The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - Unhinged Bedrooms & Peter Andre's Chest: Lou Beckett

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Who wore trousers with bits hanging off them and loved a bit of Peter Andre? Lou Beckett that's who! She joins The Phonebox Podcast this week to chat about life growing up with an unhinged teenage bedroom and how her crush on Ron Weasley has stood the test of time.Be sure to go and follow Lou over on instagram here.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the @phoneboxpodcast account on Instagram for polls and nostalgic fun.If you have any guest suggestions, topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!#00s #00smusic Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Phone Box Podcast with me, Emma Conway. It is flipping sunny today. I like to do a weather check. As we know, it's nice and sunny and we've got a fab guest on the podcast today, Lou Beckett. Hello. Hello hello we've just had a good chat about reality tv we have it's it Vanderpump has my heart and will have my heart forever yeah forever forever as long as it's on I'll be watching it yep and if they're on instagram I will watch them there for as long as they care to share stuff did you watch reality TV growing up? When was Big Brother started?

Yeah, no, I loved Big Brother. Yeah. I think I've watched it right from the beginning. Like I remember Nasty Nick and the kind of Kate Lawler and I want to say Spencer. Yes. The will they, won't they? Yeah, no, I love Big Brother.

I think I fancied Spencer. I think I, in fact Spencer I think I in fact I definitely did um yeah and also do you remember Rex he had ginger hair I think I quite fancied him as well I like to fancy somebody in every season of Big Brother so I'm hopeful um then again Big Brother was just recently on wasn't it why can't I remember or was it Celebrity Big Brother that was just on I did a Celebrity brother because sharon osborne and louis walsh were slagging everybody off oh my god dominated all of it for me because they just don't care they give me an ounce of louis walsh's not caringness and i would embrace it absolutely he started He started like Twitter beef with what they call Jedwood.

Yeah. Jedwood and Gemma Collins. It's like the Holy Trinity. Jedwood and Gemma Collins all having an argument. We actually, oh God, this is so embarrassing. We actually put the Insta stories from Gemma Collins with Jedward on our big telly in the living room. So me and Steve could watch them. It's a real commitment.

To be fair, if I knew how to do it, I probably would. Yeah, it was like a cinematic masterpiece. Okay, we're getting distracted. Okay, so welcome to the podcast, Lou Beckett. Where can everybody find you on social media if you want them to find you? At Lou M on Instagram. find you on social media if you want them to find you um at lou m on instagram i do have a tiktok but it's got one of those like 1200 character auto-generated names because i'm only on there to like lurk i'm only on there to scroll there is there's like one thing i did because i was

making fun of rob on roller coasters and i needed the sound um so yeah instagram at instagram so are you are you louise emma are you uh louise emily see i'm an emma louise it's a common it's it's that it's that little sweep isn't it of the louise even though i am an emily with an ie because my mom wanted to be different a little bit french oh you are a little bit French, aren't you? She's from the valleys of Wales, so I don't know where it came from. Just like Paris? Okay, so we have already established you were 14 in the year? 2000. 2000, the millennium year.

In my head, there should be Busted singing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It should be a little like. But then like the Jonas Brothers sang that in America. should be a little like thousands um but then like the jonas brothers think sang that in america there's a little fun fact for you so in america they all think the jonas but the sang it yeah i don't vibe with the jonas brothers do you know something about them that is it because was like Sansa and then just just the whole just give me a bit I don't know there's something about them that just makes me a bit

itchy and I can't I'm on your side put my finger on it but I don't I wouldn't I don't trust him I don't know why they're knocking at my door now like get out of it no i wouldn't i'm like okay so i want to know if you can guess the um biggest number one of 2000 if you get any in the top five you will win nothing but my respect oh um i'm trying to remember what was big when i was at school spice girls was primary school yeah me i remember dressing up but that was that was earlier um backstreet boys i'm gonna go too early again i think you may have gone a little bit too early but i'm gonna give you a clue the number one involves an animal i've got no idea okay so we're starting at number five was pure shores all saints absolute classic i loved all saints of course you did did you fancy le fancy Leonardo DiCaprio on the beach? The anti-Titanic.

It started, yeah. Yeah, Leonardo DiCaprio. I sat with Mel Blatt actually on a table at something recently and she is lovely. You know when someone is just lovely and you're like, I'm so glad you're lovely because I loved you. Yeah, they all look really good. She was just really nice. Yeah, yeah.

And do you know what? Like happy. Yeah, well, good for you now. She didn't have sad eyes. Yeah, she, you know, she good still, don't they? She was just really nice. Yeah, yeah. And do you know what? Like, happy. Yeah, well, good for you now. She didn't have sad eyes. Yeah, she, you know, she was really, really lovely. Okay, number four was Rise by Gabrielle. I'm not sure I know that. No.

I know dreams can come true. Yeah, that's the only. Okay, The Real Slim Shady Eminem, classic. Yeah, okay. I can't remember what else was around at that time. Number two, It Feels So Good by Sonny. It feels so good. Oh, hang on, no, that don't sound right.

