Bel Priestley: All I want for Christmas is… quality time with my mum -Lucy Norris-Entertainment – Metro

Bel shares her transition journey on TikTok in the hopes it’ll inspire others (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.

When Bel Priestley, 19, got the news she’d be joining the cast of Heartstopper she thought her life had been made.

An acting role was just one of the many life changing opportunities she had received since uploading her first video on TikTok – and just like her 1.2million follower count, she continues to grow every day. 

Sharing her transition journey and documenting her experience with hormone therapy, Bel not only entertains the masses but inspires them to embrace their true selves. 

This last year has been her busiest yet but it seems for the social media influencer the best is yet to come…

Why did you decide to share your life on the internet? 

The influencer started posting videos online in her early teens (Picture: Getty Images)

So when I was growing up, when I first came out as trans I sort of looked to see other people online. 

I couldn’t really find anyone similar to me, so I wanted to be someone for the younger generation to look up to and hopefully inspire them and have them come out and share my experience – so people don’t feel so alone like I did when I was growing up.

That was important to me.

When things did start to gain a bit of traction, how did that all unfold for you? Was there a certain video that just blew up or was it gradual? 

I was posting little vlogs when I was like 13 or 12 so I’ve done social media for years and then I started properly being interested in it in around sixth form time when I was about 16 /17, just before lockdown. 

When lockdown happened, I think everyone was on their phones and TikTok became a massive, massive thing. So then it just sort of happened like that. 

At the start of 2021 is when I really saw a massive growth spurt in my account. I had quite a few videos that did really well. I had a few ones with me walking [as if on a catwalk] and showing my mom’s reaction and a few sort of like text chats of me coming out to my family and my friends and they got millions of views. 

After that, my account just skyrocketed and people were so excited because I started hormones around the same time. I was sort of documenting my journey with that. People just became really interested and it’s just been that way ever since, which is crazy.

It must have been quite a big life change for you to all of a sudden have millions of people watching what you were doing! 

Yeah, I think there’s nothing anyone can really say to you to sort of prepare for it. 

It is very overwhelming at the start, especially when my comments that are negative are so personalised to who I am as a person and the way I look and the way I act. 

So it was quite a big shock but the positive always outweighs the negative and I think it’s always so important to focus on the positive. I try not to let the negative comments get to me too much but obviously sometimes we’re all human and it’s going to affect you in some way.

Now doing it at this sort of bigger level for around a year to a year and a half, I’ve got used to the comments, I just know how to sort of block them out and just ignore them. 

But yeah, it was a massive shock to the system. A hundred percent.

When did you realise you could start turning your platform – that started as a hobby –  into a full-time career? 

So when I started earning money from TikTok, I was also a cleaner at a school but I had the worst time. My manager was really transphobic and it was just awful. 

I remember being like “do you know what? I’m just going to leave and hopefully find work”. Luckily, I had my friend that managed me at the time and she got me quite a few jobs that just worked out really well. 

Then when I started growing, money just came in – it just all happened at once. I was at college as well, so it was sort of trying to balance work with college life and then I dropped out at the end of 2021 to start doing this full-time. 

It went from nothing to something all very quickly really and I’ve not really got my head around it yet to be honest.

Especially with TikTok still being so new to everyone – with Instagram people know a little bit more about what’s going on. Have you noticed a difference between the two platforms in terms of your brand’s business? 

Yeah, I feel like with YouTube and Instagram there’s way more of a blueprint. TikTok is still brilliant, it’s only been around for sort of two or three years so I think people are still getting used to it and the way monetization works. 

There are still so many ways coming in now, like TikTok shop and it’s now becoming more of an e-commerce sort of platform.

It’s all growing really quickly. It’s all overwhelming but it’s so, so amazing!

The star was cast in the new season of Heartstopper (Picture: Netflix)

A big part of your platform is your transition journey and sharing that with people but how has that been for you, being so vulnerable and opening up online? 

It’s weird because at school I kept everything so quiet and so to myself, I didn’t really have any friends at school so no one really knew what was going on. 

So to go from that to sharing it to millions of people, I think I always forget the numbers are actually people in real life. It makes it all worth it because when people come up to me in the street and are just like, “you helped me come out or helped me transition”… that’s what makes it all worth it. 

I forget that what I say has inspired quite a few people so it’s a weird thing to sort of understand and process – especially when you are sat in your room posting a TikTok and then you can go to sleep and the next day it’s got millions and millions of views and millions of people have seen it and been inspired by it. 

It blows my mind.

What has been your high point of 2022 and then also your low point?

So my high point, I’m cast in the new season of Heartstopper which is crazy. It’s like a big, big dream. I’ve always wanted to act ever since I was younger so I think that’s a high point of my life to be honest. 

I knew one of the casting directors very loosely and he reached out to me and my management to audition. I didn’t hear much for a while, about two or three weeks and I knew they were starting to film quite soon after I auditioned so I didn’t really think I had it. 

Bel revealed how social media changed her life and reflected on the moment she made it her full time job (Picture: Getty Images)

Then all of a sudden, I got a call from my manager being like, “yeah, you’re on set because they offered it to you”. I got it off one self tape so luckily, I didn’t have to go for any of the scary in person stuff. It’s such a big moment and I’m so excited for it to come out. 

I’d say a low point… I think at the start of the year I was in such a weird place mentally and I just felt a bit not all there really. I feel like I turned it into a high point at the same time because I’ve sort of learned to build myself up and I’m in such a good place now. 

I mean, I was at a very low point at the end of last year but I’ve really sort of come into my own now and I feel really good. So yeah, I think mentally I’ve had a bit of a weird year with sort of friendships and just life but it’s just a part of life, isn’t it really?

Within the whirlwind year you’ve just had, what do you think is the biggest thing you’ve learned? 

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you’ve only got yourself. 

This sounds very negative but I think for a while I always relied on – especially for happiness and comfort – friends and people that didn’t really appreciate me that much. 

This year has been so much about looking after myself and putting myself first and making sure that I’m okay and taking time for myself. The only person you have in this life a hundred percent of the time is you. 

So I’ve taken this year out to really sort of work on myself as a person and sort of find out what I want to do and who I want to be and where I want to go.

That’s my biggest thing that I’ve learned this year is just to be happy with myself.

Lastly Bel, what’s going on your Christmas list if you could add anything in the world?

Well, Christmas time is the same time as my mum’s birthday so I think I’d have some sort of holiday with my mum. 

I’d really like that, take her away or both have a really nice trip to Barbados while England’s not having the best weather.

That would be like a dream, just to go away and spend some quality time with my mum, I think. 

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