Roz Purcell is not letting her ego get in the way of taking big risks anymore – admitting she spent her 20s fearing people seeing her failing in life, love and her career.
The Tipperary star was only 19 when she became Miss Universe Ireland in 2010 and has since gone on to become one of Ireland’s top models and the influencer now has over half a million people following her every move on Instagram.
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But with the highs comes the lows, and after over a decade in the industry, particularly after weathering a social media storm last year over her clothing line’s initial sizing range, the now 31-year-old said she is proud of how she has learned to cope with it all.
She told the Irish Mirror: “You know what I think in my 20s I had such a big ego that I was so afraid to fail.
“Like if I failed, whether it was a failed relationship or a failed brand, I took it really badly.
“But now I am in my 30s, I learned so much from them, more than any of my successes.
“You learn so much from failure and now I am in my 30s I’m like, ‘F**k it, just do it’.
“In my 20s I spent the whole time worried about failing, when in fact, no one cares.
“And in fact, if you fail, there are so many people who relate to you but people just don’t talk about it.
“And I think the biggest reason why I failed in things in the past was I stopped when things got hard. So I’m learning not to do that.”
And the proof is in the pudding, as she told how she took a step back and stalled her clothing brand, The Hike Life, last year to make it fully inclusive, after facing backlash from customers over limited sizing when it launched in 2020. She said: “Even with everything that happened last year, I think it was one of the best things to actually happen to me.
“It actually opened me up to having some fantastic conversations and extending sizing from size 4 to 30 and actually being able to do that with the help of people who understand it and are the shoppers.
“And just to have that conversation that I probably wouldn’t have had if that hadn’t have happened.
“And I’m so happy and so proud I did it and I took a year-and-a-half of not making anything to get the size right to do that.”
Describing her new business venture as “eye opening” and “really hard”, Roz also told how it is one of her biggest risks so far, but one that she is passionate about, and committed to making one of her biggest successes.
She said: “I put everything in myself, absolutely every penny I have earned into it.
“So I haven’t got any investment from anyone because I am afraid of borrowing money.
“I don’t want to owe anyone anything. And obviously it is a huge risk, but like I’m in my 30s now. I’ve had failures before, I’ve had business before, and they’ve only failed because I hadn’t been 100% committed, whereas the difference with this is I am.
“I support any Irish business I see now because I know how hard it is.”
The Clonmel woman says she doesn’t do “regrets” but noted that her new “f**k it” attitude stems from both her zest for striving for success and her fear of looking back in years to come wishing she had the courage to do more.
She added; “The thing is, this isn’t a dress rehearsal. Our life, whether you have 70, 80 years. We have one shot. And at the end of the day you could be afraid to do anything and get to 80 and think, ‘I didn’t do anything because I was afraid of not how I would feel, but how others would think or judge me for doing it’.
“But in fact, no one will even remember.” However, after spending half of her life so far in the public eye, reading and overhearing other people’s opinions about her everywhere she goes, Roz, who is set to judge teenagers from all over Ireland in the Junk Kouture final next month, told how she has had to work on getting to the point of not caring about what others think all of her life.
Roz said: “It has been about 15 years... I’ve just kind of made my peace with it. I have had plenty of times where I have been somewhere, and heard people talking about me.
“And just like, ‘Ah they can think what they want, I don’t give a s**t’ but that has definitely come with age because it has definitely stopped me in my tracks when I see someone I don’t know and may have an assumption about them.”
- Junk Kouture live final in Dublin city’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre takes place on May 5.
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