At your age, your body is still changing, how do you keep fit?
I said this before, I started on the show when I was just 13, like I hadn’t even hit puberty at that point. From the three years I’ve been on the show, I’ve gone through puberty. You know, your body fluctuates and one size one week to the next and I think it was difficult being on TV and I think I would watch myself and I could see that I was this size, this size and I think I struggled with that for a bit.
I think I just got to a point where I was like ‘I’m going to have to love myself because I have all these teenage girl fans and who if they’re insecure and I’m not promoting the right message, then I’m not helping anyone.’ And you know I’ve got a big following and they’re all really influential girls. I want them to feel really beautiful and strong and feel like they need to love themselves because we all do.
For me, fitness is a big thing. And I think as long as you’re healthy and happy, you don’t have to workout. That’s just my way of keeping fit and I feel beautiful when I work out. I think after a really good work out, I feel strong and, in my body, and really energetic. And Johnno is wonderful with that. I don’t do anything heavy. I don’t push myself to a limit. We just do light cardio and I’ll probably train my legs and my glutes a lot because they’re things I want to target. And he’s really good with that. He’s always been really supportive of me and he understands what I’m doing and if I say ‘I’ve got a shoot I want this, this and this to tone me up’, he’s like ‘great.’ He’ll send me a schedule and I’m really close with him.
Ethan trains with him as well. We go out and have dinners every couple of months. I love the relationship I have with him and his wife, Amy. They’re lovely humans. They understand what’s important and they talk about healthy eating. They’re really on the same page. I agree with all of their diets.
They’re not just preaching it. You see it.
No not at all. They’re really real about what they eat and what they work out, which is what I love because I like to be real about what I’m doing.
Does he do a lot of elastic stuff with you because you said you focus on glutes not heavy weights?
Yeah. My training regime is I’ll do a lot of elastic stuff and squats. It’s natural toning that’s really important to me because I’ve got a pretty low metabolism so I can put on eight really quickly which is fine, but I tone muscle really quickly which I’m lucky about. So what I’ll normally do is I’ll probably get a 20 kettle bell and I’ll do a couple reps of that and I’ll be doing leg squats with the elastics. And I’ll be doing…I don’t what it’s called…the behind leg stuff. And then I’ll probably do half an hour to 15 minutes just cardio. Running or doing stairs. Which is kind of all you need unless you’re really specifically training for something. I’m not interested in being a gym junkie. I just like to be fit and healthy. I try to go three or four times a week.
What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever done in a relationship or had happened to you?
Well he’s my first relationship. What’s important to me – I think feeling loved in a relationship is really important. To make you feel like you’re equals. I think that it’s just the little things for me. If I’ve got my hair cut or if I’ve done something – I never dyed my eyebrows and recently just got them done and he kind of noticed and goes ‘you look really beautiful.’ Just little things like that.
Another thing that makes me feel beautiful is if I buy a really good pair of jeans and then you wear them and you just know you look good in them so you wear them and if he notice that, he’s like ‘they look really good on you.’ I think those little things make something really important to me or that he thinks about.
If I’m sad, he’ll buy me roses. He’s a really beautiful boy like that. And those kind of little things are more important to be than huge, grand gestures. Like him remember things that I’ve mentioned – anyone really, not just my boyfriend, my mum, my dad, my siblings. If they remember that I’ve said something and then they bring it up or they compliment me on something. That’s what makes me feel really special.
Who is someone that’s stuck up for you or helped you?
So I think with shoot, Emily Symons has been the biggest help and influence to me. And Penny McNamee who plays my sister. And Emily who plays my foster mum. I started really young on the show and I came off a kids TV show, but this is an adult working place. Now that I’m a woman on the show, she [Emily] has really helped me. She learns my lines or if I’ve got an annoying bra strap hanging out, she’ll be like ‘don’t do this’ or ‘remember.’ They run lines with me or give me tips. Both of those two women are really strong and they mean a lot to me because they’re really strong, empowering women which I really, really admire.
They’re really lovely. We’ve worked with both of them.
Beautiful women. Good people as well, which is really important. If you’re in TV, there are lots of people out there and there’s a lot of egotistical. But they are two incredible, grounded women with two young kids and they’re fantastic mothers and fantastic role models to me. My mother is a big role model to me. My mother and my grandmother who are both in television have always stuck up and supported me and taught me to be a strong woman who speaks – you know I stand up for myself and I’m strong. They’re both taught me to do that.
Do you find it hard to grow up in the age of social media?
For teenage girls especially, we live in an age where there is so much social media and constant comparing yourself. I think that I went through that because I was a young girl who was being compared unfortunately. I think that my mother, especially, taught me to love myself. I remember she said this thing once I was like ‘I don’t feel really good.’ I was doubting myself and she kind of said ‘you as a child, never doubted yourself. You always worked hard for what you wanted.’ I wanted to be on TV and I wanted to act, so I sought out. I found the agent. I told mum to email her and she was like ‘now that you’re on television and you’ve accomplished what you want, why do you start doubting yourself?’
It’s really important to remember, because as kids we had no fear, we didn’t doubt ourselves because we were told we were great. We believed it. Other people come in and will doubt that or challenge that and I think it’s important to remember that we are strong and beautiful and empowered. We’re in such an important movement. Women are really coming to age and we’re strong and we’re able to have opinions and hold it. I think it’s important to remember that we do need to love ourselves and be comfortable in ourselves.
What would you say to a younger audience who are struggling with themselves?
It’s one of those things, it’s more difficult, it’s easier said than done to love yourself. What I try to do every morning if I’m not feeling good or if I’ve got pimples or feeling bloated or I’ve had an allergic reaction to something, is look at yourself in the mirror and don’t say something bad. Just be like my eyes look really good today, or my hair’s looking really good. Because we do it, we’ve got photos of ourselves. Social media is such a big age and photos are so big and so heavily edited and kids don’t think that.
What do you think about trolls? Have you had any trolls?
Yeah. I do. I totally have.
How do you filter that?
I feel bad for them because if you’re going to go and hate on someone who’s trying to do something and trying to help the world, you’re obviously incredibly insecure and not feeling good about yourself. I think that if you’re being hated on, it’s no other reason, it’s not targeted at you. It’s just because they’re insecure and unhappy with their lives. I think you just have to empathise with them and go ‘that poor person who feels the need to make fun of someone who’s trying to create a positive message.’ It’s not like ‘they’re so rude, how could they.’ You just feel bad for them.
