The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Molly Mae: How She Became Creative Director Of PLT At 22

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

It feels like Molly-Mae has been a cultural figure for a long time, and yet she’s only 22. After coming off Love Island in 2019, Molly has only grown and become more relevant with time. One of the biggest influencers in the world, Molly is so much more than your typical reality tv star. In a rare sit-down interview, Molly opens up to us what she’s trying to achieve with her profile, and where she’s going next. Coming into the spotlight at a very young age, Molly tells us what the experience of overnight fame was really like, what its challenges were, and what she wants to do with it. Molly is someone who is only at the beginning of her journey, and what really came across when she spoke to us was her still unsatiated ambition, and how she’s always looking to achieve more. Molly is definitely someone we’re going to be hearing a lot more from, after speaking to her I think I began to understand why. Follow Molly: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mollymae Twitter - https://twitter.com/mollymaehague Youtube: www.youtube.com/@mollymae9879 Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo

Quick one. Just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio. And thirdly to to amazon music who when they heard that we were expanding to the united states and i'd be recording a lot more over in the states they put a massive billboard in time square um for the show so thank you so much amazon music um thank you to our team and thank you to all of you

that listen to this show let's continue i'm the creative director of pretty little thing like i'm not just an influencer anymore this is just the start for me. I'm only 22. I've got so much more to learn. We literally only are given one life. We have to just go to the extremes. I've worked my absolute arse off to get where I am now. A lot of people don't believe that, but I work.

I spend time with my boyfriend and I go to bed. That is literally my life. I can't have anybody knowing where I live. I actually have close protection and security now, and really there's no price on feeling safe. That was like a really, really low moment for me. When we got back, it just felt cold and eerie and it just didn't feel like home anymore. He could literally go away for weeks on end

and there's not a doubt in my mind that if he was to be around a load of girls, I could sleep peacefully at night knowing that he's for me and I'm for him and that is literally the key. You've got trust, you've got everything. There's so much more to it than people see they have no idea what really goes on I mean I would never say like I've had like a mental breakdown but that was close to it because I just went crazy Molly May. She is, in my opinion, and according to a lot of the data, the UK's number one Instagram

influencer creator right now. She started out many years ago on a show called Love Island, but many people have been on Love Island and nobody ever has had the meteoric rise in their brand, their career, their profile like Molly has. So as much as it's easy to say, well, okay, you know, she had a boost from Love Island, that does not explain what's happened in her life subsequently. So I wanted to sit down with her today and find out exactly what's driving her, what's caused this meteoric success. Almost 10 million followers in no time at all. 25,000 new followers a day.

Just imagine for a second, being thrust to the number one spot in terms of influence and having tens of millions of followers online, becoming a multimillionaire overnight and being 22 years old. Imagine, imagine the mistakes you would make. It's absolutely fascinating. And the way she deals with it, I think you'll find incredibly inspiring. And what comes with that success? Recently, her house was burgled, and she reportedly lost £800,000 worth of her possessions

and had to move immediately to a new home. She now has to have 24-7 close protection security. And I'll be honest with you, this is something Molly and her manager and team shared with me before we started recording. Molly doesn't do interviews like this. So this really is, in many respects, her first

real in-depth interview of this kind and i can't wait for you to hear it so without further ado i'm stephen bartlett and this is the diary of a ceo i hope nobody's listening but if you are then please keep this to yourself Hitchin that's where you're you grew up right take me back to Hitchin what was life like when you were growing up there Hitchin I I actually still am extremely fond of Hitchin and it was a really it's a really really special place for me I spent 18 years there growing up in a very normal house with a very normal family doing very normal up in a very normal house with a very normal family doing very normal things in a very normal school not a private school anything it was just an extremely normal um yeah area to live in I loved it and um I got my first job there I I had a lot

of firsts there and I think it will always hold a special place in my heart I was a lifeguard there at a swimming pool for four years um I had a job in hairdressers I worked in a gym it was all going on in Hitchin that's where it all began obviously is the air family dynamics brothers sisters mum dad tell me about your your family what they do who they are what their character so I have one sister she's actually in the army she's three years older than me people are always shocked when I say I have a sister that's in the army she's three years older than me people are always shocked when I say I have a sister that's in the army because obviously it's so so different to what I do um but I'm actually really proud of that I think it's it's um I never really say that but I'm super proud that she she is who she is and we've grown up to be such such different people but both parents were in the police so

that was interesting growing up something else that I'm really proud of actually having two parents that are police officers because I don't know I quite liked it at school like sort of being known as the police officer's kid like I kind of liked it no one really messed with me it was quite yeah like even at parties like I think even a couple of times my dad actually what when I remember one time my dad actually showed up to shut a party down that I was at um yeah yeah it was um that kind of thing having um parents as police officers but I didn't mind it and at that age when you're in Hitchin what is it that you you want to be when you grow up oh god I mean I I always wanted to be doing something different I mean I went to fashion

school um for two years because I really wanted to pursue a career in fashion um all my friends stayed on and went to sixth form and college but I again I wanted to do something different I wanted to do something outside the box so I had an interview at the fashion retail academy in London and I got a spot there and I ended up going there for two years and studying there I was commuting to London every day at like 17 um so yeah it was outside my comfort zone but I'm I'm really glad I did that because it was just different I loved doing things that were different and did you did you have a because when I was younger I wanted to be a dentist and a doctor and then a surgeon at one point and then

you know I bounced around and then I was like I want to manage a business yeah what were you saying to yourself in terms of what you would be when you were older what you did you have was it fashion um I think when I was younger it was mainly performing arts I've definitely got that performing art streak in me I think a lot of people that sort of fall into being in the public eye do have a bit of like that performing art streak in them because they have that confidence but I couldn't quite make it in that I tried auditions I tried you know castings all this but I didn't quite have that I wasn't quite there and I sort of accepted that very quickly and realized to do well in performing arts you have to be the best it's like the most cutthroat industry people say fashion's cutthroat no performing arts is like it's not an industry you mess around in so I accepted quite quickly that

that wasn't going to work for me so fashion was was where I focused on and I really did think that I was going to end up being like a fashion buyer like a large business or that's that's kind of what I wanted to do. Your your mum and dad lived very as police officers very solid. Yeah. Lives and careers right? Yeah. Did you at that young age did you because I'm trying to understand from like a very young age and I always ask this about myself like how much of it was this kind of in a desire to have more and be different and not live the standard life yeah um or how much of it is just you know following following the heart and seeing where it goes I think for me watching my parents have a very ordinary life it sort of petrified me a bit it was like a bit terrifying this thought of I don't want to grow up in this house and and when I I'm old in

my rocking chair I tell my grandkids you know like I had this really ordinary life and I had an ordinary job I had an ordinary income like that it petrified me from I think around I reckon I started feeling that way from about 15 I realized like the world is literally our oyster and we can do whatever we want with the 24 hours in the day that we're given so why the hell am I not going to go out and like make the most of them and do crazy things and make them like as I said make the most of it so yeah I think my parents having this very ordinary job like I mean please obviously it's not necessarily that ordinary but for me it was like it just terrified me I was like I don't want to have this life in Hitchin forever I know that there's so much more to achieve and I moved

to Manchester um when I was 18 and started my life there I just moved out I literally said to my mum one day I walked down into the living room I'll never forget it and I said I found this flat on right move and I'm moving to Manchester and she was like no you're not I was like no no I'm going she was like you don't have enough money I was like I'll find it like I'll make this work and I literally went within a week and I was gone I packed all my stuff up and I just left and I moved to Manchester and I remember the first night in my apartment in Manchester in ancoats I was like oh what have I done I was like this was the worst move I felt so homesick it was horrendous but then I settled in and it was the best thing I ever did looking back on it now

were you moving for a job were you moving just because I thought of um at that point I sort of missed out a part. I'd sort of started to grow following on Instagram and it was growing quite rapidly. And I'd found a management in Manchester. So I just thought, I'm just going to go up there and just see what happens. Like what's the worst that can happen? And all sort of the fast fashion companies and everything was in Manchester at that point. It became like the new place to be.

So I just thought, let's go, let's do it. And yeah, I went by myself. No one believed that I was going to do it and I just did let's go let's do it and yeah I went by myself no one believed that I was going to do it and I just did and yeah I definitely couldn't afford my rent my mum was right I think if um I'd stayed there any longer I probably would have had to move back home at some point because I really couldn't afford my rent I think it was like 900 pounds a month and I was barely making a thousand pounds a month so after my rent I had about 100 pounds to live on and a Starbucks at that point is what five pounds so it um but yeah no it was the best thing I ever did because obviously still in Manchester now

and I don't plan on leaving I love it do you do you consider yourself to be just thinking about that taking that step because you can often see in people's journeys there's that like one step into uncertainty where people think well I don't know why she did that or I wouldn't have done that myself but your career seems to be riddled with these kind of steps into uncertainty would you consider yourself to be at that age especially a confident person yeah I've always been extremely confident I've never ever struggled with um my confidence like even meeting new people trying new things like I've never I've never I've never felt unconfident in any situation which I'm really blessed to have that like even you know when I went on Love Island like going to my auditions super confident always super confident in everything

I do everything I I stand by like I just have that confidence and yeah I'm lucky to have that because I think it's something that just comes you don't you can't really build on it like it's either there or it's not um so yeah very confident person do you think you're as you kind of like so if we zoom forward a little bit we'll zoom back but as you zoom forward on this point of confidence um one of the things that I learned in my life is as I managed to do more things and achieve more things I actually realized that the previous version of myself um knew so little about the nature of the world and I just want to like scream back at myself oh my god Steve even though you were ambitious then and confident then,

you were wrong. Like you can do even more. Yeah. As you, as you look back on that, that, you know, that young girl in Hitchin.

Yeah. And other people who'll be in that situation. I'm the same. I'm from a small town where there's not a lot of, you know, global dreaming. No, definitely not.