I can hear it in my head, but I can't get it out of my mouth. I can't think of that one at all. And number one, Who Let's The Dogs Out by Baja Men. I do remember that one. Okay. A classic of the year. You're like, what was the biggest,

Who Let the Dogs Out, Baha Men. Lovely. Oh, good, good. What a vintage millennium year. And I feel like the Millennium Christmas song because I did a Christmas episode

with my sister. I think it was Bob the Builder. So it was all around a great year for music. Real classic. Like we're going into a brand new millennium. We had the Millennium Dome. I went to the Millennium dome yes i did i did you did you call for like the heart or

whatever it was you had and you and like they're the big body in the middle and you went through you didn't i don't think you realized quite where you were entering it either and like i think one of the entrances was literally upper lady's poof bits yeah and it was kind of like oh what are we in and what and I was like oh it's it's a vagina yeah I don't really remember I remember being very excited about going but then I don't really remember uh maybe leaving that impressed no I can't remember what we did inside either it felt like a really big version of like the science museum where there's just lots of things to press you kind of go I don't really know what

I mean I like it now it's lovely it's got a nice music okay so um what was your bedroom like when you were 14 a little bit unhinged like when I was thinking about it I was gonna I'm gonna ask my mum actually if she's got any photos because I don't think I've got photos anywhere and I feel like it probably should have been what I would say is that my mum and dad were very very good with kind of letting me be and kind of do what I wanted to it didn't really matter how weird it was they kind of just let me crack on um so I I painted my room lime green like an appley lime green. And then I'd stuck loads of photos and posters and bits of art that I liked and bits of stuff that I'd done and like song lyrics all over the wall, but like floor to ceiling everywhere.

And then because I really thought that I was very like unique and different and like a tortured artist of the emo generation, I'd painted, you're only jealous because the little voices are talking to me on the wall and so like like like a serial killer oh um until you asked like until you'd sent the question I was like I didn't remember I'd done that and I was like what was my bedroom like I was like oh fuck did you imagine your serial killer if I walked into Erin age 13 and she'd done that I'd be shutting the door and I'd be going down and going Stephen we need to we need to get someone well you know that when they go the true crime documentaries they go I'm where their signs my mum would go yeah do you know what yeah

we probably should I think it's because it was all so in that real looking back now so cringy teenager like me and my friends wanted to be a little bit different like we'd go to camden market and i think it was so obviously not and not kind of put on but it was very much like a performative time yeah that's the word performative it was also like i'm really cool and i'm really different i I didn't think I was cool. I think that's why I did it. Like we went so far the other way. But yeah, so. What posters? Did you have like any bands on there?

Was it like emo music with it? Boy bands? What kind of like people were on the wall? I liked, and I still do now. I liked everything. So I had quite emo tastes. I used to go up to Brixton Academy. I mean, when I say used to go up, my dad would drive us,

let us go in and then sit and wait outside, God bless him, for hours and then drive us back because it was Brixton. And we were like 14, 13, 14, 15. So I went to see like Papa Roach and Placebo. I really liked Sum 41, but then I also was obsessed with Gareth Gates obviously that was when I was a bit older because that was I was just trying to remember I was like pop idol was when I was older but like I loved Gareth Gates I was a bit obsessed with was it the hair FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling

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Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Yeah, I think so. Do you know what, though? I really liked Joe McKeldry when he was on X Factor. Yeah. So I think I've just, I've got a real soft spot for like a nice sweet boy. Nice solo sweet boy with slightly spiky hair. You're like, that's my niche.

And I love to take that. I was obsessed with peter andre my year six sat street was going to see peter andre at the fairfield halls in croydon and i went with my mum oh my gosh was it good i mean yeah he was brilliant rob spoke to him fairly recently i think on the podcast and he said at that gig someone ripped his trousers off was it you sadly not i was too far back so he had his top off I presume I I think I don't think it went on I think he just came out I used to go to a lot of road shows and I had a friend called um Jenny well she might be saying this I don't think so and um Peter Andre went in for a kiss she was she was an older buteter andre went in for a kiss it's quite quite exciting

at the time yeah that would have been now though with the 2024 lens on it you're like not you'd have been like boundaries or would we have been boundaries i don't know i don't i'm 37 and married i still think i probably go through it a little nothing at all i'd say i think i could um argue my way out that with Rob as well be like it's Peter Andre it's Peter Andre of course it's and you know what I'd like my husband to support it yeah and say good story you're doing it for Instagram you're gonna make a reel out of it it's for your business and you know what I don't even fancy Peter Andre's it would be pointless but I'd still want I'd still want that support system okay so you had all sorts of things on your bedroom what kind of music were you listening to?

