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Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Loose Women star has 'so many concerns' over kids on social media
Despite being one of the original YouTube stars, Louise Pentland has revealed that she is worried about kids life online in the modern social media world One of the 'original YouTubers' turned Loose Women star shared she now has has "so many concerns" about children being on social media. Louise Pentland, 40, amassed millions of followers online and shot to fame in the early days of the video-sharing website, but now a mum, she insists she has to be strict about the kind of content her children consume and share online. The social media star first launched her channel in January 2010 and has been watched more than 195 million times on the platform, amassing a staggering 2.17 million followers. She was one of the original stars of the platform, making a name for herself alongside the likes of Joe Sugg, Caspar Lee, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Zoella and more - known as the Brit Crew. But now speaking on Loose Women, she voiced her worries about life online, she said: "I have so many concerns about children online. I try to find a really healthy balance, and some people would say I could share more, some people could say I could share less. "I don't do daily vlogging, or weekly vlogging or anything like that. I know my children. Darcy is a little showperson, she loves theatre and dance. Pearl, not so much. "Darcy has a TikTok, which is a private account; she has an Instagram, which is a public account, but she's not allowed to just post whenever she likes. It has to be well thought-out, and I have to check it out. "There's so many safety features if you know about them. I don't think they're obvious enough but I'm logged in to her things so I see everything that is coming in and everything going out. As much as you trust your child, you can't trust the world. "We're never gonna get rid of social media, it's here for good, so I would rather train her to use it wisely and sensibly while she still listens to me!" Despite the potential concerns she raised, she also shared how the website helped her through some "really dark times", keeping her motivated while having the support of her community around her. But again, she insists that having clear online "boundaries" is important when she decides what part of her life she shares on camera. She said: "There have been some really dark times in my life. I had a very difficult, turbulent childhood, and I have been divorced. During those times, not the childhood, but, say, when my marriage came to an end, YouTube was a really joyful distraction. "I do share the down bits, but also I think it's really important that we remember to have boundaries, and you don't need to share every single thing with every single person. "So I try and find a balance of not making everything look perfect and remembering what is personal. When you're dealing with your children and your family, you've got to have those boundaries."
Daily Mirror
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Louise Pentland admits 'really cool' after working with King Charles and Camilla
YouTube legend Louise Pentland has opened up about working with King Charles and Queen Camilla, as well as a special invite to the Monarch's private country house Louise Pentland has revealed she was left flustered after meeting King Charles. This, however, was not the YouTube icon's first meeting with the Monarch who ascended to the throne in 2022. The social media star who first launched her channel in January 2010 has gone on to amass over 195 million views on the platform, with a staggering 2.17 million followers. Louise, 40, was part of the original group of what are now known as social media influencers, alongside the likes of Joe Sugg, Caspar Lee, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Niomi Smart, Tanya Burr, Zoe Sugg and Alfie Deyes. Collectively, the group were known as the Brit Crew – although this wasn't a name that they chose themselves. Since launching her channel and her blog, Louise has travelled the world and worked with some of the biggest brands, including her favourite, Disney – but she admits working with the King and Queen is one of her major highlights. "Really cool, it was really cool," she said of working with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2018. Louise went on to reveal to the Mirror: "It was a real honour, I worked with them a long time ago with YouTube around the now Queen Camilla's charity, Bookstart and that was amazing. "I got to meet the now King and I just thought 'Wow, what a once in a lifetime, incredible opportunity. I've followed them on everything they do and supported them; I really love the charities