What, what have you learned about the nature of like confidence and and how it builds and how you're how capable and how you know powerful your potential really is as you've boom boom boom yeah i think it's just believing in in that beyonce has the same 24 hours in a day that that we do and i just think like it's literally you're given one life and it's down to you what you do with it like you can literally go in any direction and when I've spoken about that before in the past I have been slammed a little bit with people saying you know like it's easy for you to say that you know you've grown up and you've not grown up in poverty you've not grown up you know with major money struggles so if you

to sit there and say that we all have the same 24 hours in a day it's not correct and I'm like but technically what I'm saying is correct we we do so I understand that obviously we all have different backgrounds and we're all raised in different ways and we do have different financial situations but I think if you want something enough you can achieve it and it just depends to what lengths you want to go to get where you want to be in the future and I'll go to any lengths like I I've worked my absolute ass off to get where I am now a lot of people don't think that and believe that but it's true I've worked so so hard on that point of time and Beyonce yeah that kind of mindset of being very very um efficient with how you spend your

time you must get a million requests to do everything like I get a lot of requests you must be getting pulled pushed do this do that how do you make the decision as to what is truly in line with who you are and where you want to go when you know like I don't think people understand thousands you're probably getting thousands of requests dms opportunities some of them which I'm sure you love to do yeah as you say 24 hours in a day yeah how are you filtering that I think what you've just said is actually the key to why I've become successful in what I do is because it is so strict with what I do take on and what I don't take on my days are planned out to like the nth degree like it is so particular

what work I'm doing and everything is done with such thought and like such um understanding behind it like I'm never taking on work that I don't understand or posting things on my socials that I'm not 100% behind or using like I think that is the key to being successful in in this industry and influencing if you want to call it like it's it's knowing what you're doing and knowing what you're talking about is is gospel like you use those products you you stand behind what you're saying like I think that is why I've I have done well in what I in what I do because I am so believing in what I say and my followers know that like they they know that I'm not talking about something on my YouTube unless I use it unless I I believe in it and that is the key to being successful in this you have to have the

trust of your audience so what work we take on is it 1% of what comes in, less probably. Fran gets, I'm not even joking, 800 emails a day for work coming in. It never stops. She's on her emails from 5am going through work that comes in. You have to turn down so much to earn that respect from your audience and that trust. And between you and your manager, Fran, do you then have to kind of initially agree where you want to go with your career what your values are what aligns with you yeah and that kind of becomes the filter of these 800 messages a day is that the we we set goals we we have like Fran and I have like this sort of regular meeting every like six months or so and we we sit down and

we we make a list of what I want to achieve and it used to be well, well, at the start, we were like going to do it every year, but I am achieving them rapidly now. So we're doing it like every few months and creating new goals and setting new targets of like, okay, I want to work with this brand. So if they've not reached to me, Fran will reach out and lo and behold, it normally happens where we're a really, really great team.

And I think having a manager that understands what your direction and what you want to do is utterly key because you know it's just so important like you can't do it alone it's impossible like okay it's not impossible but it's I couldn't do it alone no way so um having a manager that really really understands where you want to go is just so so so important I think and there's a there's a pretty remarkable long-termism your mindset that I, I garnered from watching some of the videos that you'd made. One in particular was the video where, you know, brand has come along and offered you 2 million quid to like be the face of their brand or do

a partnership with them. Yeah. And Fran has presented you with that opportunity. Yeah. And you said, No, I don't want to do that. Yeah. 2 million quid, Molly. Yeah, no, I said no i don't want to do that yeah two million quid molly yeah no i said no if that brand is still looking for a face oh my god why did you say that's the thing like as i just said before like no amount of money can make me take a job that i don't believe in if i'm not wearing the clothes i'm not taking the job no matter if they offered me five million ten million and i just solely believe that because the money will come from your audience like appreciating that you didn't take that job and if you know what I'm saying like it's I'd rather build that trust and then take that money because the trust is what will earn you money in the future anyway so I know that two million pound is going to come

back to me at some point because I'll work with another brand that I do believe in instead and my audience will see that and they'll buy into it they'll like the picture they'll engage with the content whereas they're not going to if I took that that brand deal before so because the audience see through they're not stupid like people I follow on Instagram that I love when they do something that's not authentic I see straight through it because you're the consumer like you know and it's just um yeah I think I did I knew you'd bring up that two million one because everyone was really fascinated by it I think everyone was really shocked but that's the side to me that people don't see and I was really glad that me and Fran had that chat on my YouTube because it showed people that you know it there's

so much more to it than people see with this whole influencing thing it's they have no idea what really goes on and my last point on this at this point of you and Fran one of the things I found actually quite quite remarkable is um when when you're coming down today and you know we were sorting out the logistics and those things you and fran stayed in the same hotel room yeah which is not typical of you know manager and client yeah how close are you you and fran we're literally like best friends she's i say like she's like a second mom to me like it it's grown that way because we spend like we spend every day together we're on the phone 24 7 like I speak to her more than I speak

to Tommy absolutely like it's the constant constant conversation it never stops if we're not on the phone we're texting if we're not texting we're in person with each other um yeah so like even after the last few weeks what's been going on Tommy and I like Fran took us in she's looked after us it's she's like my mum in Manchester like without her I honestly don't know how I'd have got through the last few years of my life like she's she's um yeah much more than a manager and I'm so blessed I know it's not a normal situation for people to have a manager like that I know when you come out of a show like Love Island having that manager that is on it is so key it is honestly so so key because without that it can really really fluff things up for you which I've seen firsthand with so many people and it's so sad

but yeah so let's talk about that then so Love Island um I don't want to talk too much about it because I think everybody understands the show and the concept of it but when you first were presented with the opportunity and you're debating because a lot you know I think everyone's got a mate who says oh yeah Love Island asked me to be on it and I said no that nonsense right when you first were presented with the opportunity what was your incentive for saying yes well it's it's tricky I've always struggled with how to talk about it because I answered a question once on my youtube about was Love Island a business move for you like and I and it is tricky for me to say the right thing without upsetting people but put it this way I didn't go on that show to find love

no one does people go on it for the experience people go on there for a laugh and I think because I went on there with a completely probably incorrect mindset that's why I did come out with a boyfriend and I think because you know when you're not expecting something it happens um but yeah I remember that it they came forward and I just thought at the time my influencing was going really well and there was actually a side of me that thought I can actually do this without going on this show like I know I'll be fine either way my following my following was growing rapidly like I think I was about 170,000 followers at that point and that was all organic growth there was no tv shows or anything and I hadn't had any friends of large followings that sort of posted me it was all very

natural growth so I knew I'd I'd say now if I hadn't gone on the show I'd probably be I'd like to say I'd be hitting a million followers um because I had that really good work ethic with my Instagram but the show just sort of it just elevated me and then I think one thing I always say is that when you come off that show you're all on a level playing field and it's totally up to you where you go with it and I just knew that I wanted to go just to levels that no one had ever gone to and that's why I never really speak about it because I just feel like I don't owe it that's not the reason why I am where I am now yeah it gave me a platform yeah it elevated me but the things I've done now are not because of Love Island they're because of me and what I've decided to do my work

ethic so I want to drill down on that point then so you're completely right um love island is a platform but the it's super super clear that if you look at the outcome of everybody that's been on that platform the results are wildly varying and um you're you've you know you're part of that platform yeah but what's happened to you subsequently after you've been on that show yeah is um unprecedented there's not been another example of someone who has risen so high following being involved in that platform so what is it about you and you know your character your you know whatever it might be I don't want to put the answer in your mouth what is it about you that's that's caused that so many different things but I think I knew the minute I came off that show that I just wanted to do crazy things and one thing for me is

that when I reach one goal it's what can I achieve next it's never enough for me and I think it's a bit of a downside to my personality because when I achieve something incredible I just want more I always want more like I remember I was speaking to a friend about this I was like I remember when my goal was I really want to get a million pounds my bank account that's all I wanted to do I was like that is my goal and then the minute I reached it I was like well I want two now I want two million and it's like I never I'm happy with where I'm at I'm constantly working towards the next thing but I think you need that you need that work ethic you need that desire to always want more it's never enough for me even when I got my

biggest dream collabs and it's just what can I get next Fran's sick of it as well she's like it's enough now come on when someone hears that they might think well how do how do you how would you be happy and satisfied and content whilst always striving to have more and more and more and once you get to that mountain top or what you thought was the mountain top they call it like a false peak in climbing where you get that bit and then you look up and there's more to go yeah and you can so how do you find the happiness amongst and amidst the climb yeah I'm working on that I think because even recently that we moved in into a new place we moved into this new house and I've realized I've actually got a bit of a problem with it because I was like this house is literally a

dream it's a dream but it's not enough for me because I still want more like I still want a bigger house I still want bigger things and it's like I need to work on that because you do need to find that happiness because you know 16 17 year old me is screaming at the things I'm doing right now and I'm still like it's not enough you know but I think that's why I I'm doing the things I'm doing and I am achieving great things because it's I'm never sort of like okay yeah I'm happy this week I'll just sit down and then this is fine no it's like what we're doing next week it's it's always more why do you think you want more what does it what emotionally psychologically in the mind what what is it that's saying that more why is more important I think again going back to that point where like when I when I'm older and

I've got my kids around me and I want to literally look back and say like my life was unbelievable like I did every single thing I could possibly ever want to do there's not one thing on my list that's not ticked and I think I'm not there yet and I know I can achieve more because it's possible so why not like we literally only are given one life we have to just go to the extremes and that's what I'm trying to do I am I'm very much the same in many ways and over the years I think I got to a point where my book is called happy sexy millionaire because 18, I wrote in my diary, Ranger, bear in mind, I was living in Moss Side and didn't have a driving license.