Again I like I liked everything I was obsessed with S Club 7 me and my friends used to make up routines to S Club 7 and then film ourselves doing them and I think we started that in like year four with the Spice Girls and we just never really stopped and then it got to the point where we were doing like music videos to Blink 182 or Offspring so like the music changed but we were always because I think like I don't think we were the coolest of groups I think would be a fair appraisal of us so like you know and a lot of people were going out or kind of going to town and and doing things I think we just went to each other's houses and made up routines and videoed ourselves doing I uh love this have you still got them you should

make a little little montage you know what I probably my mum might have them in the loft somewhere because we we and like we put them on VHSs and make covers and like it yeah it was really we committed to the cause it sounds really did you ever want to be in a band um no I can't I can't sing at all. I really like singing and I'm blessed with both volume and range, but no pitch. So, you know, I'm, and I did, I think I did most instruments for at least six weeks and then never, I never found my niche. There's still time.

There's still time. There's still time. You just get the violin out. My artist is learning guitar and I'm a bit jealous. I'm like, I would like to crack out the guitar get on the guitar let's start let's start okay go back to go back to your musical roots okay so at school you weren't particularly cool where were you in the hierarchy oh it's floaters the horrible word but I'd say that's probably quite quite apt like there was the really cool kids who now looking back i'm like actually i

don't know if they were cool or just kind of grown up a bit too quickly yeah and that kind of and then there were people who i'd say were maybe lower down the hierarchy of that like real classic school hierarchy of like geeks and stuff and i'd say we were somewhere in the middle on like the nerdier geekier side but not so much that people would have made fun of us yeah or do you know I think I was just kind of there just under the radar in the best possible way yeah I was just there I didn't flag for any particular reason like we were probably a little bit weird and a little bit emo but not as emo and weird as some people yeah and we weren't so clever that so clever I suppose where it sounded but do you know me like I did well at school and I worked really hard but we weren't in that

yeah kind of oh my god they're so clever they're like the real nerds yeah we've just I was just kind of there just pootling along did you have a nice time did you enjoy it I I did I don't there was bits I didn't enjoy like I don't think I wasn't particularly confident I was very um I think with friendship groups and stuff it took me a long time I'd say almost until uni like when I was at uni and kind of almost have a bit of a fresh start I I didn't really know my place I don't think so I think I think a lot I let a lot of things go I was quite submissive in friendship groups yeah it's just and I think my nature is to always go oh okay then oh if that's what you think oh I'm really sorry like even if I didn't think I'd done something wrong it'd always be like oh I'm really sorry or I won't do that again or is it okay if I

but I think on the whole I like I like school I had some really it's a real cliche and especially because I became a teacher I had some really lovely teachers who I think really made the difference like I had an English teacher and I had a history teacher who was so lovely and so nurturing and supportive of kind of your interests and passions and stuff. And then I had a really nice form tutor in sixth form that was really like a proper like mum. Yeah. Who was lovely to kind of go into every day that really, really, I don't know, made the difference with that. I had some really good, I had really good friends, but I think I don't know if I found myself in my place properly until I went to uni yeah teachers having really good teachers is really important because I had a RE teacher

called Mrs Brown and then I became an RE teacher and I sent her like a little letter saying I don't know what I'm thinking but just like saying you know because I had um back surgery when I was doing my A-levels so I was absolute failing everything and she sat with me every lunch time and helped me and it just really you know even like so many years on it really means a lot to you doesn't it to like it does it stays so nice it is and I know it sounds like a cliche and it sounds really trite and maybe not everyone's experience of school is like that but just every so often I think a kid who really needs it kind of almost matches up with a teacher that's got just the right thing to give at that at that point and I really I'd like especially my history teacher I had a right from year seven all the way through to a level when I needed to

go and do some work experience in the school for my teaching application, I'd messaged her and I went in with her, even though she'd moved to school. Like she just, Mrs. Mott, my name was, and she properly saw me through all of that. It's like teachers, you know, teaching. I mean, I love teaching. Teaching was great. Do you ever have pupils message you now? Because I still get the odd hello miss uh do you know what I had I had a GCSE class that I saw through to the end of their GCSEs and like there was any I had the bottom set so there was only 11 of them so and they were my first when I first started teaching they were the boys that I taught yeah so like I then there's a couple that have added me on Facebook that I was like, well, I've left teaching now,

so I don't feel like it's weird. Yeah. And I think a couple of them have let me know how they're doing. And that's really nice. So nice. I mean, I've got, I've also,

I've got the nice to us and I've got like right the other end of the spectrum where I go like, Ooh, I don't think I, yeah. I've got a couple in prison, which is not quite the. The ratio there's bound to be i'm sure

some of mine are as well but yeah i still i still see them a lot of them work in the shops the shopping center not far from me so you'd be like i mean they're in there like 20 i'm sure some of them in there is your right yes i love you it was really really fun okay so um was peter andre your first big crush or did you have somebody else that was like real like do you know i think peter andre was my first like proper because also that was year six i remember like really distinctly that was my year six sat street i did well so we got to go and see peter andre i'm sure my mom would have taken me regardless yeah she's like oh what a shame if you've worked hard you can go and also i'm sure she loved a have taken me regardless. She's like, oh, what a shame. If you've worked hard, you can go.

