Girls Know Nothing - S2 Ep12: Vickaboo - Superdrug, TikTok & Love language

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

Welcome 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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Starting point is 00:01:26 Valid through 618. While supplies last. Selection varies by location. 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.
Starting point is 00:01:49 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
Starting point is 00:02:22 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
Starting point is 00:03:07 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
Starting point is 00:03:50 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
Starting point is 00:04:41 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
Starting point is 00:05:21 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
Starting point is 00:06:02 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
Starting point is 00:06:45 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
Starting point is 00:07:28 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
Starting point is 00:08:06 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
Starting point is 00:08:54 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?
Starting point is 00:09:31 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.
Starting point is 00:09:39 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
Starting point is 00:10:04 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
Starting point is 00:10:43 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
Starting point is 00:11:30 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
Starting point is 00:12:20 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.
Starting point is 00:12:42 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
Starting point is 00:13:16 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
Starting point is 00:14:01 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.
Starting point is 00:14:49 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
Starting point is 00:15:20 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.
Starting point is 00:15:55 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
Starting point is 00:16:19 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
Starting point is 00:17:10 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.
Starting point is 00:17:36 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
Starting point is 00:18:16 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
Starting point is 00:19:00 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
Starting point is 00:19:42 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
Starting point is 00:20:23 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
Starting point is 00:21:00 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
Starting point is 00:21:46 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
Starting point is 00:22:37 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
Starting point is 00:23:33 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
Starting point is 00:24:16 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
Starting point is 00:24:55 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
Starting point is 00:25:39 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
Starting point is 00:26:23 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
Starting point is 00:27:05 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
Starting point is 00:27:58 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
Starting point is 00:28:53 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.
Starting point is 00:29:23 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
Starting point is 00:30:00 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.
Starting point is 00:30:47 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,
Starting point is 00:31:04 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
Starting point is 00:31:46 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
Starting point is 00:32:31 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
Starting point is 00:33:15 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
Starting point is 00:33:56 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
Starting point is 00:34:45 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.
Starting point is 00:35:16 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
Starting point is 00:35:49 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
Starting point is 00:36:35 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.
Starting point is 00:36:55 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
Starting point is 00:37:31 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
Starting point is 00:38:19 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. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so you can reach the people you want faster.
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