A Ranger of a sport will be my first car, make a million before I'm 25, I'll have a girlfriend, and I'll have a six pack, basically, right? That's my life goals. Brilliant. 24, I'm driving a Ranger of a sport, I'm a millionaire, whatever, whatever, whatever. Amazing. And then that anti-climax of getting there. Yes. This like feeling of where's

the marching band in the confetti like it's i thought it's a huge anti-climax isn't it it's it's mental like don't get me wrong it's incredible to reach your goals but it is a little bit oh you know when you hear people the richest people in the world and they say you're not happy though because you have all this money thing yeah you are happy like of course you are you've got all this money but they're probably not because it really actually doesn't mean anything all of that stuff your happiness comes from within and the people around you and your life it doesn't come from how much money you have in your bank and what car you drive and what house you live in it really doesn't it sounds cliche but it I've learned that and I'm only 22 in it and I've realized that straight away I'm like oh gosh

okay it actually doesn't come from all this stuff it comes from your mental state and and your family and that the more important stuff really the non-superficial stuff that anticlimax is very real then my my concern as you've said there is like i just was scared that i'd never be happy if i'm not happy now because yeah like this is like i think for both of us from what you said anyway this is the dream that hitching molly may yeah dreamed of and you and hitching molly may at 17 said when we get there at 22 we're going to be happy i promise you i'll sit on my sofa and i won't work another day and i'll be happy and i'll just it's not that way it isn't you think it will be and don't get me wrong it's incredible and i'm so happy i'm the happiest i've ever been i take i don't want for more but i do if that makes sense I don't know have you got a lot of friends

no I don't that's that's a blunt question yeah no there's lots of blunt questions straight up no no I don't my circle is minuscule I have literally about five people in my circle and that includes friends I have acquaintances and I have people in my life that I say are my friends but I know my circle is absolutely tiny and I like it that way I wouldn't have it any other way um I work I spend time with my boyfriend and I go to bed that is actually my life and I'm not bothered about a social life it's never been something that I've been interested in I don't know if you've like I don't know if you know but I don't really drink I don't party I don't go out but that is just because I actually don't enjoy it it's not for me I'd rather just focus on making money being

successful and and being happy that's friends they come and go and I just I find it a waste of a bit of a waste of time so you don't you don't actively want more friends no yeah no it's time consuming like trying to make people happy like I've lost a lot of friends but since coming off love island because I don't have the time and I and in the end I just say do you know what look like I'd rather focus on the things that are actually going to elevate me and and it sounds savage but sometimes friends they just not cling on but they they don't add much yeah I know it sounds a bit savage but no it's true and especially when you evolve as a person you kind of sometimes I think you lose the thing that made you resonate

with certain people yeah 100% well I'm not that girl from Hitchin anymore and you know like I'm not that young girl that was a lifeguard at Hitchin swimming pool like that's not me I've I'm living a completely different in a different world now and a lot of my friends can't relate to that and even though I'm still the same person my life and my circumstances they're just so different that you do just naturally just people just fall off don't they but I've friends I've never I've never needed lots of friends it's just something that I've never really needed and people pick up on pick up that about me really quickly they just say like you've got your circle so small bit of a loner but I like it I you know I asked that question in part because every successful person I've sat here

with doesn't have a lot of friends no and you know I was actually having a conversation with one of the previous guests on this podcast and she's got two and a half million followers on Instagram and she was telling me last night that she has one friend it's her boyfriend yeah she literally said I have one friend and it's my boyfriend yeah that sounds that sounds about right for me and it's sometimes it's weird because when i ask people this question it feels really uncomfortable yeah when you first said i was like oh god no i don't but it's yeah it's it's a weird one because you don't want to sound like you you don't have any friends because then people think well you're probably the problem then

do you know what i mean like you're pushing people away but it isn't that it's just like i haven't got the time like i'd I really would rather just spend time with Fran because we're friends and we talk about work and we get we you know we we make money and then I spend time with my boyfriend because he's amazing and it doesn't you don't need to force the conversation you don't have to go for dinners and split the bill it's just like oh it sounds terrible but I just don't have the time for it I'm lazy with it has it become hard to trust people um especially following you know your meteoric rise in the public eye does it get more difficult to trust yeah people because they're always you know people always well sometimes people are in it for themselves

they're trying to sell stuff up stories about you or they're trying to take advantage yeah I've been quite blessed with my rise in that I because my circle has always been small I have not really had to cut people off because they're you know selling stories to the press I've never had that I mean I know of anyway um I mean yeah but um yeah I mean you you do have to be worried about who's in your life because I I think Fran always says this to me she's like you just think you're still that 17 year old girl from Hitchens sometimes you're not and people will come into your life for the wrong reasons but I think I'm a bit naive to that sometimes and that is another reason why I keep my circle so small because it's different now I think the people it's just it's hard to it's hard to trust people I am I was watching something you

said about how you've been very open about sharing the lows and the highs that come with your meteoric rise and the publicity and being in the public eye that it's it's very easy to see a lot of the clear upsides right the nice things the like general sense of I'd say like freedom to choose freedom of choice in your career and stuff like that but what are some of the like trade-offs of that success which you just think oh that sucks well there's a lot there's lots obviously I've dealt with a lot in the last two years in terms of I was trolled extremely badly I mean it's like a cliche topic and I and I don't really talk about the trolling a lot because it's but I guess all anyone talks about on social media these days is trolls and trolling and

but it it did happen to me extremely badly and there was this one time we went to Barbados to shoot a campaign for my fake tan business and um we were followed the whole trip by paparazzi we didn't even realize and they were posing as like architecture um photographers in front of this building and and I did think at one point I was like is that guy taking pictures of me but I just thought you know he's taking pictures of the building behind me there's no way in Barbados that they're gonna be taking pictures of me anyway that afternoon um me stood in this white bikini like completely like they were just the most horrendous pictures in my eyes and I I actually rang the Daily Mail myself I went through to someone on customer service and I

just was like this is Molly Mae you must take those pictures down now like I was hysterically crying and I was and this poor person on customer service was like what this is Molly Mae, you must take those pictures down now. Like I was hysterically crying. And I was, and this poor person on customer service was probably just like, what is going on? And I was just screaming down the phone, like, please, like you've ruined my life. Like, look at the comments under that picture. Like, please take them down. And it was just like, when I look back at that now, I mean, I would never say like I've had like a mental breakdown. But that was close to it because I just went crazy. I was like screaming down the phone at this person on customer service that anything about it but for me I was like this is going to make it

better like if they take them down it'll all go away but that was like a really really low moment for me um probably like the lowest of coming out of the show it was horrendous it was just horrendous like people calling me fat um overweight and I'm size eight so like it just it made me so upset to think that if people are calling me overweight you know a girl a very normal size 10 girl like what are they going to be thinking if I'm being called fat like it's it's heartbreaking and I think the whole trolling thing like I have kind of dealt with it now like I'm really good at dealing with it I sort of have this approach of like if it doesn't matter like people can say what they want to say these people are just genuinely so unhappy in their lives that they try and bring you down and it's so sad but um you do learn to deal with it it's just part of it

and we've really we've learned in terms of like we're on always on pat watch now and if we go away on campaigns like we literally have someone that's job is specifically to look out for people taking pictures so it doesn't happen again because it was it was quite bad that for me those daily mail comments really are a cesspool of just vileness I remember when I was announced as a dragon on dragon's den and like I don't look at comment sections because I'm just really not bothered it's like not going to add to my life but then my family calling me and being like oh my god those comments my mum does that to me I'm like don't look at them my mum my mum does that to me she goes have you seen the comments on daily mail I'm like mum why would you tell me that

like don't look I'm not looking so neither do you like just leave it but yeah I think obviously they're just looking out for you and they don't understand that you're probably just trying to avoid it that's a pretty remarkable way to live you're talking about you know being on holiday and having someone on pat watch and you must always be on edge yeah you are you are always on edge and it's it's a weird way to live but it's become normal now it's been two and a half years and that was really early on in Barbados that was I think maybe three months four months after I'd come out of the show and that was okay this is how we need to live now this is how we need to do things and it's just been the same and having an incredible team as well to to be protective of you is is I'm really lucky for that because I couldn't do it by myself is you know really vulnerable like it's such a vulnerable

job to have um and yeah perhaps posing as architect photographers like it's just there's snakes everywhere yeah man before we started recording Fran your manager told me that you are a little bit of a perfectionist and that you care a lot about getting all the details right for your customers but across your life generally so I guess my question to you is how do you do that? How do you, dare I say, worry about details and also still maintain your peace of mind? I mean, it's compartmentalizing it. It's sort of like, I don't really switch off. It's almost like I just, it's sort of built into my mind it's a 24-7 it's I'm always always thinking in the back of my mind how everything I'm doing is affecting my work because that's I am my job at the end of the day like I'm Molly May and Molly May is what makes me

my income it's not like I go to work and I come back and I switch off I'm 24-7 on my phone so everything I'm doing everything I'm saying one story post that takes two seconds to post everything I do affects how I make money how my audience perceives me so it's I just think I've just sort of like I don't know it becomes one my life is just is it sounds chaotic right and it also sounds like I find it pretty remarkable based on people I've spoken to that live in a similar way that are very neurotic and that are always one and always thinking and right and it also sounds like I find it pretty remarkable based on people I've spoken to that live in a similar way that are very neurotic and that are always on and always thinking and then yeah are in the middle of the like social media instant feedback bubble yeah how do you avoid

being anxious and that's in within that cauldron you you really just have to sort of accept that Instagram is Instagram and there's always going to be that one person on Instagram that that doesn't like what you're doing I've got 6.2 million followers it is impossible to please everybody so I've really had to understand that you know everything I say and everything I do not everyone's going to like it no matter how much I wish they did because it would put my mind at rest a lot knowing that everybody loves what I'm doing there's always going to be that one person that that hates what you're doing and hates you so you just sort of have to sort of understand that Instagram is it's just it's very superficial and it's just a highlight reel that's why I love my

YouTube as well because I feel like my YouTube is so behind the scenes it's you really get that that bigger picture you see the bad stuff that's happening in my day and I think do you know what I think not to sound big-headed but I think that is why I have a really high engagement on my Instagram it's because my followers they they see me on YouTube and they see that picture on Instagram and they think we know that she's not actually had a good day we know that she's actually I spoke about a few months ago how I wanted this really really incredible job opportunity and I didn't get it and I'm really transparent like I'm like today's been crap I've cried today like I've come my period today I'm feeling really rubbish today like I'm I'm really really transparent so