And also, I'm sure she loved a little evening out in Croydon watching Peter. And then I think a bit later on, I really, really was a bit obsessed with Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley. Gosh. And still now, I would say he would be would be on like my list of yeah I loved Rupert Grint you're the first person which is less mentioned him surprisingly enough poor Rupert um but yeah I I loved him and it sounds weird now because obviously I'm an adult

and he's played a child in Harry Potter films but like they came out at roughly i think we're pretty similar ages so i don't think i was ever too far away from him in age yeah so it's not as weird i'd say probably like the first crush and i'd say he's still there he's still yeah he's with the girl from angus yeah that one's cute so if he knocked on the door you your heart would flutter yeah he'd I've and I've never met him anywhere he's not I don't think he does it like I mean I go I don't go to very much but like it's been the odd time where in the corner of the room I'm like oh my god yeah you know like Green Day walked past Rob at the Brits and I was like yeah and like my little 15 year old heart was yeah going a little bit really struggled to maintain any kind of composure i told them

about nine times i've got tickets for june and they did not quite rightly give a shit i think internally they did i think they're being too cool i think they were like oh that's written but they didn't want to show it um oh gosh imagine being at a table and Rupert Gwynne sits next to you. What would you do? This is a possibility. I had speech therapy when I was younger for a stutter. And when I get nervous, it comes back and like my hands do this. And my dad, my dad can do a really good impression of my kind of,

it turned into a whole dance. I'd go left and right. And I'm never sure if this is the reason, but I had the same teacher for reception year one and year two yeah and I think that's quite unusual I don't think it happens in the rest of the school and I I'm convinced and no one will confirm it for me that she moved up because I got comfortable with her and she bless her never flinched I would go up and she would still let me answer questions I would go up and down and

left and right and my arms would go and I get like that now and I'm nervous I always use my hands quite a lot but like I was fine stood standing in front of a classroom of boys and teaching them put me in front of an assembly when there's other teachers and like my eyes go blurry and I start stuttering and I can't get my words out and I have to like go back to the beginning of the sentence so I think I'd probably do that I'd end up asking for the salt and it'd take three minutes and I'd be like moving out of chairs well you know I don't think I'd be very cool he is quite an aloof person we don't see him out so I wouldn't worry I don't I don't think I think the chances of us being put together at like the kind of TV Choice Awards are fairly slim.

You never know. You never know. He might do some sort of TV show. Who knows? Okay, so you fancied him. What about your fashion faux pas? What is something you wore then that you were like, oh, I'll never wear that again? I had a patchwork bag shaped like a chicken that I'd bought from Camden Market.

And it had like legs and feathers you could get nothing in it because it's about this big like the body was about this big and then it had legs and I wore it all the time and I absolutely loved it because it was like no one else had one because why would anybody else I was gonna say there is a good reason why nobody has a patch I bet when they sold that they were like well we got rid of it feathers were little flats so the whole thing moved what would you wear what would you what would you combine this with what outfit were you wearing with the chicken uh i had a pair of again from camden market camden market's got a lot to answer for to be honest um like all saints big

massive combat trousers but with the ones that had all like the strings yes coming off yes we've had that made out of the same material but like just like tassels almost and i love them they were burgundy and i wore them to absolute death and like they'd get caught in things and whenever it rained the water would go up to your knees yeah like deeply deeply impractical trousers never kept anything in the pockets because I have my chicken bag of course but I I love them and what would you what would have been on your feet would have been trainers just soaking in the rain as well I think quite chunky trainers like almost Spice Girl-esque trainers like I really I never got them because they were expensive,

but like the Buffalo trainers, I think they might be making a comeback. They're still going. And I think, because I saw somebody wearing the other day on Instagram, like a Baby G, like the big Baby G watches. And again, I was desperate for one of them

and I never got one because they were expensive. I had one. And it was like, oh, I'm jealous. I had a store watch. I really, really I was desperate and a pale blue because obviously I'm a bit older than you so I think I got a job and I think probably with like my first wages what are you going to buy a baby blue um a baby g watch I got it and I'll be honest a bit sweaty underneath and it smelt a little bit sometimes because it was like now looking at it I was like I don't know if I but I was tempted when someone popped up and I was like I think

they're on Asos or something I was like and that they were like teenager me was like buy one buy one I was like what what are you wearing it with now like bright pink baby g watch I think yeah I really wanted a baby g watch yeah they were absolute classics I never had any buffaloes I think I'm gonna say my sister had buffaloes but I'm wondering if they were buffaloes and they were fake but she had some sort of big ones I think I probably had some from um and I miss it I kind of wish it would come back Tammy girl yeah etam tammy girl yeah you'd go downstairs in etam and there was they had like the kind of slightly cropped tie-dye t-shirts. And I think they would have done big, I definitely had a pair of big like wedge, oh, what they're called, flip-flops,

but like with the foamy, like rainbow, stripy rainbow wedge ones from there. But like this, this thick. And so I think I probably had, I can't remember them, but I'm 90% sure I had big trainers, but they wouldn't have been Buffalo ones because I would, I desperately wanted Buffalo ones.

