Issey Moloney: All I want for Christmas is… to be with all my family-Lucy Norris-Entertainment – Metro

Issey Moloney started social media when she was nine years old (Picture: Getty Images)

Welcome to Metro.co.uk’s All I want for Christmas is… series where we’re exploring our beloved famous faces’ deepest desires ahead of December 25.

From five to five million views, Issey Moloney has cracked the code to going viral on TikTok – and then some. 

She’s 17 years of age and racking up thousands upon thousands of interactions with her content on a daily basis. 

Boasting over six million followers on the social video-sharing app, the young star sits among the UK’s top creators and seems to only be rising in popularity one POV (point of view for those not up to speed with the platform’s many trends) at a time. 

Issey’s expanding her influence, working with high street brands and turning her numbers into a successful career before she’s even graduated from her teenage years. 

Without further ado, @isseypov’s lifting the lid on life as a fully-fledged social star.

The 17-year-old shot to online fame during the pandemic (Picture: Getty Images)

Issey, how did your rise to fame on TikTok come about? 

So I basically started TikTok up during lockdown properly – well I started posting a lot more than I usually did because I had nothing really to do. 

But I was on the app since I was nine, I just didn’t have any videos do well I had something like five likes on my videos. 

When people started seeing them properly was probably around lockdown, the start of lockdown.

When you did start to see your views increase, how did you start to notice your life change? 

It was very slow because obviously with lockdown you couldn’t leave the house so I wasn’t really able to go to events or anything, or really meet anyone. So I didn’t actually realise what it was until the end of lockdown. 

It started when I was 15 and then by the time that all ended I was around 16 and then I was doing my GCSEs and everything, I was in school. 

I don’t think I really realised what it was until like a year later, after the lockdown had finished.

Issey revealed her plans to expand beyond the apps in the new year (Picture: Getty Images)

So when we could all venture back outside after Covid, what was your initial feeling towards having millions of people know who you were?

With social media, it’s kind of hard to understand what that is – it’s so many people but when you look on a screen, it’s obviously put into like 5.1 or 5.2, you know you don’t really understand what those numbers mean. 

I think you can’t really comprehend what it is until you meet the people and you’re like, “Oh, I see you on TikTok” and I forget there are actual people watching – it’s kind of weird.

I can only imagine! When you did start to have those interactions did it change how you started to live your life – having a conscious awareness that people were watching?

No, not really, I mean, my friends are always, like, “be careful of what you’re doing” but I feel like I’m allowed to be me around them [her followers]. 

I feel like I’ve put enough of me on the internet that I’m not really scared about what I’m doing because I’ve never really worried about anything before. So I’m fine with being me 24/7. I don’t really stress about anything surrounding that aspect of it all. 

When I meet people, it’s really nice because with my platform I try and keep it almost like a friend. I usually share a lot about my life and stuff. So when I see them, it’s kind of more like, “Oh, hi” like a friend would say it rather than “Oh, do you want a photo?” You know?

You’re 17 and you’ve achieved so much for your age so when your platform started to become more of a business, how did you navigate that? Was it ever a bit overwhelming?

Yeah, I mean it’s quite overwhelming I guess because obviously, I didn’t really know how that industry worked with money. 

From the outside perspective, you don’t really understand, you just kind of see it as like, “oh, it’s all their content”. 

The influencer shared what life is like in the UK social media scene (Picture: Getty Images)

But when you actually are inside of the industry, it’s a longer process to get that work and make those connections. You could have the same amount of following but also be getting no work done. 

So that’s where the hard work comes in – it’s going to events, networking with people, trying to find people that you can work with and brands and making a relationship with those brands.

When you did start to mingle with the rest of your industry in real life after lockdown, what was that like? Can you describe what the TikTok / influencer scene is like in the UK?

Everyone’s really nice but I guess it’s a bit like high school because everyone has groups and stuff. 

There’s always some sort of beef and tea – arguments that are going on in that world. I am friends with most people but I kind of keep to my group. 

But yeah, the best way to describe it is like high school!

How have you managed to not let any outside voices influence how you behave online, whether that be trolls, management or anything in between?

They probably have in the past but it’s just learning to forget those and stay true to yourself. If you listen to them, you end up finding yourself changing and it’s quite scary when that happens. 

I did have a week off at one point and I sat down and was like, “right, I am not enjoying it as much as I did” so I had to switch up my content. 

I think, with social media, it’s easy to stay with the same content because you’re scared of your views going down but with me I don’t really care about that. I would just like to create the content that I want to create and if people like it, then they like it and if people don’t then they don’t. 

I’m just making what I want to make because that’s what a lot of creators get stuck in, like being scared to switch up their content.

Does it ever get scary having your entire career rely on these apps being alive and popular?

Yeah, I mean, I guess so but I feel like that’s every job – you have to take that risk, you can’t rely on every job forever as there’s always a risk of being fired. 

It’s the same as TikTok, it’s just a bit riskier because your job is based on an app that could be taken down any minute. 

There were some scares in the past where the app crashed for like a day but I feel like you have to know with social media it’s always a risk. So it’s just deciding if you want to take it or not.

The stylish teen moved out of her family home to live with her friends in London (Picture: Getty Images)

Despite creators like you proving otherwise, people still say a career like yours has a shelf life – what do you make of that?

We get a lot of that, especially in the UK because social media is not as big as it is in the US. 

I just ignore it because I understand how doing social media is a very privileged job. It’s not as hard as other jobs are, you know, and the pay is good compared to other jobs. 

So I don’t really react, I don’t really say anything to them because I feel like it’s hard to understand what it is until you’re in it. There’s no point trying to explain because otherwise, you just sound really privileged.

What are some of the highlights of your last year and how does it feel to reflect on them?

I moved out of my mom’s house and then I moved to London – I didn’t originally live in London. It was nice to move to the city because I’ve always wanted to since I was a young girl. 

Living with my friends and learning how to look after yourself and pay the bills! 

Also just finding myself. I felt like from 16 to17, it was a big change. I left school and then I moved to London and was living a completely different life – that’s probably my biggest change this year.

I’m a perfectionist and when I look back, I should be more proud than I am because I kind of just look in the moment. So if I’m not proud of what I’m doing at the moment, or if I think I should be doing more than I think on that rather than on what I have done. My friends tell me off for it! 

But when I really think about it, I am quite proud because when I was in school I had no idea what I wanted to do in college, I wasn’t very academic. So I got very lucky, I guess.

Who would you like Issey to be at the end of next year?

I’ve started getting into modelling so I want to focus on that next year but I really want to get into acting too, it’s just like learning the lines that I struggle with.

I don’t really know what I want to be next year yet but I do want to focus on some other careers as well as social media.

All I want for Christmas is…? 

…to be with all my family because my parents aren’t together, so it would be nice!

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