I think when they see that picture on Instagram they know actually if we want to see a bit more of like a realist side here we'll just go to our YouTube and have a look and I love that that is why I to all my influencer friends I say start YouTube start YouTube if you want your engagement to grow if you want your audience to fall in love with you if you want people to understand you more you have to start YouTube because Instagram is it's nothing it's a picture I post one picture a day what's anyone going to learn from that picture nothing YouTube is where it's at that's where they learn that's where they engage with you and understand you and believe in you and that's the depth right yeah it's so important like I do YouTube because I love it I've I still edit all my own content I still yeah I I'm really I love it I actually

find it um therapeutic editing my videos and I love um when I finish editing a video and I upload it I love that sense of I just created that And it's bigger than just editing an Instagram picture and putting it through ColourTone and putting a filter on it. You've spent time developing that video and you've created it. And millions of people are going to go and watch that and spend their 20 minutes of their day

watching that video that you've created. And I love that feeling. That's really special. And I've had so many video editors say like, oh, I'll do it. And I would never give that job to someone else. One of the things I find really fascinating and it's linked to what you said there about being very honest and open with your audience but at the same time again if we're talking about

things that feel like they don't marry together or they feel like contradictions is as you rise and rise and rise and as you experience more like material success and you can buy nicer things do you become less relatable to your audience and is this is this something you think about because the girl you know that is 16 right now living in Hitchens looking up at you and you're getting you're getting apparently further and further away from being you know that's such an interesting question if when you say that then I was like that's a really valid point and I actually don't get me wrong I'll be honest I do see comments on Instagram saying like you know can you do like a more high street haul this week can you talk

about more high street clothes because don't forget in that six million followers there's such a wide variety of people there's that 45 year old mum that's you know living on food stamps you know and she's got no money and she wants to see me post really normal things but then I've got probably another girl that's following me an 18 year old girl that dad funds their life and they want to see the glamour it's there's it's such it's impossible to to sort of cater for everyone I try and as I sort of as you say as I sort of my life is changing so much I still try and stay as relatable as possible and I do I I would say that I am still extremely relatable and again that's my YouTube I post yeah all these incredible things that I buy on my Instagram and I've sort of stopped doing that now but I well oh because

yeah fine yeah but um I I sort of that's again my YouTube is I'm I'm there's in a vlog I might be saying oh I've just bought this brand new watch it's amazing it's cost x youtube is i'm i'm there's in a vlog i might be saying oh i've just bought this brand new watch it's amazing it's cost x amount and i'm having a really great day but then i also might say oh you know me and tommy just had a huge argument and i've walked out the house i there's it's in a vlog i try and keep that balance as much as possible so i can sort of not because i cater for everyone it's just because i am that way yeah life is like that way you know when you're being honest one minute something's really great next minute's really shit. And that's just the way it is. And I guess there's, there's two forces there really, because I think if I was,

well, not even, but if I was following you, it'd be for two reasons, right? For me, on one hand, it's aspiration. It's, oh my God, look at this amazing thing, all these amazing things she's achieved. And I really aspire to be there one day but then obviously the relatability comes from the fact that you're talking about how bad your period pains are and this problem with your boyfriend and those are things we can all relate to yeah and then on the other hand there's all these wonderful things that we can all aspire to yes and I think I think at the end of the day it's interesting with social media because a lot of people in your position wouldn't share the aspirational things because they'll care too much about what people might say yeah

i would actually say the opposite i would say i think a lot of people share the aspirational things but they don't share the low moments that's true when i when i'm watching people's youtubes i'm seeing so many girls being like my life is just so amazing and i do these amazing things and i'm a vegan and i eat clean and i go to the gym and they don't talk about the low moments and they wonder why their audience isn't engaged you have to be honest and you have to include those things that maybe you don't really want to include it but your audience will appreciate that because that girl is probably also having a crappy day that's watching it so she wants to see you also having a crappy day so she knows it's okay and that's where I think some influencers and some youtubers

they they fall down because they don't they're not 100% honest whereas I really really am and I stand by that um so yeah if you buy something really expensive though let's say you buy something really really expensive when you go to post it is there an is there a feeling of like concern about it might make some people feel you know that struggling might make them feel bad or inadequate in a way yeah I mean it's tricky isn't it it's it's hard to know what you're gonna what you post how it's gonna affect people like you might think that posting one thing will have no effect on somebody but actually it could be all that person thinks about that day and it's kind of scary it's a massive responsibility because I have super young followers as well and I've got to be careful you know I've been on a bit

of like a health journey recently I've got to be so careful talking about weight loss and what I'm eating because you don't know what you're saying it's so impressionable and these young girls they're so again vulnerable and I know when I was watching girls Instagram stories I mean I'm sure I'll talk to you about filler in a bit but I Instagram was the reason I ended up getting all that filler because I was watching these girls stories thinking they have filler so i need to go and get filler so if i'm posting about you know a health journey and i've lost a few pounds i feel great well then young girls are gonna go and think well i need to go lose a few pounds if molly may's done it so everything you're saying it has to be so clearly thought about because it's you have no idea how that one tiny

story is going to affect that person's day with everything isn't there a lot of things though where you just can't you can't there's no way to get it right you can't control it no you can't get it right all the time i feel like there must be so many things where if you post it you're gonna get back because i i experience it a little bit people it's funny with with um with me i i and i've learned this again from my guests i've sat here with i can get away for some reason with a lot more than they can. So I can post something and I'll typically get like pretty much a hundred percent positive. Like a good example actually was when I'd been in the gym a lot and I'm saying to Grace, who's in my content team, I'm like, I'm going to post a topless photo

and say like, show my gym transformation before and after. And Grace raises it to me that like a lot of influencers who do that gets like slammed for you know what you're saying you're saying six packets yeah yeah i'm like no one's gonna say that in my audience i post it everyone's clapping everyone's like amazing give us your tips but it seems to be like almost a double standard for women creators and women like you who if i look at it and think oh man you got it's like a minefield of correctness I know honestly but that is another reason why I stay quiet in a lot of things I don't I'm often fearful to speak and even on Twitter I kind of stopped using my Twitter because everything you say like you I remember a few months ago I went to Italy for um a trip and

I mentioned that I I didn't like the food in Italy. And the way I worded it probably wasn't, I probably could have worded it better, but I was trending on Twitter for four days about how I said I didn't like the food in Italy. And I was like literally going through a really hard time. I was like, I can't deal with this. I've made one comment that people didn't like

about the ice cream in Italy and I'm literally trending and I'm getting like death threats because of it. And it's a it's a lot like it's how I mean I always say like when I don't have like a scandal for a while I think god scandals coming soon I'm going to say something wrong soon like it is you're kind of always on the edge of like what's going to be next like what's what's happening next so with all this you know when you say this to me my like I've got to be honest I don't envy that situation because I think one of the forms of um one of the real causes in our society and in the world of mental health issues is feeling like you can't be your true self yeah and there are physical forms of imprisonment putting someone in a jail and then there are mental forms of imprisonment

which is like stopping them speaking freely about who they are who they love what they think and what they feel and yet when in every interview that I've encountered with you the answer I see is I'm very very happy how could how how is how is that all possible for you to live in a world where there is so much concern and so many minds that you could possibly step on and to still be happy I know I am always saying that I'm happy because how I think it'd be selfish for me to say that I'm not like how could I not be happy like 17 year old me creeps back up things I'm thinking like god I am happy because this is all I ever wanted and yes every day in my mind I think god I've I have got these worries and I have got these struggles but let's just take a step back I am happy like I sort of have to just look at the

bigger picture I'm healthy I have my health my family's well I have an incredible manager I have an incredible boyfriend I live in a beautiful house I'm safe I'm happy like I am yeah I've got all these these worries about when am I next gonna have a scandal when am I next gonna say the wrong thing and but in the bigger picture like 17 year old me again could only dream of this shit and I'm living it so that's how I look at it and that gratitude you know it's clearly so important to be yeah centered and grounded amongst all of this chaos right yes yeah a hundred percent I I am very grounded and I think that's one thing that I'm proud of is that everyone that knows me

from my life prior to Love Island they've they've all said I've never changed I've always stayed the same yeah my life my circumstances have changed but me myself I'm the same person and I and I know I am I've never become bougie I've never become like I've never you know I just I couldn't it's not me I am that I am still that girl from Hertfordshire but just with a very different life now but I've never changed even then since I've met Fran in that two and a half years I'm still the same person that she met on that day when I came out of Love Island so yeah I stand by that and I'm proud that I've stayed the same. Speaking there about social media and you know one of the changes you made and you've talked about this publicly is you removed the cosmetic filler from your face

right yeah and um and other things other sort of changes to your sort of cosmetic appearance can you talk to me first about what it was that made you want to go and get cosmetic filler in your face well I think you're clearly very beautiful oh thank you well I was seven 16 or 17 when I first got filler and 16 if it was I think is actually illegal um I think you have to be 17 legally um but I I went and got lip filler when I was around 16 and it didn't stop for a few years like I kept getting it and I kept getting it and it became around that time was when it had become very normalized filler was it was literally like going to go into the gym like I'm just gonna go get a top up of my lip filler it became so normalized which is terrifying and so scary that

these things are spoken about on social media, like these, these, um, aesthetic pages, they're posting all these packages you can get with filler and it's, it became really normal. So I just, I went one day and I just got it and it was like nothing. And I didn't tell my mom, I just kept it from everyone. No one even really noticed. But I think on social media, as I said before, I was seeing all these girls, um, with filler and with all these things onto our face their faces so I thought well if I want to be successful in that industry if I want to be an influencer and I want to have a large following I'm going to have to get that too like I'm going to need to do that

to my face I need jaw filler and cheek filler and lip filler and Botox to look the way these girls do um when actually what everyone I realize now is all just editing none of them look like that anyway but um it's scary because it I wouldn't say I got addicted to it but uh by the age of 21 I didn't look like the same person I literally looked like a different person it was when I look back at pictures now I'm I'm terrified of myself I'm like who was that girl I don't know what happened and it was actually only until my sister said to me she was like we need to sort this out it was like it took her to tell me I was at um a PA in in a club I don't remember where I was and she texted me and she was like I need to talk to you about the filler like

it's too much now like it's it's enough you need to stop and then I actually sort of I remember going on my front camera and I was looking I was like what's she talking about and I actually realized I was like I don't it's not nice And I actually realized, I was like, I don't, it's not nice. This is my face. I literally, everyone used to call me quagmire. I don't even know quagmire is. I think it's like a cartoon character. I don't know. Oh, okay.