Yeah, they would have been fake. In Paris, they still have ETAM. Just as little, if you ever feel like going. I was in Shopping Centre and I was like, it's blooming ETAM. And in Copenhagen, CNA. I might do a little. Go to CNA in Copenhagen. You got your ETAM in, what was it, Amsterdam, one of them.

You got them all they're also like why they went it's like now we don't my daughter because she's 13 we don't really have like many fun shops for her anymore to buy like cheap and cheap I suppose maybe Primark isn't it that'll be the one that they all yeah they've monopolized the market I find Zara's nice but it's a bit expensive for kids stuff when it's kind of like, well, especially for the age minor, it's going to get past a downer or post a pain or left somewhere. Yeah. Zara is quite expensive.

I mean, there is sheen, but I don't really like getting stuff off sheen to be honest, but we do, we do go to a nice little, little spending spree in Primark and I go, Oh, they used to be fashionable in my day. And she's like, okay, thanks. I was in a shop the other day and they had those big circular gladiator belts, the circles of leather with the rivets in and then it would hang down and they had a big range of them. And I was like, what?

No. No. And it was in free people as well. So I'm like free people.'s posh you know like that's and i was like well i've missed something here because i did you buy two and wear it like jodie marsh the jodie marsh no never i'd say never quite had the figure or the confidence to just wear the old booth belt whatever my sister goes what you wearing so we're gonna because we're gonna see take that in a few words what you won't take that she will just send a picture back of jodie marsh belt off just always that did she wear just like a big belt as a skirt or was the

skirt so small and for a wedding all white it was all white and she had two jodie marsh belts up let's bring them back um okay is there anything then that you'd still wear now or is it just like absolutely not? Do you know what? I am very partial to a hoodie. I had a lot of hoodies. I had a lot of band hoodies when I was younger and now it is my uniform. It's hoodies. I should have kept some of them actually.

They'd probably be quite cool. I wish I'd kept them. Yeah, I've said that to my daughter because we get like band t-shirts and stuff from concerts and I'm like, keep them because you never know. I mean, she won't. I'm sure she'll bin them. But you'll never know, like, in the future.

Maybe your kid might want them or, you know. I think so. I think a lot of the ones I bought, I don't know if they would have lasted because I bought them from, like, the people that have them on sheets outside Wembley or on the pavement outside Brixton that kind of start peeling off within three washes. Yeah. But I am now. And maybe it's a hangover from when I was younger but like I am a sucker for merch oh god I love it I'm like if there's a sparkly cowboy hat I'm like but I must have it because how will I enjoy Shania Twain without it and then I get home and I'm like I don't know what

I'm doing I don't know if maybe if we were like like my mum wouldn't if I went to a concert which I was very rarely when I was like a young kid, my mum wouldn't have had the money to buy me a T-shirt. But now I've got adult money. I'm like, yes, thank you very much. Yeah. I did it at Disney and Rob was like, you don't even like Star Wars. I was like, I know, but look at it.

It was a, there was like bottles of Coke, like Diet Coke for what, $5. But for $9 dollars you could have the one shaped like it was round looks like it was from the start it was the star wars yes that one and i was like well i want well i want that one and i was like what are you gonna do with it i was like i don't know do you like star wars i was like no no do you know what it is no but the choice was there the lady went which one do you want i was like that one obviously that one yeah because i i read a rumor um which would have been a tiktok but said that that people think it's bombs on planes those coca-cola things or is that just something steven told me so i wouldn't buy one

oh no i mean i drank it and then i washed out the empty bottle put it in my bag and now it's sat on a shelf in our house and i'm like i don't know what i'm doing i've got oogie boogie popcorn buggy that's about how big I'm like what am I gonna but at the time it's the dopamine here I'm like yeah man look at yes I am that real like I am a upseller's dream oh because it's always do you want a plastic bag for 10p or for a fiver you can have the novelty tote bag tote bag tote bag gimme like I'm I'm terrible I love merch of tote bag stuff yeah and at that moment when you're given the tote bag in your head you're like it's cool

because this is going to be my forever tote bag I'm going to use this every every time I go shopping out it's going to be this Harry Styles 25 pound tote bag never never take it out the house it's just it's like a wardrobe no I will keep it I'll keep it forever because I might use it. You never know. Popcorn buckets. I might use them. I might. Sometimes I get it out at Halloween and just display it.

