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TEEN BOSS
I’m 15 & started a side hustle from my room when I was 12 – now I’m worth £100k after PLT gave me a mega clothing deal
THINKING back to when you were 15 probably conjures up images of dodgy fashion choices and barely having enough for the bus fare into town.
But that certainly isn’t the case for Amelie Charlize.
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In our new series Bling Kids, Fabulous speaks to some of the most wealthy and successful children and teens on the planet, and Amelie has plenty of both.
Six months short of her 16th birthday, Amelie, better known as Ami to her fans, is PrettyLittleThings youngest ever ambassador having signed a deal estimated to be worth between £80-£100k in January.
The teen’s sponsorship deal with the brand, which also boasts millionaire Molly-Mae Hague on their books, and the £300 shopping hauls that make a regular appearance on mean that Ami is one of the most fashion-forward teens on the web.
Her Get Ready With Me videos on TikTok get up to nine million views a piece and she now boasts over two million followers, but the teen influencer admits social media was never meant to be more than a hobby.
Here the influencer reveals how she beat the bullies to become one of the most popular and wealthiest teens on TikTok…
Watching my sister upload another video to YouTube, I felt a pang of jealousy.
I’d always wanted to be in front of the camera, and so I asked her to help me set up my own channels.
Never for a minute did I think that three years later I would have ten times the amount of subscribers.
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TikTok was something I just tried for a laugh.
Like everyone else in lockdown I was bored and wanted something to do so I gave it a go like my other school friends.
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But I didn’t just wanna do the basic things that my classmates were doing, so I tried a few acting ‘point of view’ videos and they did really well and slowly I saw my follower account increase.
That was when I realised that maybe this could actually be something. At the time I was quite young, I had videos here, there and everywhere and a few went viral.
Eventually my management reached out to me and I was amazed by how much I could actually make just by mucking about on TikTok.
All I wanted to do was be like the influencers I was watching online but I didn’t know how to so when my management reached out they opened my eyes up to what it can actually be like.
I was making enough to afford the clothes I’d always wanted and I was finally able to upgrade my phone when I wanted rather than waiting for Christmas.
I had massive brands that I was obsessed with asking if they could send me clothes which was just unreal.
Now when I leave the house, fans come up to me in the street, I have become just like the influencers I always admired, being an ambassador for PrettyLittleThing was just the cherry on top of the cake.
My life has been totally transformed, for example this evening I’ve been invited to watch Chris Brown from a private box which is completely surreal.
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But with all the fame and fortune came a lot of hate.
At the start of my social media career my classmates weren’t positive whatsoever.
I had people making comments and taking the mick all the time.
I really didn’t enjoy school at all, my peers reacted how I expected them to and I think a lot of it stemmed from jealousy.
Now I’m in year 11 it’s got a lot easier, people put their head down and don’t really talk to me about social media.
Of course, being so well known online means it can be hard to know who to trust.
I have had to grow up a bit faster than others so I can see straight through the people who are just using me.
There will be people who want to do a TikTok with me just to boost their views. It’s quite easy to suss out who is using me.
I’m lucky that I am able to rise above any trolls, but of course they leave comments about my make-up and my skin, they even call my videos cringe.
People only see the highs of anyone who does content creating it’s a misconception to think my life is perfect.
Everyone always calls me out when I say that I’ve had a bad day, they will say, ‘How’s that possible? You’re making money you get to film TikToks as your job’ but it can be really overwhelming at times as I have a lot of stuff going on.
I get that from my friends quite a lot but they don’t understand because they don’t live it. It can be hard to try to be perfect all the time.
People forget that behind social media there is a person there.
I am so into retail therapy, I am a shopaholic, I don’t stop
Amelie Charlize
Although there have been a lot of changes in my life, my day to day is pretty much like anyone else’s particularly as school gets in the way for six hours of my day!
I have to work around my studying.
I’m very disorganised so it can get to 10pm at night and I will have school in the morning but I will be dealing with my content then.
But while my life is pretty hectic I manage to find time for myself too.
I am so into retail therapy, I am a shopaholic, I don’t stop, if I’ve had a bad day I am forever online shopping.
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I love heading into London for meals out with friends - I love hanging around Selfridges and acting boujee but ultimately my favourite restaurant is Nando's, some things never change!
I’m so grateful for everything I have and I know that my life is very different to a lot of teen’s but I do think that anyone can achieve what I have.
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Everyone has something about them, anyone can make a TikTok but you have to have the mentality to do it no matter what you’ve got going on.
Be yourself and be consistent online - fame isn’t going to come overnight, I used to watch videos on how to grow my channel but that’s not how it works, it's something you have to keep pushing at, and if you do anyone can be like me.
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