Well, people would either say. Quagmire on the screen. Yeah, quagmire. People used to say quagmire or they said I look like an Xbox controller. Like my face was that warped. Like I got all kinds of things. But there was this one pivotal moment where I'd gone and I'd got loads of filler and I posted a YouTube video um and I hadn't let the filler sort of settle and it was

really swollen and a picture from a screenshot from that video it trended on Twitter for weeks it was horrendous it was utterly horrendous it was like you can insert the picture we'll send it to you it was my face was literally like it was just awful and it was that was a moment for me as well where I was like I think I think things need to change I I thought one day I'm actually I'm gonna get my lips dissolved in it and it it was a process I went and got my lips dissolved and I posted about it on YouTube and I didn't expect the response that I got it was huge and a lot of girls were tweeting saying made me laugh and was like Molly May getting lip filler does not mean that we will have getting her lip filler

dissolved sorry does not mean that we will have to go and do the same because obviously they all love their lip filler which I think is great like some girls absolutely love it and by me getting my filler dissolved did not mean that I don't agree with filler I got it at one point like I obviously loved it and some girls it makes them feel super confident and it did for me for a while until I took it too far I think it can be a great thing it's not for me to sit here and bash it because some girls they do feel amazing with it and that's that's great but for me um the minute I started to sort of reverse my image and dissolve the filler and dissolve my lips and I actually had full set of composite um bonding like veneers on my teeth I had them removed as

well I literally took it to the extremes and I just stripped myself back and weirdly I felt the prettiest I'd ever felt once it had all gone and I feel like I'd dropped about five years off my age and it was like it was a really really significant moment for me and I just stripping everything back and I didn't realize how much respect that would get me I didn't do it for respect I did it for myself I didn't do it for respect. I did it for myself. I didn't do it for anyone else. I did it because I knew that I needed to. But from doing it, all these young girls were like, well, all these young girls' parents were reminding Fran and saying, thank you so much. Like, this is so amazing for us to see. It's so different. I actually had some, a mom come up to me when I was visiting Hitchin

with my mom. She came up to me in the street, crying her eyes out, saying that she was so grateful to me for doing what I did with my filler because she's so happy me in the street crying her eyes out saying that she was so grateful to me for doing what I did with my filler because she's so happy that like the effect it had on her children and my mum started crying and it was all like emotions my mum was she when the woman walked away she was like I'm so proud of you and I just didn't realize like from me doing that the effect it would have on so many people your manager Fran told me she said um when you made that decision to remove the cosmetic filler and the bonding from your teeth, she was getting so many emails, she couldn't keep up with her inbox

from parents saying, expressing their admiration and gratitude, because obviously previously, those parents and their children had been looking up to certain role models who do do a lot of editing because of, you know, because of the comparison based world we live in. And to have a role model like yourself who is taking the very, very brave and brave is maybe not the right word, but just the very important step to say that I'm going to be a role model that doesn't tamper too much with my face because of the consequences

and what that might tell my audience about themselves. When you went on your transition, when you went from being, you know, a little bit too too much filler here maybe in bonded teeth and stuff like that to the au naturel molly that you are now was there other moments of doubt where you looked at yourself and thought you know what maybe I'll knit back and yeah well yeah I mean it didn't happen overnight I can't sit here and say like I suddenly just felt incredible like it was a huge change like my I literally I look like a different person with all the filler in and a different person with it out and um there was a moment where I'd just done the cover for Cosmopolitan magazine and it was a really big deal to me I was so hugely happy that I'd landed the cover because

um it was a dream it's huge my mom used to buy me that magazine when I was younger and it was it was I couldn't believe that I was gonna be on the cover but that was the first time I'd been pictured after I'd had all the filler removed and I actually despised the picture so much that I just I cried about it for days yeah I because I didn't get approval of the image and I just thought I sort of prayed I was like I really hope I like the image and I I absolutely hated it and it went it went out and it was fine and everyone was telling I really hope I like the image and I I absolutely hated it and it went it went out and it was fine and everyone was telling me how amazing I looked and it was kind of sad that after everyone sort of confirmed that they they thought I looked nice then I felt better that's

a bit sad because I think I didn't until I've until people started to say that I never really thought I was that girl I always sort of thought I don't need people to tell me that I look nice like it but I think then I did because I was really vulnerable like I just had all this filler removed no one had really seen me like that I looked really different I did and I think people noticed it but people really admired it because it was different it was new no one had no one had really done that yet I wouldn't want to say that I started a trend but I do feel like I did start a bit of a trend with the sort of dissolving and again I'm proud of that because yeah I might have been a bit uneasy about it at first but now loads of people are doing it and I love it it's like an amazing movement and with the with the brands that you're involved in in the businesses you run do you now seek out

models and influencers and creators that are representing that more natural look as well I wouldn't even say so because as I said before I don't think filler is a bad thing if it's done safely and it's done in a way that makes a girl feel more or a guy feel more confident then then that's great whatever makes that person feel amazing that's what I like and if a model comes in and we like her and she's got a face full of filler that's not a problem because another girl that's looking at that campaign also might have a face full of filler you know again it's I don't really judge people based on things like that I made a mistake with it once and but at one point I loved it and it did make me feel confident so no I think we just like when we look booking models for filter and

things we just want to be relatable and we want to sort of have a girl modeling up the fake tan that that lots of girls can relate to that's why we use like always use multiple models in our campaigns and plus size and we we try and sort of cater to everybody imposter syndrome when people rise very very quickly into high places they often talk about this feeling of imposter syndrome where they you know inside them maybe they're still that girl from Hitchin but they're in these like big rooms with these big things talking about big ideas and do you ever feel that um I guess I'm I'm extremely honest when I need to ask questions when I don't understand what the hell's going on like I actually said to Fran I was like I bet Stephen's going to use loads of words that I have no idea what they mean and I'm just gonna have to sit here and pretend that I have a clue what he's on about. When really I don't.

Has that happened yet? No. But when I was listening to your one with Patricia Bright, you said a few words and I was like, don't know what that means. And I was like, it's definitely, that's going to happen. But I'm really honest. I'm really transparent. I'll be in finance meetings with Fran and we'll be talking about gross profit.

And I say, can we just rewind? I have no idea what we're talking about here and I'm really really transparent with that like I tried to just remember I am 22 they didn't teach me this stuff in school they really didn't and I I'm talking about mortgages and stuff I didn't know what a mortgage was until a few months ago I'll be honest because when I started looking at buying a house I was like so what is a mortgage because I didn't know and I think um that's how I've sort of gotten away from that like imposter syndrome I just I I just ask I just ask the questions I'm not embarrassed

and um I've had to learn a lot really quickly I didn't know anything at the start of this process I didn't know I don't think I had enough money to even pay a tax bill before I didn't understand I was making a thousand pound a month before the show so I'd never paid a tax bill like and it was it was a lot of learning very quickly and I've just always asked I'm not afraid to ask and that's a really important thing don't be afraid to ask if you don't know for me that's it's so inspiring to hear that answer because I've been in that exact same situation I was in boardrooms as well when I was 22 years old and you're sat there you think you're looking around the room and there's people double your age and And of course, it's easy to feel like you're inadequate or you're an imposter in that room. But the thing that I always fell back on

was this understanding that I'm in that room for a reason. There's something that I have that those men that are double my age in suits that have gray hair don't have. And that's my specialty. That's the reason I'm there. They have things I don't have, I have things hair don't have. And that's my specialty. That's the reason I'm there. They have things I don't have, I have things they don't have. And I think, for me, the thing that's made me feel comfortable in intimidating situations, whether it's Dragon's Den, or being in boardrooms out of my depth at a very, very young age, is continually reminding myself that I am there for a reason too. And there's something that I know, there's some, in your case, you know,

unbelievable creativity and understanding of the customer that has put me there. And I think what you've realized is incredibly important. You don't have to speak on things you don't know. And as a young person in these very intimidating foreign situations like the boardroom, you don't have to pretend you know everything. You can just wait and have the confidence to speak on the things that you know well, that you know better than everybody. And can just wait and have the confidence to speak on the things

that you know well, that you know better than everybody. And I just think that's so incredibly important that when you are in intimidating situations as a young person in business or in your career, you got to know that you're there for a reason too. You're bringing value to that room too. You don't have to speak on on everything but you are there for a reason when when I read about your story when I've watched you over the years and I've been close to people that you're close to um I could not believe for the life of me when my team told me you were 22 I like I was like yeah sure like googled it myself and I was like Wikipedia is wrong as well because it doesn't make sense right and it as you say there are so many like fundamental things

about business and funny money and life and finance that must just now be like thrown at you and um and to be honest they're thrown at everybody right um especially when we you know we start thinking about mortgages and stuff in terms of money and finance what are some of the lessons that you've you've had to learn um or the the advice you would give to people that are listening to make sure that they don't blow all their money and end up in jail I don't think I'm the I'll be honest I don't think I'm there yet myself to give advice I'm still learning I have yeah a large amount of money for someone my age and I'm I have to sort of rely on people around me to advise me with it like I've just started investing which has been a huge interesting

new chapter for me I hadn't got a clue about investing but I know it's really important I knew it's a it's a key thing and I need to do it I didn't know where to start so I've I've been learning about that which has been really interesting but I know it is cliche and I know everyone says it but because you don't learn these things in school, like it's so daunting. And my situation is so niche in that I came to a large amount of money so quickly and it was so vulnerable. Like I had to sort of like get my parents on board with it because I just, you trust all these people, but it was so scary.

I'd say it's probably the most daunting thing really, like coming out in this new world of like, I didn't have literally a pot to piss in before and now I'm like dealing with these huge banks and they're like it's mental it's it's and I don't want it I wouldn't even give advice because I'm still learning and I'm not afraid to say that I'm learning every day with it um but yeah it is daunting it's a whole new world on that we talked a little bit earlier about we kind of touched on mental health one of the things that I was really inspired by is you you gave the profits from your one of your PLT ranges to the charity mind the mental health charity yeah why did you do that

well it was it was shortly after Caroline Flack had passed away um which was obviously heartbreaking and it was a huge huge huge shock um and myself and PLT we'd planned this huge launch party and a big launch dinner and we I was there getting ready for it we cancelled it on the night because we just found out the news and it was just it wasn't right it just it didn't feel right and the only way it would feel rightly released in the collections if we did donate the the profits made to mind um at that time and it was just it was a really tricky time and I think I'm so proud to to be a part of PLT in a way that they were so on board with it straight away and it was totally my idea and I went to them and I said this is what needs to happen and they were like yeah it wasn't even a hesitation it wasn't like no but we need to make money back no they they totally understood um yeah and I'm blessed to work with PLT so closely because they're just they were

amazing at that time was that one of the things on your proverbial mood board that becoming the creative director of PLT did you ever dream about that what was the and how did that all come about you know it was a pretty little thing it's It was crazy because I knew when I started working with them, it was like I had this feeling that it was going to go bigger than I had anticipated. We bought out these collections and bought out these edits and it was just growing and growing. And my growth was going up and it just wasn't slowing down.

And I created such a close relationship with PLT and we really understood each other and it just grew past that point of being an influencer because I don't really count myself as an influencer anymore I know I am theoretically but it's more than that now and I am more of a businesswoman and I feel like PLT it was in it was in the works for a while it was conversations about this role and um I never really spoke about how it happened but there was conversations about a role creative director was mentioned and I was like that's the only one I want I don't want anything else I don't want to be head of any other department creative director is my role and if not then we'll just carry on doing what we're doing or we'll see and um Fran worked on it with Emma

and they spoke and they spoke and it it was about six months in discussion. And then Fran rang me. I was in my car and she was like, we've got it. You're going to be the creative director of Pretty Little Thing. And it was a really like, it was a crazy moment. I screamed on the phone. I was like, oh my God, like this is wild. And I was just so excited to tell everybody.