But, you know, it's just shoved upstairs. OK, so what is your greatest teenage success, do you think? Probably considering how, I think, outwardly strange some of my behaviour was. Kind of getting through it and sticking to my guns as much as I did. Like my serial killer room and some of the clothes that I wore. And I think that, and I don't, I was trying to think about it actually, when you asked the question before, like, you know, you sent through the thingies and I was like, I think there was almost a bit of power or in,

or almost using it as a disguise. It was almost like I wasn't trying to be cool. Like the cool kids. There were things that I wanted and there were things that I tried to emulate, but actually there was almost a bit of power in just going I'm going to wear these trousers and my chicken bag and my big band hoodie and that's what I'm going to wear and actually if I'm not even trying to be cool then I can't fail at it I'm going to do this and if you do it for long enough it no one really questioned it no one and like you say I think like at school I was just kind of there didn't and it sounds really sad that like if your biggest teenage success is just kind of being there but I think it's so hard

to be a teenager so that actually just kind of getting through it all and being there and you know I had nice friends I went out and I did okay my exams and I got to where I wanted to go and did it kind of just being there yeah and not having any of the major extremes of dramas and ups and downs I just kind of plowed through yeah and and did it instead like it sounds like I don't really have a like this is what I really achieved that sounds good just just kind of being there and getting through it because it is really hard to look at teenagers now I'm like so difficult the thought of going back and trying through it because it is really hard to look at teenagers now. I'm like, oh, difficult. It is.

The thought of going back and trying to do it again. Are you scared about your kids becoming teenagers? Yes and no. Like, yes. I think there's just things that they have to deal with now that we didn't. Social media and phones and just that kind of like I think especially female friendships can be very very intense especially when they're they're younger as well um and just because we didn't have social media and because we couldn't text each other or whatsapp each other or kind of

snapchat and send messages on instagram you had that almost a natural break when you got home that you could whatever drama had happened in the day, unless your friend phoned you on your landline, you could kind of leave it and you could park it. It feels like there's not as much time or space for kids to have that break from each other where everyone would regroup and things could calm down. It feels quite an intense way to grow up but I do think

schools are doing I think parents are a lot wiser to it and I think schools are doing much much more from much a much earlier age to kind of build that education or build that resilience around it like mine are in E6 and E8 and they're already having stuff at school about social media and positive role models on social media and taking breaks from it and I mean mine don't have phones they don't have social media but because they're only so little but the fact that it's already being worked into their PSHE and their curriculum I was like it struck me a bit I was like why are you doing an influencer homework on what's a positive influencer and I was like well actually that is what that is what's going to be the reality for them so it's good to it just jarred a little bit at first because I was like do we

need this yeah do we need this at eight but I think you kind of do it's so different to our world isn't it it wasn't it's just such a different it's just completely different to how I grew up I couldn't I mean I watched a video the other day and it was just like um 90s people uh like all dancing around there was no phones no one was like taking any photos or selfies it was just like I mean I suppose you had phones perhaps a little bit more than I did. I had nothing. I had a phone. I had like a real flip, like old school flip phone thing that I paid for data on when I went to uni. We had MSN Messenger.

Yeah. I think maybe when I was in sixth form. But again, because you had to go and sit on your house computer and dial into the Wi-Fi. So your friend had to be on at the same time as you and also be sitting on their family computer. It was probably in their living room. We did speak on MSN Messenger and stuff, but it was so contained in that you had to be at that one specific point, plugged into the computer, plugged into the wi-fi it just all felt much more contained and like facebook came out when i was at uni yeah that was like my second third year of uni so i think luckily i kind of skipped under the radar for a lot of it

did you ever do friends reunited do you remember friends reunited oh no i don't think maybe that's an old lady thing a friends reunited was was like you'd reunite with friends i think it was like the prequel to like facebook so you could like type in i feel like you could somebody direct message me if you remember but i feel like you could type in somebody's name and see if they're on there and then like connect up again so it'd be like some random could you put in like schools so you'd almost did like a little profile of yourself and it would like match up vaguely yeah in my head it's navy blue I feel like it is yeah something's flagging like yeah it feels like the logo's navy blue maybe yeah primary school reach out okay so we've heard your success what was is there anything a flop

that springs to mind I mean the chicken bag chicken bag wasn't great um do you know I had this and I loved it and I still I do think it was actually cool okay it's just the way that I got it I don't think was so I just um I had this English teacher when I was doing my GCSEs and I think she must have only just qualified because she seemed so young and so cool and she had this like leather trench coat and I was like I want to be you I want to be you and I want to wear what you're wearing and it and I asked her where she got it from and she got it from the um big top shop that used to be on Oxford Street you know like before it got ridiculously expensive they had like a vintage bit in the basement where and it was and like I think I and I went and got one as close as I could to the one that she had I had no shame um and it was like 24 pounds for like a leather like a proper leather trench

coat and I wore it to absolute death I wore it to school I wore it everywhere and I and I loved it because it's the same coat as Miss Makepeace had. And obviously that was like the coolest thing in the world. I don't know if a 16-year-old copying your clothes. I tell you what, I would have been quite flattered if somebody had turned up. I mean, all they did was take the mickey out of my clothes. And I was a teacher. They're like, what are you wearing today, Miss?

