Living Life the Essex Way Read Free Page B

everyone else became a part of the show – they all pretty much came about because of a link with me, Amy, Kirk or Mark. We are the original four, definitely. As far as
people I brought in, obviously my sister Billie was through me. Then I introduced Lucy Mecklenburgh – Lucy Meck – to Mark in Marbella just before we filmed series one. So as soon as he
was single and able to make a move, that was her lined up for
TOWIE
, as anyone Mark got involved with was going to become central to the show.
    I mentioned to the bosses I knew Peri Sinclair, who had the shop around the corner. And then Joey got onto the show because of me – although he will never admit it! He got papped with me
on a night out once and I told the photographers his name was Joey Essex, and they loved that cos you couldn’t make it up – but no one thought it was his real surname. I told the
producers to put him on the show, and then I ended up getting with him. And because of the link to me he got lots of air time, which showcased how entertaining he can be. Like when he took me on a
date and we ended up visiting a tip and then eating these squashed sandwiches in the middle of the woods. It was pure genius, and really established him as a central character. He will never ever
thank me for it, but look at those facts!
    In fact, thinking about it, I need to get some commission off all this lot! Of course, I wasn’t the only one from the original
TOWIE
lot who made suggestions to the producers, and
I’m sure that each and every one of us thinks that we were the one who brought the most to the table!

2
THE ORANGE COUNTY RULES
    When I was young, I was a bit of a letdown as far as the Essex girl image goes because I don’t remember being that interested in beauty in my early years. I was a proper
tomboy throughout primary school, and was never one of those little girls that worry about their looks and spend hours looking in the mirror and trying on their mums’ make-up. And I think
that is partly a way of thinking that I got from my mum Sue.
    Don’t get me wrong, Mum definitely knows how to look good – she is glam, stylish and totally gorgeous! She is also a really young mum – she had me when she was just 22 years
old. But she doesn’t go in for fake tans, false nails, or anything like that. She was more bothered about being a mum – things like putting a good dinner on the table for us all every
night when Billie and I were growing up – rather than looking like she had walked straight out of the salon.
    So it was only really when I went to secondary school, and the other girls began to get into beauty routines and that, that I learned about it and started getting into it too. I wasn’t
obsessively girly or anything, but I started to take a lot more interest in my appearance, and enjoyed experimenting with the latest crazes along with all my friends.
    I went to Shenfield High School when I was 11. It is a pretty nice school in Shenfield, which is just outside of Brentwood. It is a mixed school, but the boys and girls are taught separately
which, looking back, is a good idea – it meant we were less distracted in class! I guess it must work, as the school gets pretty good results. Billie is 11 months older than me, and was in
the year above me at school. Mum would give us a lift in every day and I’d say I was pretty happy there. I wasn’t too bothered about the academic side of things, but I loved the
socialising and the friends and the fun times. Mum was fine with the fact that I wasn’t very academic, as long as she knew that I wasn’t wasting my education and was making the best of
things in my own way.
    At school there was a group of seven of us who were all best friends. Lucy Meck was one of them, which shows just how long we have been friends, although I admit we aren’t as close now as
we were then, as you might have noticed . . . The seven of us hung around together all the time, and I’m not going to lie – we