I had to wait a few months. I knew I was sitting on it for a while. And then I told everyone and it literally blew up the internet I didn't expect it to have like the effect that it did but it was huge literally huge it was massive yeah I don't know it was yeah I think it was just no one really expected it I think um no one saw it coming I think they probably just thought when I said I had a big announcement they probably like oh it's just another collection she's bringing out a few more pieces of clothing no it was when I said I had the biggest piece of like my biggest achievement yeah I meant it it was my biggest achievement yet like I'm not just an influencer

anymore I'm the creative director of pretty little thing like that hasn't still really sunken in yet for me and what does that mean so the thing that brands do very well is they they like using you know influencers creators to kind of sell you know we'll do a line with you we'll do an edit with you this is different right yeah it's completely different talk to me about how it's different well I have a huge role within the business now I have a huge voice within the business and I think what's so amazing is that I am the consumer I am that their their target market really that age range I'm I am that consumer so to have me in the business with my views with my you know with my guidance like it's really helpful to them it's a fresh pair of eyes I think they really needed that and I think um because I know the brand so well and I've worked

with them I worked with them way before Love Island I've worked with PLT now for heading on six years they were one of the first businesses one of the first fashion companies that gifted me when I had about 11,000 followers on Instagram so I've just we've believed each other from the very start so it was just such an organic movement for me like just to in that business and another funny story is that when I came out of Love Island I had this day where all these fashion brands they came forward and they sat down and they offered me all these crazy deals. I'm not joking. There was probably about 15 of all my dream brands. They came in and they were like,

we'll offer you this, we'll offer you a car, we'll offer you this amount of money. And PLT didn't actually, it was, Zoom called me. They were actually the only one that didn't show up on the day, but they were the most important to me because I knew that I was like, these business meetings with all these other brands are kind of irrelevant because I know I want PLT. PLT wasn't the highest

money offer that came forward. There were brands that came forward and offered me triple what PLT offered me. But because I love PLT so much and because I believed them wholeheartedly and I knew that me working with them was going to be something the way it is now. I went with them and it was the best thing I ever did. And what's the best, now you've been in that role for several months, what do you enjoy most?

Because you've taken a big step from doing ranges with them to now being inside the business. Yeah. What surprised you? What have you enjoyed? Well, I think people wouldn't understand that the creative director role it wasn't just out of the blue

it came about because I have been I've always given my input in everything that I've done in every collection I've brought out I've always done more than the average influencer I think PLT saw that I think they saw hang on this girl's actually got something to offer she's got ideas on every shoot I have a large input with location sets um you know photographers models that I use like it's I've always never just sat back and said yeah that'll do I'll do that I've always had something to say um so it was I think they they saw that and I think even things have changed so much now since I've come in this role like the collections that I'm bringing out now like they're worked on for a year they're not it's like I mean the one we're bringing out next

it's been working on we've been working on now for about seven months so it's um things are done a lot more seriously they're not rushed they're really thought through um we're working I don't know how much I can speak about it but we're working on um London Fashion Week show which has been in the works now again for about six months um there's it's a lot of work and it's interesting as well again I'll sit here and I'll say I'll be honest it's a business role and I'm learning I'm not I don't know everything about business you know and a lot of I got a lot of backlash when I came forward saying I was a new creative director people were saying what do you know about being a creative director you've never been to university but it's not so much that I go in and I talk about

numbers and I talk about the nitty gritty of like, I'm more there to give my perspective on how things should be done. I'm there to go into the studios and say, I think this needs to be changed. I think this, you know, I'm there to be that fresh set of eyes and to be the consumer giving their voice. That's sort of how it works. And Umar, you know, the founder and CEO of Pretty Little Thing,

he himself started in that role when he didn't know anything about fashion other than, know you know he's got links with his family but that was his first real chance and i've worked with him as well and one of the things he's always said to me is he likes bringing people in that don't have experience he i've seen i've sat in his office for many many years and he said we need more 16 year olds in here yeah and what he's saying is you've said is he wants fresh eyes he wants a fresh perspective he wants kids that understand tiktok yeah and keeping and that's probably why they've done so well and been so relevant you're so right you're sorry when you go into the plt office it's all young girls working in there all different kinds of girls but all young and it's

it's really interesting because there's like two sides to the office you've got like the tech side which are like all the guys like working around the computers like trying to make sure the website doesn't crash when they have a massive sale then you have like the side of things where it's like the young girls doing the tiktoks doing the tweets doing the instagram it's huge it's the it's absolutely it's like um it's like an empire plt every time i go in that head office i'm like blown away um and i think if i didn't do what i did now I'd want to work for PLT in a different way like I'd want to work in their social media because it's an incredible job all the girls that work there are so lucky on the other side of the fence I actually have a very unique perspective because

I got to see I was in the car with the CEO of PLT on the day when they were he was trying so so hard to make sure you join the brand and yeah I've never seen him and so frantic and so and you know he was not gonna lose the opportunity to work with you so yeah I've never seen him like that actually in all the years he's a very ambitious relentless very driven guy that you know knows what he wants and is willing to work to get it but that day in that car he was like we need her he was like we need her I can't let her go anywhere else he must have just seen something I don't know maybe he just he told me yeah you represent as you've said you represent the customer yeah you know the customer you are the customer I am yeah and for him it was like the stars had aligned and there could there wasn't another human being on earth that was more perfect

for the brand than you and it's funny to hear from your perspective because you felt the same way on the other side so yeah it matched up quite nicely I think it matched up perfectly um life you know life life is very unpredictable and everything has a cost we've talked a lot about that today even though the high points have a cost and one of the costs of your um meteoric rise and your success and your openness was um came out in the papers quite recently when someone broke into your home yeah one of the most unthinkable traumatic things um from a psychological perspective because that is your safe place it's your happy place it's yeah it's especially the home that we were living in um it was I spoke about it in a YouTube briefly really briefly because again I'm always

too scared to say too much but it that home for me was I've had a lot of homes and it nothing quite was like that place for me it was just as it wasn't a huge apartment it was just a normal apartment um in a really nice area and ironically I just always felt so safe there every time I went in and I locked the front door and I run myself a bath it was like my switch off zone it was like where I felt um like I could just be that 22 year old normal girl with a few thousand followers on Instagram like I felt like I just it was my haven so I think out of what happened with the burglary I think that's been the hardest thing because that was snatched away from us it wasn't

there wasn't the materialistic things that were taken it wasn't all the possessions that were gone it wasn't the you know them violating our space and it was ransacked it wasn't any of that it was the fact that I knew the second we found out we were in a meeting in London and we got the call and I knew the minute I found out that we were gonna have to leave and I just it was that was the most heartbreaking thing for me because to be forced out of your home that you love so much and that you weren't ready to leave anytime soon it was like it was heartbreaking it was awful says a lot about what home is it's not really a place I guess it's a set of emotions right 100% and once those emotions are tampered with and once they're spoiled it's gone like it's not

it's just it's just bricks and mortar then it's not it isn't it's not a special place anymore and I think yeah out of everything that happened that's been what I've been finding hard to deal with because we um when I drive past it and stuff it's heartbreaking it's like god that's how quickly can things change like things can change in such a like few hours everything got changed like I was in a meeting about something really exciting in London next thing you know your house has been ransacked everything's been taken you need to come home right away and I just didn't know what to expect I just expected the worst and it was a good job that I did because it it was bad everything everything gone how did Tommy react well it was it's tricky because I'll be honest

Tommy he's different with how he spends his money he he doesn't really buy things he's a bit of um the way he's been raised he's quite shrewd with his he's just he's we're very different and um he reacted differently to me I was um much more like um trying to sort everything out you know insurance and making sure we're okay and Tom was just like sort of it'll be fine it'll be fine he's very laid back it's very hard to explain how he is but we're like polar opposites but that's why we work but yeah I mean it was just different and is this you've talked about how this has changed your desire and willingness to be as open yeah which I find I found to be quite well I had no yeah I had no choice and I mentioned that like on my social media I said like I don't want to change the way

I live I don't want to change the way I talk to you guys that's what I love doing I love sharing everything but if it's going to compromise my safety I can't I can't it's not fair like it's really hard and I'm now trying to work on this new balance of sharing but not oversharing to so that I um make me and Tommy not safe anymore and it's it's finding this new way of living and having close protection security now and and moving and making sure not even my nail tech so much as it comes to my house because I can't have anybody knowing where I live now it's like even deliveroo no can't it's not possible like it's just not safe because it takes one wrong person to know where you live and I think I've it do you know what I will say that it is not a positive thing what happened but

maybe it needed to happen in order to make me learn how I need to be now I can't just be that normal girl that is blasé and post everything on our socials it's not I need to look we need to do better to protect myself and Tommy unfortunately it's sad but it's just the way it's got to be now and everything's got to change yeah that is sad isn't it it is sad it is but I think people understand they I see a lot of tweets now being like because I've posted I mean literally a smidgens of where we live now like I mean like a cushion and everyone's like saying I'm so gut we're not going to get a house tour and I'd absolutely love to give a house tour because this house is incredible and I want to I don't want to show it off I want to show my

followers and be like this is where we're living now this is the new kitchen this is the new bedroom you know like that's me I'm an oversharer but now I'm I'm taking videos and I'm like oh is that too much am I showing too much there like the newspaper's gonna find out from right move which house that is you know I'm I'm thinking that way now and it's sad at 22 years old that you have to think that way but it's the pros and cons with this this new life that I'm thinking that way now. And it's sad at 22 years old that you have to think that way. But it's the pros and cons with this new life that I'm living. Do you feel safe in your new home? Yeah. You do?