that they choose – I love that King Charles is all about conservation and preserving the art of craft. "Camilla is so into books and literacy, especially childhood literacy – I love that. I've followed them all this time." This is also a subject close to Louise's heart as a mum to Darcey, 14, and Pearl, seven. She added: "Last year, The King's Foundation, which was The Prince's Foundation, invited me to Highgrove – it was boujee. It was really cool, we had Afternoon Tea. "I went back at Christmas, met His Majesty The King, had a little handshake, had a little chat, and he had to move on. On the outside, I was cool and chill about it. I'll go as far as to say it was the best opportunity I've ever had. It was also incredibly generous because we each had our own three-tier little tray!" But while Louise has previously appeared on the likes of ITV's Lorraine and Loose Women, she admits she never knows what is around the corner with TV work, but has ruled out appearing on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!"Me on I'm A Celeb would be horrendous," she laughed joking that she wouldn't cope on the flight to Australia, let alone in the jungle. Almost two decades after launching her channel, Louise admits the biggest lesson she's learnt is that you can't please everyone. "It doesn't matter how good you are, how careful you are, how anything–you will never be able to please everyone," she said. While she can't please everybody, Louise says that knowing in your heart that you're being true to yourself is the biggest thing she has learnt. This was echoed when Louise announced a change to her YouTube channel, revealing she would no longer be creating content aimed at teenagers but instead, content for her older audience. She admits "a lot of people dropped off," but later found her again on new sites, including TikTok. Before YouTube, Louise wrote a blog that she set up while working as a receptionist in Liverpool after university, and she admits she could never have expected her career to take off in such a huge way. "I started a YouTube channel because I was like, oh, maybe the YouTube channel will help drive some traffic over to the blog. Then the YouTube Channel took off," she laughed. She went on to explain that she made YouTube her full-time role while on maternity leave with Darcey, admitting it's been the "most wonderful, amazing experience." She added: "Aside from motherhood, it's been truly the best experience of my life. I just never thought that it would go this well and I would have the experiences I've had." Away from the positives, though, Louise admits that there have been downsides to her career, but the positives outweigh these. Louise recently teamed up with Nivea for their I AM… Thiamidol campaign and has spoken about her experience with hyperpigmentation. "I'm 40 now, and the very first time I ever thought about skin in that way was when I was a teenager," she said. Louise revealed that while in the changing rooms of her all-girls school, a fellow student pointed out stretch marks, which she didn't even know were a thing. She said: "Because they had been sort of introduced to me in such a negative light, it has been hard to shake that off for my whole life. "Obviously, I've gone through different things in life that have changed my skin, I've gone through puberty and then pregnancy, twice. And now I'm starting the early days of the ageing process into a middle-aged woman, which I'm very glad to be doing, it's a privilege to age." Louise admits that she no longer feels negative and having a product which has Thiamidol in gives her a "bit of reassurance." Working with Nivea was a no-brainer for Louise as the brand aligned with her personal views, given its deep roots in families across the world. "To find a new product from them with Thiamidol is a little bit exciting," she gushed, before adding it was a "real honour" to be involved in the campaign alongside Dani Dyer, Louise Redknapp and Paul C Brunson. Working with Dani, Louise and Paul, she admits it was "really good," as her young daughter Darcey sat in the corner offering support on the photoshoot saying: "Slay queen!" "It was a lovely day, and the big billboard was really cool – it was so smooth and easy," she joked. At the age of 40, though, Louise admits the answer to having great skin is "a lot of water," before explaining that each night she does a "full proper cleanse" before going to bed. Despite being 40, Louise said she doesn't feel old but instead, feels "great." She said: "We do products like Nivea, Thiamidol, that do help with anything that you're worried about. It's not just hyperpigmentation, marks and all that sort of stuff. There's so many things out there to help with so many of the things you might be worried about and to give you the confidence that you want."