Look at your hair. You've got it covered in spots. I don't think that's a flop. I think that's fine. Well, I had a lot of school when I was teaching. If I'd gone in without any makeup on quite i don't think that's a flop i think that's fine well i had a lot of school when i was teaching um if i'd gone in without any makeup and i don't wear much anyway but if i got in without any it's like are you all right miss yeah you die in what's wrong you don't look very well yeah teenage boys have got no filter i taught teenage boys just no filter just

like what's wrong with you miss i'm like nothing i just haven't put mascara on today teenagers are absolutely brutal i found teenage girls sometimes a little bit scary i'd be like i'm gonna go into like teach year 11 class because i taught re and it's compulsory and like you know what a lot of people don't want to be taught re they're just not interested at all so i'll be there'd be certain year 11 classes i'd be like tiptoeing in they'd be like that with their arms come on guys let's learn about Jesus when I did my teacher training there was so I did one like you know you do two placements I did my second placement in an all-girls school and I didn't realize who like the queen beer the class was obviously it was like first week I was there and I told her off. And then it really highlighted for me how different girls and boys are.

So for the rest of the year or the rest of that placement, she never misbehaved. The class didn't like outwardly misbehave. They sat in a chair, they did their work, but none of them would look directly at me. To the left, slightly to the right, above my head. And I told my mentor and she was like, it's unacceptable. You know to the left slightly to the right above my head and i told my mentor and she was like it's unacceptable i'll you know i'll talk to them and i was like and she was like we'll write a behavior report i'm like what am i meant to write down she's doing their work they're handing in their homework they're no one's shouting out they're all in their chairs

like but they're looking slightly to my left and i was like i can't i just that i'm going to chalk up to experience of like she cried when i left as well she was devastated I was like you hate me whereas boys they don't they don't work together if one shouts and gets out the chair they'll all shout get out the chair but they don't work together there's no plan there's no cohesive manipulation there that they're emotive and then they're calm do you miss teaching uh yes and no it made me i've got ulcerative colitis and it's for me very very stress-induced and it by the time i eventually called it and left it just i was like crying in the shower before i went to work like it just and i worked in quite a difficult school like i loved it like some of the teachers i worked I loved it like some of

the teachers I worked with were amazing like some of the best people I've ever met um and what they did in that school was incredible but I think it just I don't know if I've got what I gave then I don't know if I've got to give it now no like now I've got kids and now I've got and like I used to go in on Saturdays teach kids that were expelled after school like well one boy like after and it just I just don't have that in me now I don't think and it made me quite unwell by the time I left but I do I do miss it I find myself like when there's big groups of youth like you know like people kicking off on the bus and I'm like lads can we just I'm like I got like gentleman language like can we just can we be aware that like I sit when I do that and I it is like I can like't, if I'm at McDonald's and there's kids swearing or bank, I can't help, I do a stare.

No. I can't stop myself. I can't. It's always that gentleman, do we mind? Yeah. And Bob's like, can you stop telling teenagers in Bromley? It's like, you're going to get yourself in trouble. Yeah, I did it on a train.

I did it on a train back with Stephen. And I was like, lads, there's kids on here. And Stephen's like, you're going to get yourself in trouble. Yeah, I did it on a train. I did it on a train back with Stephen. And I was like, lads, there's kids on here. They don't need to, and Stephen's like, they're going to get a knife out. You need to wind your neck in. Okay, you're right then. Okay, if you could go back and tell little Luce something, what would you tell her?

Do you know what? I think to hold my own a bit more in friendships. I think to be a bit more resilient and being okay that people might not like you. And it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. It's just that, you know, you're not going to be everyone's cup of tea and you don't have to, don't have to be liked by everybody. that's not to be like now I'm like do what you like like I still really care what people think about me and I still care about

being a nice person and and doing the right thing but I think that went too far when I was younger where I was just very much like okay I'm really sorry I'm really sorry I won't do it again I'm really sorry I won't see that person unless you've almost given me permission to. Like I was very, very, I don't know, like compliant or subset. I can't think of the right word, but I think like I had a really good group of friends, but it was quite an intense group of friends. And it was, it got all a little bit unhealthy. Maybe where we were almost like you couldn't do anything unless

you had somebody else's permission to do it codependent kind of relationship yeah very codependent and if you try to kind of branch out from that it was like you had to go and justify it or you had to kind of apologize for it and and now I think if I saw my girls and like even though they're six and eight you see it sometimes a little bit where you go like no no no just because your friend might want you to do it, you don't have to. It doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. You know, she's not upset because you're doing something wrong. She's upset because she wanted you to play and you didn't want to.

And that's fine as long as you weren't rude. And as long as she could still play the game you were playing, it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. I kind of see it now and if that was happening with my girls and they had maybe the kind of codependency that I had I would it would really worry me and I would want to do a bit more I don't know like it that I tell myself that kind of hold your own a bit more yeah I don't I don't think I did until maybe I was at uni I think we didn't know about people as a grown-up yeah yeah but we didn't know about boundaries or we didn't know about like toxic friendships or that wasn't the thing.

