What started as making daily videos for her friends in school has turned into a buzzing career that people could only dream of for Belfast girl Olivia Neill.
Considered "TikTok royalty" and one of the most popular influencers in the UK and further afield, the 21-year-old has taken the internet by storm and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The content creator and model chatted to Belfast Live about all things dating, life since leaving Northern Ireland and taking the local accent to the world stage.
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Discussing the transformation her life has seen over the last few years, Olivia said: "Whenever I started making Tiktok and YouTube videos I never saw it as a job, I never planned to do it – I wanted to be a pilot in school that was my whole plan.
"When I was 17 I started making YouTube videos and they started taking off a bit then covid hit and I stopped school early, all the pilots lost their jobs and I was like I might just have to try this.
"I can’t believe this is my career because it’s so fun and it doesn’t really feel like it should be a job but it’s amazing - I’m so happy and I did not expect it whatsoever."
Olivia down to earth daily vlogs documenting her life in Belfast were already gaining serious attention online so when lockdown hit, she had no idea it would propel her career in the way it did.
"I had nothing to do like everyone else so I just sat and made so many YouTube videos and was able to make so much content. So many people were at home bored with nothing to do so a lot of people were watching it as well.
"I think it was like the peak time for YouTube - a lot of people went to it to distract themselves and that really propelled me," she explained.
Viral hit after viral hit saw her pack up her bags and say goodbye to NI to make the move to London and further her content creation career, taking it to a whole new level.
At 21 years old, Olivia has accomplished things that she could have never imagined would come from setting her camera up and chatting in her bedroom back in Belfast such as modelling for major makeup brands, making fashion week appearances and attending red carpets.
She says seeing herself on TV will always be a “crazy” career highlight she hasn’t gotten used to.
Olivia continued: "I post content on all social media but whenever I see myself on TV like when I did a makeup ad on the Love Island ads I was like 'wow that’s crazy'.
"I remember the first time someone ever came up to me and said they watched my videos that was like a crazy moment for me - I remember I was in Topshop in Belfast with my mum and I was freaking out"
While Belfast always has a special place in her heart and she loves spending time with her family and close friends when home, London is still calling her for the time coming.
"I can maybe see myself moving back when I’m older because I love people from Belfast, I love Northern Irish people. I think we are so much better than everyone else," she joked.
"All my comments are about my accent, at the start, people would have been like ‘I can’t understand this girl what is she saying’ and now it’s people saying my accent has gotten so English.
"I sit and think to myself have I got an English accent now but I definitely don’t. But I love our accent so much, I do think it is really underrepresented."
On the topic of accents, Olivia mentioned a touching moment between her and one of her biggest supporters, her father, after attending the premiere of the movie Belfast.
"There’s a bit in the movie when the wee boy is moving to England and he’s like what if they don’t understand my accent and the granda is like ‘never change your accent for anyone’ and my dad’s crying his eyes out - now he always quotes it to me."
Olivia has always spoken so openly about dating and relationships which lead her to star in her own BBC NI show ‘Unreal! With Olivia Neill’ where she takings dating to a whole new level by meeting people using VR in the Metaverse.
She added: "We all know about dating apps and I’ve tried them before without much success but I think dating in VR takes it a bit further than that - we came up with this idea and I was really interested in it because I didn’t know much about it and I think it’s going to be quite big.
"It was fun to go in with not a lot of information and learn so much. I got to meet real-life couples who met in VR and travelled around the UK meeting people which was really fun and a really cool experience.
"I like that it was all personality based and you get to know someone’s personality before you even know what they look like - especially now with dating apps where it’s all so based on what you look like.
"It was very refreshing to see the opposite side of that."
Olivia is joined by her best friend Lewys aka lookingforlewys throughout the show which made the experience even more special for her as despite being used to filming her own content on a daily basis, working with a production company for a series was a totally different experience to what she is used to.
Despite taking away so much from her time in the virtual dating arena, Olivia thinks she is going to stick to dating in person.
Her advice for anyone who is looking to follow in her footsteps in a career in content creation but may be scared of what others may think or say is to just go for it because putting it all behind her and uploading that first video has completely changed her life.
"Just block out what everyone else is saying as long as it is making you happy."
Unreal! With Olivia Neill is made by The Connected Set and is on BBC iPlayer and on BBC One Northern Ireland on Wednesday 14 June at 10.40pm
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