Metro
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
We went viral in the early days of YouTube - here's how it's changed our lives
Charlie and Harry are at university now studying law and business. They're preparing to join the workforce, but you probably know them as the toddlers in one of the most viewed videos of all time. They are the two children who accidentally went viral, after their dad tried to share a candid – hilarious – moment with family in the early days of YouTube. Today is the 20th anniversary of the first ever video uploaded to the platform, Me at the Zoo, and since then there have been over 20,000,000,000,000 (yes, trillion) more. The Davies-Carr family have been vloggers for most of that time, as their viral home video was uploaded just two years later, in May 2007. 'I made it public so that a couple of people could access it who wouldn't understand how to create an account,' dad-of-four Howard told Metro. 'Then a few months after that, I went into YouTube to delete it, thinking that everybody would have seen it. And it had had a huge number of views.' Watching the number climb from tens of thousands into hundreds of millions was a surreal experience, that was 'alarming' at first. 'You think, 'well I've lost control'. I suppose I took the attitude, 'we'll just embrace what's happening and and see where it goes',' he said. The brothers, now 18 and 21, say it's always been a part of their lives, but doesn't dominate it, given that they look very different now so are never recognised in the street. At most, 'my mates might try and wind me up and tell someone,' Charlie told Metro. They see the video as a net positive, and it has helped the family financially: it was sold it for £537,000 as an NFT in 2021. But Charlie said he probably wouldn't share videos of his own future kids because 'that era is over'. 'It the video was posted now, I don't think it would be anywhere near as successful as it was,' he added. Speaking from the family home near Windsor, his older brother Harry said: 'I don't know if it changed our lives because it happened when we were so young; we've grown up with it. 'It's funny to see it pop up, like it was on the Big Fat Quiz of the Year, and I sometimes hear it referenced when I'm watching a different video on YouTube. It's kind of a shock when it happens, like 'oh my god that's me'.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video YouTube said that around 20 million videos are now uploaded every day, with around 3.5 billion daily likes from users on average last year. The experience for creators now is vastly different to in the early days, before 'influencer' was a career choice. Louise Pentland, part of the original 'Brit Crew' of superstar YouTubers, told Metro that she started off vlogging aged 24 with a camera perched on a laundry basket on her bed. 'When I started, you didn't make money off it – you just did it for fun,' she said. Now 39 and with millions of followers across platforms, what started as a hobby has become a career, and both she and the platform have grown up. YouTube was a 'small community of friends' when she started, she said: 'Now it's a large community of mainly friendly people, and those two things are different.' Although many of her early videos are still online, there are some that she has made private, such as a disastrous attempt to craft pumpkins where she burnt her hand with hot glue. 'That video did very well, but I think mostly because I was being laughed at, not with,' she said. Although most people didn't know much about YouTube in the early years, and those who did know tended to be young, her dad was actually the first person who got her into it, sending a video from make-up influencer Lauren Luke 'Panacea81', who he had seen a news article about. 'Ater a while she felt like more than just someone teaching me how to do makeup, but like an online friend. I felt really happy and comfortable watching her videos – she was such a comfort watch,' Louise said. When she started making content herself, 'most people did not understand', and she's not even sure she understood herself. 'I think people thought it was just a bit odd or a bit niche, whereas now everybody knows about YouTube,' she said. 'It felt like the people that did know were this like little secret club of people that knew about this fun, new, cool thing.' Those creating content now have to vie with algorythms dictating what they see, with users served more and more videos similar to what they have already interacted with. Jonti Picking, also known as Mr Weebl, misses the more random nature of what you could find on your screen in the early YouTube days. 'It used to be just little nerdy kids in rooms and weirdos making cartoons that you would never commission, but it was really interesting because of that,' he said. Those growing up online in the 2000s would not have been able to escape his repetitive viral tune Badger Badger Badger. But would it have appeared on screens if it was uploaded today? 'The early days were a lot more quirky and varied,' he told Metro. 'A lot of the things on the front page were handpicked. 'I would say quality in general is vastly up for most things [now], but you just don't find them as easily. I'd love to see a bit more curation, but that's me. I'm an old fuddy-duddy.' The animator and musician based in Bristol is turning 50 next month, and now has two children in their teens, who are less than impressed by his viral fame. 'When they were young, I was kind of cool to them, I think, because their friends would join in with the songs,' he said. 'But now it's just, 'Shut up, Dad! Go away! Close the door.' They weren't even born when badgers came out. It's insane. 'They're both quite creative, but they've got really into musicals, which is like musical kryptonite to me. It winds me up endlessly. Here's me making filthy, bassy tunes, and there's 'Defying Gravity' and all this downstairs. Where did I go wrong?' He says he had an inkling that the song could take off after finishing the animation in about three days: 'I remember showing it to some people I was working with at the time, going, 'This is going to be big', somewhat jokingly.' More Trending 'Then I went away after posting it and came back, and it had just gone huge overnight. Unbelievably, the lyrics 'badger' was only ever meant to be a placeholder, inspired by the song Saturday Night by Whigfield, but he thankfully realised it worked the way it was. Even if it may sometimes be annoying to be defined by the words BadgerBadgerBadgerBadger, he's grateful for the song's success because it has allowed him to keep doing what he loves. 'It's been great; it's been a career,' he said. 'Not just this, obviously. But you know, from badgers, many other things sprung forth. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Boris Johnson's ostrich-like response to Adolescence was inevitable