Yeah, we're really lucky in that, as I said, it's taught us how we need to be now. And I actually have close protection security now. And I'm trying to get used to that. It's 24-7. And I don't know how long or if forever or whatever, but it's just mad, like, that we that having to put these precautions in place now um I don't really wear my jewelry anymore what I have left of it I'm I'm not wearing it because I just it made me realize that

it just doesn't really matter people are just so cruel and and and they are jealous that these things it's better off just to i don't know i just think it changed things for me it took that superficialness away it just made me realize actually these things aren't important your health and your happiness and your safety safety is key i'm spending a fortune now on security but really there's no price on feeling safe at all because i'd rather spend money on security than spend it on a handbag because what makes you feel better now the security of course because I can go down the street and know I'm okay safe I don't know it's it's changed a lot are there things that you miss from your old life

old life as in as in you know before the before all the uh paparazzi's in the caribbean or wherever it was and no I wouldn't say so you know I I love my life now I'm I literally I pinch myself every day that this is the life I live and yeah like things like the burglary happen and it's shit and it's scary and I have bad days but I'm so blessed to live this life like I I pinch myself every day that I wake up and I I never want to go back to my old life that terrifies me because obviously as I told you at the start that ordinary life that I was living before I never wanted that I want what I had now and I'm working on achieving so if you were to to leave your house and just walk through a mall or down the street now what's that experience like it's different it's I never

really talk about that because it sounds big-headed when you're like you do get stopped but it's different it's I never really talk about that because it sounds big-headed when you're like you do get stopped but it's it's mental and it's crazy and like it will never feel real especially when I go out with Tommy obviously he's tall everyone spots Tommy and he has um a really different audience to me so it's like when walking through like a shopping center his audience is in there and my audience is in there so it's like a huge amount of people and obviously our combined following when we go out it's heading on 10 million people that's a lot of people so it's a lot of people that know who you are and want to grab pictures and it's amazing it is amazing and I one thing I always say is that I never ever ever in my whole career ever said no to a picture because I just I like it it's fun it's nice that

people like want to take a picture of you like what an honor like that someone wants to take a picture of me like that would never feel real but is there I went out with um my mate Liam Payne from One Direction and obviously I've experienced I met him before you know really yeah on a plane we were flying back from um Vegas together at the same time he was so lovely to me and tommy and like has always stayed in contact with tommy since messages him and says i hope you're well brother and i really didn't expect that from him yeah he's a sweet he's a really sweet guy under there you know i said under there i mean just underneath all of the like the fame and the public image and the boy band stuff he's this really sweet soul it's cool yeah

my i went out with him a couple of times in manchester for the foot we did a couple of parties together for the euros just getting our close friends together and um sit in a restaurant in the ivy in manchester one person find you know clocks that it's that's it then yeah comes over can we have a photo he's like sure another and then they go back to their table and tell their table then there's another person yeah and then the dinner is actually a meet and greet and i'm looking at this thinking because like i'm like no i'm not famous at all but like i've got like dragon's den is dropping in january and things like that so i'm thinking i don't want that in my fucking life like yeah that is too much for me and how do you find how do you find those moments where you can enjoy yourself in

public without it becoming a molly may meet and greet or do you just choose to go to other places i just choose not to go out i'll be honest and i think sometimes it has to take france aid to me going to the trapwood center on a saturday afternoon in manchester is not a smart idea as much as i would like to um even like the christmas market's just open in manchester we were going to go the other night we were like no it's a bad idea like it sounds like you're being big-headed when you say it but you just I mean someone come out with me and say like it's not it's not like a normal experience it's you have to take security you have to it's not like a just quick nipping out it's a lot sounds like you've got a baby it sounds like you're trying to get a baby ready you're not just nipping out it's a lot to think about what's it like being a a woman in business right because

there's there's you know especially when you're a woman that's come from, you know, built this big Instagram following, and it's been on a TV show, there's so much like stigma, stereotyping and assumptions being made, right? But even outside of your role as creative director of PLT, you are a businesswoman at your very, at the core of it. You're dealing with multiple brands across multiple deals and yeah you've got your own companies what is it like being a woman in business at 22 it's it's it's hard I mean it's confusing and it's hard it's amazing obviously but as I said like I am learning so it's um a little bit scary at times you do feel a little bit like overwhelmed and when you're in meetings and you're you you don't want to look like you don't know what's going on you don't want to look vulnerable you just have to sort of come across as as this woman that you you do have all your shit you all

have your ducks in a row you know what's going on and um by sort of like pretending that I do I feel like I've sort of become that I I've sort of like embodied someone that does know what's going on because I've had to learn it so quickly and sort of someone's pretend that I've sort of like embodied someone that does know what's going on because I've had to learn it so quickly and sort of pretend that I've now embodied that person that I when I'm in a meeting I can hold my own and I can sit there and say yeah I know what's going on I want to do this this and that it hasn't come overnight um as I said I am so young and it's such a quick turnaround like two years ago I was in Manchester I was in Manchester and living by myself going to the gym taking a few pictures going to Wagamama's on a weekend like it and now I'm in these huge meetings with huge people about really important subjects and it's like

god it's it's it's hard sometimes but I like it it's interesting it's different every day in my life is so different and it's a bit of a challenge each day it's like even today like this this this podcast I felt honored that you even asked me to do it because it's like I'd listened to the people that you'd done them with and I and you sort of sometimes think god like I'm not the same as them but then you sort of realize oh wait maybe I am you know like the likes of Patricia Bright and Jacqueline Gold like you look up to people like that and then suddenly you're being asked to do the same things as them and it's like how has that happened like it I don't know if it'll ever feel real things like that Patricia Bright is especially someone I've always looked up to and I actually filmed I've been working with Patricia a few times now and that was really

huge for me because she was like my woman she was like my goals yeah she was the woman on YouTube and and I aspired to just be just like her. She's just everything I wanted to be. She was so successful, so business-minded, but also so relatable and so hilarious. And I loved everything that she was about. And then she asked me to do a video with her after love. And I was like, no, this is just not happening.

And then you try and act cool and you try and act like this is just the normal, but it's not, it's not. and it's sometimes okay to sit there and be like oh god I cannot believe this is happening like even today like when Fran was talking to me about doing this with you and it's just like these things just I don't know they don't ever really feel real what do your parents think about your life they must be looking at and thinking what the yeah I think yeah I think it is crazy like when they see me doing my pretty little thing adverts on tv like how does that ever feel normal and they're just they're just really really proud they're just my parents are divorced now um so it's dealing with my dad and dealing

with my mom is like two separate completely different things but they're both so they're both so proud of me and it's just I don't think anyone could really have expected this do you sometimes see them or feel them trying to work out what they did to cause you to be like trying to connect the dots back to like what the like in hindsight what did we do like what did you feed her like yeah I don't know but I don't think that I think obviously you're a product of your environment and how you grow up and how you're raised is a huge part of who you become but at the same time I wouldn't like no disrespect to my parents they're incredible but I don't think anything they've done made me do what I've done now does that make sense everything I've done in the last two years is down to me and down to Fran

it's it's us two together like we've done this and that my parents yeah they raised me and they made me into a polite and nice person but they they're not responding to get what I'm saying like they're not I don't know how you feel about that but you probably don't feel like your parents are the reason that you've been so successful or maybe you do I don't know well it's funny because with parents like we I I'm I'm the youngest of four oh are you we're all completely different yeah so it would be pretty dumb to say that there was a ton of intention that went in from my parents.

They were thinking, we'll raise one entrepreneur, one lawyer. It's just, they do their best. Yeah. And it's like rolling the dice. Yeah. And as you've said from your family,

your sister's in the army, you're, you know, this mega star businesswoman and a creator. So you never really know what's going to happen. And, you know, it will be the same someday when I have kids and when you have kids, I'm sure. It's kind of a rolling of the dice.

Yeah, luck of the draw. Speaking of kids, speaking of relationships, Tommy. Yeah. One of the things I, you know, when people leave Love Island, you kind of look at it and you think, oh, these are just gimmick relationships, right? Yeah. We think that they're in it for the money.

They're not going to last for five days and then the minute they live love island the relationship's over after they've done all like the deals and stuff together yeah and everyone's like yeah yeah with you and tommy again you've been an anomaly yeah because you're still together um years and years and years after the show and from everything i've read you have a really solid relationship tell me about that and I guess you didn't expect that right yeah I mean I think as I mentioned briefly before because I went on the show so not expecting to find love and I just went on for a bit of a we'll just see what happens potentially come out with a million followers we'll see I came out the only person having

fallen in love me and Tommy were the only couple that year that are still together and that were really together in the show every other couple broke up a couple of weeks after we were the only people that actually found each other properly and it's been like nearly three years now and it's just been a whirlwind and I think what's been so incredible is that both our lives have changed together at the same time and we've grown together and experienced it all with one another and I think having him to lean on through all these you know ups and definitely lows he's been there for me has been so amazing because it would have been lonely doing it alone I think like you know after me and Fran have spoken all day and

then going back to that apartment alone when you're living this new world and navigating all these new things that it would have been a bit sad to not experience it with someone so we're really blessed to have had each other through this whole thing and is it is it at times quite a long distance relationship because if he's away fighting in or training in the US yeah or you know he's with Tyson doing some training which I saw recently is it is it a bit of a long distance relationship at times and how do you manage that we don't see each other for weeks on end at the moment like weeks on end um and we've become really good at the long distance thing i don't know like i think we're just one thing that i find so key in our relationship and it's the most important thing i think in any relationship is trust we have that complete and utter trust in one another and i think in a relationship that

is literally all you need to survive if you've got that trust everything else just falls into place because he can literally go away for weeks on end and there's not a doubt in my mind that if he was to be around a load of girls it i i could sleep peacefully at night knowing that he's just he's for me and i'm for him and that's that when you've got that i just think i don't know why i'm giving a relationship advice here but i do think like that is the key job that is literally the key you've got trust you've got everything and relationships require work right we had a guest on the other day and he said something which I actually actually spun my head a little bit he said you know um in a relationship there is the relationship and there's love you only have to work on one of them which means like

you know I mean you the relationship is like a a job in the sense that you've got to like invest in it nurture it commit to it whereas the love is going to be there and you can see it because some people have loads of love and a crap relationship yeah that's true so what what work do you do with tommy on the relationship to make sure that you are yeah like working on it actively to protect it i never pictured it like that i guess you do work in a relationship it is like a bit of a full-time job that never ends um it just comes naturally I think when you're with the right person it does just all fall into place and I don't know with it's it's weird with him like we know that we're going to be together forever

and we we're just so excited for what the future holds for us all we ever talk about is kids and like marriage and I'm so excited like I'm doing all these amazing things but I also have that to look forward to and we I don't see our relationship as a job like your other person said I don't I just see it as a part of my life and it's just there and I'm so blessed that it just works so well we never have any problems we're really lucky obviously we're not perfect I'm not gonna sit here and say we don't argue like cat and dog we definitely do he drives me crazy and I do feel like I'm a bit of his manager sometimes the way Fran is for me I am for him it's like passed down um Fran does it for me I do it for him he just

looks after himself um but yeah I don't know I feel like we've just got something good going on it really works as we look ahead then at your future you're very ambitious you're always asking that question what's next what's next what's next you've made that you know that mood board that planning session with fran recently you know in the previous couple of months as to what the next big goals are what are they big goals and ambitions well specifically i wouldn't i'd always try and keep things under wraps a little bit because i've spoken to fran she said you can tell me everything oh i'm not sure if that's true um well in all aspects of my life I'm working on different things um pretty little thing and me where it's as I said 24 7 it's a constant thing and we're working on um London Fashion Week is next and that I'm not

gonna say too much because I do really want to keep it mainly a secret but it's going to be huge like the biggest thing maybe PRT has maybe ever done um so that's going to be huge we're working on that then obviously i've got fields by molly may which is my own fake tan business which is growing rapidly and when i spoke about in this podcast a lot about learning the business side of things that's what i'm relating it to is my business when i go into these meetings with these people you know like um wholesalers that want to take on the the product and sell it on their websites and I'm it's it's just interesting to learn and I'm just looking forward to learning more like and I'm as I said I'm not shy to sit here and say that I've got so much more to learn

