and it was like I think
even the people on towel were like hang on
a minute like if you don't have proof you shouldn't really be making those those types of claims but
for that I was just like oh my god like I don't get a break like he's not cheating on me we're
absolutely fine we're very happy and it was just like at that point I was like oh do you know I'm
going back into aerospace I'm going to build airplanes again no one tells me my boyfriend's cheating on me there like it was like it's a safe space but right now i'm kind of just like well is what it is
whatever like i don't think too much about it anymore you said that you were got into a weird
space about reading it is that just because like you said as a person you don't like upsetting
people so you're obsessively looking for it yeah i don't like upsetting but hate upsetting people
like i'd never want to make anyone angry and um yeah you do kind of get into this headspace
of like constantly checking if you're like okay what are they saying now what are they saying now
realistically it is mostly physical like my physical appearance or like my voice or like
my tan and things like that but now but yeah i hate upsetting people I don't like making people angry I don't
like I hate the idea of somebody disliking my content when I really am just trying to do
something nice and I think that got me a little bit obsessed of like scrolling and reading it
and reading it but I don't read it anymore. Did it ever ruin your self-esteem? I think one there was
one that they took a screenshot of one of my videos and I get like
my hair falls out if I get stressed so I when my mum was poorly like I lost a lot of hair at the
front of my head and I think somebody took a screenshot of like one of my tiktoks and it
looked really bad and they were like oh has she ever addressed the hair loss on the front of her
head and then someone commented underneath it like now she's just got a massive forehead hasn't she I was like
damn oh wow what I know you said in that Grazia article as well that you found it really tough
for your mum to find and read as well how did your mum even come across tattle in the first place
like you said my for some reason my tattle thread is quite high up on when when you google me and
it's just very accessible and um my mom's like my biggest fan like she googles me like three times a
day i love that she's great so she'll google me she'll read me and she just came across and she
was like oh my god what the hell is this and i'm like i'm so sorry you had to read that
like it's not not nice for any mom to see and even then they say things like she didn't have
to read it and it's like well but she did that's the thing and i think people don't really realize
that people do read stuff and people's loved ones read the stuff as well and it impacts them just as
much as it impacts the person they're writing about it's not a victimless comment yeah for sure writing um I know like a lot of the content you
have made has been about your mum your mum does show up a lot on your tiktoks and you know people
that don't know your mum is it breast stage three breast cancer so she had like an endometrial um
endometrial endometrical I can't say the word a womb cancer okay but um it was like a
it was quite tricky it was very rare for someone like my mum to actually develop that
sort of cancer so I think even the doctors were quite confused like we've got no idea
how this has happened to you um but it was a stage three and she's like six months all clear now oh yeah I remember that
which is amazing but how did the diagnosis come about in the first place so it's one of those
things she had an issue like a long time ago she went to a gynecologist and um I think they'd said
the lining of her womb was coming out really thick and they
were like no that's completely normal and a few years later obviously she's gone to gone to the
doctors and they're like this is like a breeding ground for cancer cells like this is not normal
this should not be happening um so she went to get kind of like as you do scans blood tests and then yeah they found
stage three cancer um and it had gotten into her lymph nodes which means it spreads and um she went
into major surgery like not long afterwards to get like a full hysterectomy and her lymph nodes
removed as well and then they ended up finding the cancer in the lymph nodes, which meant potentially it could be somewhere else in the body.
So she had chemo, radio, and she smashed it.
You were her main carer throughout her time having treatment, is that right?
I was like her emotional rock.
So we had help with family and things like that.
But where I'm now working from home, anything she really needed,
I was there with her.
And we were lucky enough to
have a family that are so close so if she needed a lift to the hospital she'd have a lift to the
hospital if she wanted to get out anywhere if she needed anything even if it was just like makeup or
like bubble bath or something like that she'd always have us there but she's such a tough cookie
like she she didn't even really need care like i remember when she came back from the major
surgery she just looked like normal that's that's bold because i literally would have like a filling
in my tooth and i'd be like literally same i'm very dramatic she's walked in she's like yeah
i'm fine and like she'd have chemo and she'd be in bed for a few days and it was horrible to see
and like obviously the side effects of chemo they don't just go away but then like three days later she was swinging the kids around like way and i'm like go to bed audra like go sit down and she's
literally a rock how did it make you feel when your mum was first diagnosed it was so shocking
i was so shocked because my mum is literally like she used to do like a pilates class and then
immediately after the pilates class she'd go do spin and then she'd walk home like she used to do like a pilates class and then immediately after the pilates class
she'd go do spin and then she'd walk home like she's was so into fitness she's so healthy
like when she phoned me to tell me I literally was like what and when she was explaining to me
in my head before she'd even finished her sentence I was I was thinking what has happened to my dad
because I didn't expect anything to be wrong with my mum.
It was so weird.
Like it was such a weird time.
It was just so unexpected.
And even going home after being,
she FaceTimed me and told me when I was on my way home
and then I got home and I'd like been sick on myself in the cab.
I was just like wanting to panic when I got home
and she was just standing there like,
it's fine, like come in. And I'm'm like it's so weird because you hear the word cancer
and someone's got cancer and you expect them to just be very weak and vulnerable but she was
literally was just herself and she's like it is what it is like we'll just we'll deal with it like
i was like okay i've met your mom she is literally the most amazing person ever though i think it
last time i saw her was outside saving grace show and i just walked up i was like hey mom she just looked at me i was like who is
this she so she's so she will absolutely blame this because she's got early stages of glycoma
so she can't see very well and i was running late and i was texting her like okay go away
outside i'm outside and she said that she thought she heard me say hi mom and she was like I was looking
around I was like no it was Sharon like she was literally there and she was like was she I was
like yeah she said hi to you you didn't even see her she's like awkward I was like okay maybe she
doesn't like me no it's like okay that's really embarrassing but no I think it's it was really
nice to see you share the vulnerable side of your mum going through cancer treatment on TikTok.