We didn't have any of that kind of stuff. I don't think we had the language for it. Like there's so much more knowledge and understanding and I guess, and like the language to define what's happening, both in like friendships and relationships. And I think I know people say like, oh, really woke really but I'm like it can only be a good thing yeah people are more empowered and more knowledgeable and and I kind of I wish I'd had a bit more of that when I was younger yeah I have more understanding of self and how to hold that yeah power a bit are you glad

you grew up then or do you wish you were growing up now with these kind of like concepts that we didn't have I wish I think I wish I could have had the conceptual understanding and the and the kind of kind of PSHE that they're doing now I wish would I'd had when I was younger but without the social media element and like I went to a couple of years ago just like the first one that was reopened after Covid we went to Rob and I and two of our friends went to Reading Festival and I felt I mean I've never felt older I was just like in the field full of what looked to me like actual children half naked drunken children and I was like what is happening it's like a Sodom and Gomorrah in here like they were just they looked

so young and they were all half naked and drunk and all and I just was like you're going to be cold and then you're safe and what do you do but like what I would say as as a generation what they don't seem to have and I know that social media has its own pressures of you know AI and beauty standards and filters and all of that but just the kind of the body confidence almost as a generation they were everybody seemed to be it didn't matter what the fashion was if you wanted to wear it you were wearing And I can't, and I don't want to say some people shouldn't have been wearing it. But I think in my kind of very 90s, noughties lens, you kind of go, oh, God, I never would have worn that if I was maybe that size, or I was that whatever, you know, whatever it is and they just truly didn't seem to care and I was like this is brilliant whatever is happening with that generation I don't know what they they for them and I know it won't apply to everybody but for for a large part it does seem to have really

taken a little bit of a shift that they were just like yeah I like it I'm wearing it you know it's 30 degrees I'm in a field i'm drunk i'm gonna wear a bikini top and fishnet trousers and to you like it just i it really it made me as much as i was like mum worried about them yeah it was quite nice it's really liberating to see just like fields and fields of people just being not giving a shit yeah yeah i think we've got some things that are so ingrained in us I did a reel yesterday which is me trying to swing cost just doing costumes on and none of the comments were negative they were all lovely but I got a lot of number two's flattering oh

number two makes your waist look smaller and I have to go I don't I'm not I don't I'm not trying to make my waist look smaller I don't mind if it's not flattering. And it's not, and I said to, I always explain to, because I always, if things like this crop up, I talk to my children about it and say, they're not being mean just from their generation. They're thinking, right, a swimming costume needs to make me look small. Smaller and more flattering.

And I had it with my daughters, like my older daughter. I was like, God, I'm so hot. And I was wearing a swimsuit. She was like, why don't you wear a bikini then, mummy? Yeah. And I was like, oh, I don't know how to answer that so like this we went on holiday recently and I did and it took everything yeah absolutely everything to put it on and maintain I'd say I wasn't even positive it was like a neutral stance of like taking my top off and wearing the bikini on the beach and just and it's and I'm trying to be really really intentional with it now and I don't even think I could say body

positivity or body neutrality I'm just trying to ignore it yeah just just it's not I'm just because I don't I've got two little girls I don't want it to be a thing for them and I was like well that's kind of got to come from me yeah it's got to be me wearing and doing and and showing them but yeah I was like it was on that bikini on in that bikini on the beach and I was just like no one those 12 I was like no no no just just no comment no comment not even positive ones I just want no my girls are just old enough for the rapids on center parks and that I need a different level of swimming costume for because it was unacceptable because they go they just fly down they're like actively trying to get away from

me and go as fast as they can so yeah i haven't got time to readjust or put anything back in i need like a i need a high neck shorts swim suit and i need one with like shorts like swimmers wear you fly at the bottom you're trying to stand up to get out, but you're also trying to pick it out your bum. You're trying to put your boob back in. And then stop your kids just running back on. Or I can't quite get off the big inflatable things in Disney. I can't quite get off them. So I'm just like, oh, can someone help me?

Like a young 20-year-old. I've seen people getting out of pools. I don't have the upper body strength to get myself out of a pool when I can't push off the bottom so if it's too deep but I can't like do the spring I'm just like a kind of beached seal slowly dragging myself like scraping on my legs no it's got to be a very secure swimmer but we do it for our kids and we want to show yeah we're having fun even when we're picking costumes out of our bottom well thanks very much for coming on the podcast lou everybody go and follow over on instagram guys tune in next week for another episode of the phone box podcast be sure to go and follow me

on instagram we've been doing some fun polls i think this week lou we're doing the best duo of the 80s 90s who springs to mind immediately to you who would you have chosen pj and duncan i think pj and duncan's a great one i was gonna say wham good oh i do like wham so by now people will know the winners i don't know who the winner is but i think p i'm hoping the twins from funhouse also make an appearance because they were iconic cheeky girls were they 90s? Or were they the noughties? I'm going to do a noughties one as well. There's so many.

The Proclaimers. There's hundreds. There's loads of them. So guys, go and check that out and I will see you soon. See you later, Lou. Thank you for coming on. Bye.

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