The day is finally here...
The day has finally arrived. It's release day for How to Dress Your Best! I have been so nervous and excited in anticipation of my new book, and I cannot wait to share it with you all
Last year I received an email that changed my life. A commissioning editor from a publisher called Quercus was reaching out to me to ask if I wanted to write a book.
To truly understand my reaction to that email, we need to rewind quite a long way. At 13 years old, I watched the Devil Wears Prada for the first time. I decided that if I was going to work in fashion in the future I needed to know EVERYTHING about it to be as good as miranda priestly, and I had a long way to go. I picked out a notebook from Paperchase and started filling it with scraps from style magazines. I went on a style transformation, buying my first piece of adult-sized clothing from H&M - it was a lime green knitted tank top which I loved for years. I started reading fashion blogs, and watching style videos on YouTube. It was around this time that I started making videos on YouTube myself, from shopping hauls, to videos of me singing songs I had written with my cheap, blue guitar.
My love of personal style didn’t stay a quiet hobby. I turned up to school with purple or pink highlights, ripped tights, badges all over my tie. I dyed my hair blonde, brown, and blonde again. I wore crazy outfits when I went to parties and was determined to be the best dressed on non-school-uniform-day. I revelled in dressing a little differently to everyone else who, at the time, was hell-bent on dark blue skinny jeans with plastic leather jackets (I feel like this has come back around recently much to my horror). In a state school in the middle of the countryside, I stood out. I got made fun of, I was talked about in group chats, pointed out to teachers, my videos played in classrooms all across the school.
I won’t lie to you and say the journey has been completely linear since then, but my love of clothing and personal style has stayed with me in the years that followed. After getting the best GCSE results in my year - something I still see as my greatest achievement after all this time - I got a place at a boarding school for sixth form. These two years I worked the hardest I ever have in my life. I was desperate to get into the best university I possibly could, and take advantage of the opportunity to learn from amazing teachers. I got a place at University College London, one of the best universities in the country - especially for Literature - and even though I said to myself, “you could chill out now” I worked really hard again for the next 4 years. Learning at university was such a pleasure for me, I loved reading books, discussing my favourite authors and films with people who were far more intelligent than me. It was here that I developed a lot of the skills I use to make my analysis videos - I still use my standard essay layout to write my TikTok’s!
It was during this time that I started Body & Style, taking a year out to focus on building this business. I started to earn enough that I could get my mum to work with me (rather than spending her evenings doing it for free!!!) and it became something amazing.
I graduated last year with a 1st, at the same time as running Body & Style, something I am immensely proud of. Almost immediately after I wrote my last essay, I got the request from Nicole at Quercus for a chat about a potential book.
I never imagined that I would get the opportunity so early in my life to publish a book. Of course, it is far from calibre of literature I loved at university, but I see the value it could provide to women all of the world. I am so proud of what we (me, my editors Nicole and Harriet, and designer Mietta Yans) have made.
My book is now available in the UK for anyone to go and read! It is absolutely unreal to be able to say that, and see that some of you have already received your copies. It is nerve-racking, terrifying and just unbelievably brilliant. I really hope you like it
You can buy a copy HERE