Because I think that, like, you know, when you say created safe space, I think people go to TikTok to look for things to be relatable to.
And, you know, having someone be close to their family and show that the struggles in that way makes them feel normal.
And, you know, you've posted a lot of content about matilda as well you're an
auntie bless up the i the only thing i really remember well is my favorite tiktoks when you
put a roller in her fringe oh my god and she was really angry with you she was begging me because
i wear rollers so she was like begging me for these rollers i'm like your hair's so short like
i don't know so i want the rollers i was like okay fine i'll give you the rollers put the rollers in
after she was like i hate it i was like well you asked me for the rollers like
what do you want me to do but no she's hilarious how did the tiktoks with Matilda start it's so
funny because she's only just turned four I think people think that she's a lot older than she is
like people are like she's maybe think she's like seven yeah six or seven she's four she's just turned four she's a baby but when I first started was about three years ago so she was just a little
tiny baby then and obviously she'd be in like my Instagram and stuff like that and then I think it's
so sweet like my followers have kind of watched her grow up in a way and I do look after her
sometimes when my sister's at work so I just thought well we can just make a TikTok together
because they're always asking how she is like how's Matilda how's the kids so far just make a little TikTok
with her and then you just became like a TikTok icon is it is it your channel is it it's like
it's like Matilda's channel I'm just renting it I think um so apart from the potential of you
writing a book what do you think is next for vicar boo
i'd love to do more presenting work i love the presenting work like it's so nerve-wracking but
it's also like exhilarating it reminds me of that feeling i used to get at work when i used to work
in the engineering space it's like thrilling um so i'd love to do more of that i would love to do
more things around women's health as well because it's so important a big part of me talking about my mum when she was poorly was I kind of linked into
content about getting your smear tests and I had a smear test and I was HPV positive when I had my
smear test and I find it found it so crazy that the only thing that came up on TikTok when I typed in
HPV was genital herpes yeah and I was like there's nothing about smear tests on here
and what it actually means to be HPV positive um so I'd love to do more content like that maybe
do some little speeches places I don't know have to see I love no I love that I think I didn't I
I'm just gonna ask you a question about the hpv thing
what did it make you how did you feel when you came back and it says hpv because was this before
or after your mom's no it was after so obviously i panicked like the second i opened the letter
but then when i actually read it i was like right okay let's like let's not be drastic here let's
just like take some time to do some research and i spoke spoke to one of the nurses at my local GP as well.
And she basically just kind of explained to me,
like, just see it as a noonie cold.
Like there's nothing you can do right now
until you have your next smear.
So we can see if it's developed or gone away.
So the likelihood is it's probably just going to go away.
Then I was a bit like, okay, like it's fine. So that, I mean, that's another thing, like to go away then I was a bit like okay like it's fine so that I mean
that's another thing like to go and have your smear done because then now you know there's
something to look out for potentially yeah down the line because I think I was really put off
having my first one she was here the horror stories first and then you and then actually
when you've done it you're like it's really not that bad it literally takes one second
it kind of tickles a little bit the little brush but it like at first like because of when my mum had hers when she was
younger it was like not as nice as it is now so I was always listening to my mum's stories which
is proof that my mum is not always right though if she sees that bit because my mum googles me as
well she will tell me off so please don't see that bit but um what would you say to girls that want to to get into stem but are really
concerned about the the male space if you feel like there's not a space for you make the space
yourself because that's what i did there realistically when i walked into that office
on the first day i was like right okay there was hardly any women there and it was like i think i
was quite lucky in the sense that my dad worked there and he's quite well respected so I don't think I would have experienced some of the things
I may have if there wasn't kind of that relationship already but create that space for yourself and I
think one of the things I appreciate most about having that background is it really helped me
find my voice and I was never treated as oh, don't raise your voice at her.
Don't tell her off.
She's a girl.
I was very much treated the same as the guys.
And for me, that really built my resilience.
Again, made me find my voice.
There is space there for you.
Go and do it.
And I know that a lot of people,
when you think of the word engineer,
again, you do instantly will probably think a man but there is there is women
in stem there was women in the space that I was working build relationships with them and just go
and smash it no definitely um for the final question what would you say to people that
doubt your future success based on the fact that you're a young woman I think there is something very powerful
about being a young woman and I don't I don't think that women don't know that but I think
sometimes they're not empowered enough to believe it and I think being a young woman is is the best
the whole future is is in front of you like what do they say like you can open so many doors you can do
what you want experience new things figure it out figure it out yourself figure out yourself
and just follow your dreams just go for it because things do take time but it will happen
like the most amazing thing about women is finding our voices because when that happens
and when that kind of pin drops it's like oh my god forced to be reckoned with and that will happen no that's that's a really amazing way to end the
podcast and obviously every every year is the year of the bad be not the sad be like every time I see
your tiktoks that's the first thing that comes into my head and I really resonate with that and
I do love that and hopefully you get to do more podcasts and presenting work and when your book comes out I
will be first in line oh I love it so thank you so much for losing your podcast virginity online
I wrote a naughty text and I pressed send to all, but I didn't realize he had teachers on his contact list.
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