I I'm not like the likes of Jacqueline Gold and the Patricia Bites that sit here and they've got a few years on me and they've learned all this stuff and they they do come across like these strong powerful business women and I'm I aspire to be like that and I'm heading there and I'd love to revisit this in a few years when I'm there and um can use all those big words like net gross profit or that shit I don't know how to use it really interesting with you because I actually think you have you've clearly demonstrated the thing that will get you there which is that humility of like admitting that there's a lot of things you don't know and I think of when it's speaking as someone that was once a very young entrepreneur as well at 22 years old

I didn't know anything about anything because you're right no one tells you business stuff in net gross profit margins that makes me feel better no but but the most important like key component I think in entrepreneurs is being like there are so many things I don't know and I'm not going to pretend I don't because as you said one of the things that really actually inspired me when you said it was listen if I don't know something I just ask it that's the for me the mindset of someone who's going to in the future know a lot of shit yeah do you know what I mean so yeah so tell me more about the future then what else has got going on you've got your brand the the tan business you've got loads of stuff happening with your creative director role at PLt yeah well obviously my socials i'm growing 25 000 a day on average

um it's not stopping and it's it's strange to me like i when i came out of the show i never anticipated the growth just it just doesn't stop like and i could even disappear for a few weeks and it doesn't stop and i don't know why i think it's just people they do find me so relatable and I'm just I'm excited to see with like what happens as I grow like where is it going to stop you know and I have every million I hit I'm like well I want the next million now it's now working towards seven million even though when I said I hit six million that would be enough I was like six million wow that would be amazing and I'm like no seven millions next that'll be enough and then it won't be then I'll be working towards 10 um but focus not become a problem when you know now

because of how big your platform is you could pretty much go after any goal or ambition you have with your manager Fran yeah so how like you there's there is a risk of spreading yourself too thin right I guess so but there is a still there is there are still goals that are a little bit like for everybody there's things that are a little bit out of reach and I like reaching for those things because it's you know you know working with like really really high-end fashion brands you know we've not tapped into that yet because oh here we go you know well we don't know yet but it's just interesting to think about the different types of of brands that I can work with you know I'm working more on like

the high street budget right now and then you know in years to come who to say well that's gonna you know you just don't know and I think with my following growing so rapidly where is it gonna end up we just don't know but that's what's so exciting about it like it's just every day is a new is a new chapter I know it sounds so cringy but it is every day is so different well yeah my next my my main goal has been my main goal for the last two years I'm just desperate to own a house I still don't own a house yet but it's not because I can't or I don't want to it's because I've not found the right house yet and um I'm so particular and picky with what house I want um it's come it's come close a few times to like i've got my mortgage in principle and it's been all really exciting and then it's no but i

yeah that's my next goal is is getting on the property ladder and maybe building a house we don't know it's there's loads of exciting things with that and i'm still trying to learn again mortgages and all that interesting stuff it's um stamp duty what the hell is that and why on earth does that exist may I ask because it's a lot of money um but yeah there's loads of things that you don't realize because I I looked at this house and I really really liked it and I was like yeah you know the stamp duty on that's gonna be x hundred thousand I was like what then then I had a builder come around and look all the work that I want doing to it was like yeah so that's going to be about nine hundred thousand just for the work you want doing and I was like this is just stupid I was like like how but this is the thing like

I'm in a really financially um blessed situation so how is any normal 22 year old on a normal income ever going to get on the property ladder I don't understand that that's fascinating to me how's anybody ever going to get the property ladder with the way it's going? It's wild, isn't it? So this is the actual diary of a CEO. Oh, wow. This is the famous diary where it all began. And every guest that comes on the podcast,

when they leave, they write a question for the guest that's coming up. Oh. Right. So you actually won't know who's written this question for you and i guess it wouldn't be like it wasn't your recent one patrice ever it wouldn't be that would it because we've had a couple since then they probably come out in yeah exactly so we've had

you know jimmy carl came out we've had some some very big um guests recently and you'll also be writing a question in this book for our next guest okay so the question in the diary of a CEO for you this week from our previous guest was if you had to give all of your money to one organization tomorrow morning what organization would it be and why I mean there's so many charities like and so many things that come to mind it's almost like I can't even think of one but one thing I didn't speak about in this podcast is that I am a massive um I always give money to homeless people always I cannot keep cash in my wallet because I will literally just dish them out like fun coupons to I can't I just I have to when I see anybody on the street I give my money away instantly because I

cannot fathom how anybody can end up in that situation of of not having a home it literally breaks my heart so I'd probably I'd probably just find someone on the street and give it all to them well yeah I honestly would or give it to a homeless organization or or something like that because it is a hard question but yeah that's something that I feel really passionate about and as I said I just I have to stop putting cash in my wallet because I just yeah the minute I get out the cash point it's gone to someone on the street which I like doing I enjoy doing that it's I don't know it's a really hard question like it is I like I don't I would say well because you're right right

so it's it has it's a really considered thing my question is going to be like what you have for your dinner tomorrow no yeah i yeah i would i would i would probably do the same as what you did there which is like what causes what what hurts my heart and what what problem would i like to solve if i was like either vanishing off the earth tomorrow or just having to donate everything and yeah i would people that don't have stuff. Yeah. So I'd probably sell all my assets and give it to, I don't know, one of these organizations that helps people that don't have stuff, like, which is pretty much what you said there.

So it makes a lot of sense. If you could speak to Molly May from Hitchin now, based on everything you've been through and everything you've learned, what kind of things would you tell her about, warn her about, advise her on looking looking back that's a good question I think I without repeating myself of what I've said before in the past I I do wish I could tell her to slow down a little bit with rushing things and even now it's something that I'm trying to work on at 22 I don't want to get to 25 and

and not have anything to look forward to when I'm trying to work on at 22 I don't want to get to 25 and and not have anything to look forward to when I'm 30 because I've done everything already you know have the best car I can drive and have the best house I want to slow things down and I want to work on enjoying where I'm at because it's not healthy to always always want more because you've got to be grateful for where you're at and the things you've achieved um but Fran's a really good person for that because she grounds me like it's a really superficial example but I'll use it anyway I passed my driving test a few months ago and the only car I wanted was a g-wagon I was like I'm getting a g-wagon Fran was like no you're not I was like why not she's like yeah you can get a g-wagon but what have you got forward to look what you got

got to look forward to when you hit 25 like she was like get something a little bit you know underneath that and then you can look forward to it when it comes and I was like no no but then I thought actually you're right I don't need to just always go for the biggest thing like work towards these things have things to look forward to because I'm only 22 like I'm so young and I've got so much to work on and look forward to and I don't want to rush things and I would tell my younger self slow down slow down on the filler slow down on moving to Manchester maybe when you couldn't afford it slow down on worrying about trying to get instagram followers and it's just everything will come you know in it when it's meant to and do you think you are you feel like you going back to one of the questions i spoke about earlier do you feel like you are enough now like you've

achieved enough and you've done enough and to be to be happy you know do you feel like you're enough oh it's a really really good question I honestly I'm gonna say no because then it just contradicts everything I said in this podcast if I say yes and but but no I would say no because if Fran or someone told me today that this was the last day of me working and I'll go back to Manchester now and I'll sit in my house and have babies and get married and I won't work another day I'd cry myself to sleep and I would not be happy because I'm nowhere as I said I'm nowhere near done this is just the start so no like I'm not I am enough me I am enough but the work I've done isn't enough yet I've got so much more to do will it ever be I don't know maybe not maybe when we

if we ever revisit this and I've got more followers and more money and a better house or whatever I'll still be saying it's not enough I probably will be but maybe I need that maybe that's like the recipe to making me the way I am and making me different to the other love islanders and the other influencers maybe it's because I'm hungry and I always want more so maybe I don't need to get rid of that maybe I'll just stick with that mindset because it works clearly I completely agree and it's been incredibly inspiring and insightful talking to you because you know you're I still can't believe you're 22 years old because you know at 22 years old I wasn't I wasn't in the rooms that you're in now and I wasn't

engaged in the conversations I hadn't built businesses and you know the role as at PLT as creative director I know how demanding that that will be and um how particular and cautious Umar would have been in picking you he wouldn't have done it as a token thing no and I've actually spoken to the team at PLT I've actually worked with them for about seven years yeah and with my business and they say that you are heavily heavily involved during the office and you are helping to build and shape what that brand is yeah it's remarkable that you can do all of that and run all of your other businesses and you know keep up with your personal life as well all at the age of 22 there's a real mature wise head on your shoulders and it's really fascinating to watch how

that's going to play out for you over the coming years and I you're a force right so I can't think of anything getting in your way um thank you so much thank you for your honesty thank you're doing a real service to the world and being yourself and I know how I don't to be honest I don't know because I have people hold me to it they don't hold me to the same standard as they hold you but you're doing a real service I think to a younger generation by being a relatable role model one that is incredibly real honest open and yeah an all-round nice person thank you thanks for having this conversation with me today because yeah I've been I've watched your career and your rise with total fascination and I would bet on you for the future so you're a formidable businesswoman in person thank you so much thank you for having

me very grateful to be on the podcast