how very sorry I am that I have not uploaded

in two weeks.

I think that's the longest I've gone on this channel

for a really long time

without uploading.

I do have a good reason for it..

I have been so busy.

The reason I'm out of breath is I've just run to the top of the stairs..

ow, I've got a blister..

Always wear socks with trainers!

And the reason I'm out of breath is because I've run up all the stairs

and this room is like a sauna!

So I'm a sweaty mess.

I'm just gunna be a bit of a mess in this video I think.

I've had the same make-up on all day..

I'm just not really sure what this looks like.

But we're here! We're making a video!

And yeah, as I said, really sorry I have been so busy

it's actually unreal, and I didn't feel very well last week

so, here I am! Up in my attic!

Uh! Listen to the seagulls!

Aww it's like being back in my old flat on the sea front,

who remembers that?

I've got my legs open, this is not a good look, it's a good job you can't see!

I know you guys really like my more kinda chilled,

chatty videos or Q&As,

whether that's just me or with a friend.. umh..

and so I thought I would do one today! Do another little

chatty Q&A. Have I got lipstick on my teeth?

Nah. So the biggest portion of my viewership or

audience on YouTube are people over the age of

eighteen, but

there are still a huge, huge amount of you

who are under eighteen, and I always

notice a lot of you have a lot of questions about

what it was like for me being a teenager and how I

dealt with certain situations growing up

and I don't feel like I've ever done a video like this..

umh.. so, I asked you

all on Twitter if you had any.. oh and on Instagram actually!

I said on Instagram story, if you've got any questions

then, come Tweet me. I feel like the first thing

I should point out though is how different

it must be, being a teenager

to when I was a teenager, because funnily enough,

as much as I hate to admit it, that was actually quite a long

time ago for me, so I was

seventeen, ten years ago, so my early teens

was a wee while, I'll let you do the maths

and I get asked the same question quite a lot

which is, if you were a teenager now

how would you find it, and honestly

I don't know, I think you all deserve a medal

because things like social media

and Instagram, and likes and like this whole kind of

popularity thing

wasn't around when I was in school, we had MSN

messenger

and there was like AOL chat-rooms, and we

could text if we had credit, and

there is a huge part of me that is so thankful

that

things like MySpace,

Beebo, and Facebook, only really

happened, towards

the end of my teens. Which was the first one we had?

We had.. I feel like I had MySpace first, and then

Beebo, and I must have been fifteen, sixteen

And I feel like, no one really knew how to use

it, and it was all very new,

and it wasn't the same. Although I would say for any of

you nineties kids out there

who may have also use Beebo and MySpace, the only thing we

ever really had arguments about, was

in what order your friends were

In your top 8 friends. *laughs*

I used to hate doing that!

I think I used to shuffle mine, or put them on random, because it was like

That was, the only thing that caused rows in our friendship group

Or did it? I don't know; maybe I just secretly got really sad if i wasn't like at least someones top 5 *laughs*

The most interactions I ever had with people would be on MSN messenger

and in those days, you only had your friends - that was it.

and the only thing you really had to think about was which song lyrics you were gonna put in your MSM messenger like tagline

what was it called? bio? tagline? I can't remember

but hey! if we didnt have twitter you wouldnt have been able to ask me these questions

so...

theres that i guess!

Julia did actually ask "How do you think

being a teenager in present day differs from when you were a teen?

and I guess I sort of answered that. There's

more pressure now outside of your friendship group, which

I didn't have back then. The only

interaction with people who we were really friends with was

actual face to face conversation,

and then by the time we were sort of friends, that's when you'd get

their MSN and that's when you'd get their number, but

there wasn't that same

kinda of image to portrait on social media

I guess. I don't know, I would love to chat to

like a room of teenagers to find out how they really feel about it.

That would just be so great. Please let me know in the comments!

Let's have like a discussion about this. How do you feel

being a teen with things like Twitter,

Facebook.. things like Ask.fm. Honestly.. just sounds like a nightmare to me!

When I was at school someone created the like "Rate my teacher"

or something and that was about as like savage as it got.

"How do you control your hormones as a teenager?" and that is

by Shannon.

You can't!

Is the answer to that. You can't, really.

And actually when I think back to when

I was a teenager. Tean-ager? Teen-ager...

my hormones were quite

extreme, but it's only as I look

back at some of my behaviour..

I wasn't terrible, don't get me wrong, but my mood swings

and I remember I used to have arguments

with my mum and dad and I

definitely

struggled

with the hormones.

I wouldn't have ever admitted it at the time, but looking back I can

see that I did. Being a teenager is such a..

weird time, because

you've gone up to secondary school, you're

sort of trying to figure out who you are,

who your friends are, you're getting put with people

who

you might not necessarily have a lot in common with

but feel you need to be friends with and

you see these people every day

five days a week.. like for

a massive portion of your life.

No wonder you're gonna struggle with it

sometimes. So it's only natural again

when hormones are included within

that

that you are gonna struggle sometimes and also

you start to feel all the feels. You start to feel

sad, you start to feel jealous, you start to feel bitter,

you start to feel angry, you start to feel over

emotional, you start to feel overly

excited, overly happy. It's like all the

feels, all the emotions and all the feels

and I definitely had that.

Emh.. but

it made some of the best moments

and the best memories and some that I'd look

back on and be like, "wow, I was a beatch!"

to my parents and my brother probably. You need to remember

everyone else around you is also experiencing

that and it kinda varies

person by person and you know..

hormones affects people so differently,

but essentially you're all on the same boat and it's happening to everyone,

so don't feel weird or feel like

you have to control them in any way. I think hormones are something that's

very difficult to control but I do think

trying to find a bit of kinda you-time

and chill and have like a space that you like

to be in and to be able to go

and have a moment.. I think it's really important, so obviously

like.. your bedroom, like maybe ligh a candle, put some fairylights

on.. like it's about making yourself feel

at ease if everything is getting a little too much.

I feel like this video is gonna be really long cause I'm such a rambler.

Faith Dorsen said "Pressured to smoke/vape?"

I did not have a group of friends that ever

pressured me into anything, actually.

Umh.. but I have seen

where other people have felt pressured to do it.

And I guess I.. when I was a teen I did think..

See the thing is I never felt pressured by anyone else

and my parents weren't very like.. strict in that sense,

like they would never lecture me about don't drink,

don't smoke and..

They sorta left me and my brother to make decisions

ourselves, which I think was kind of clever,

because neither of us are very wild.

Uhm..

And.. I think the only pressure

I ever had was myself. Like I had friends

who smoked, who drank, I had..

I hung out with groups of people who were much, much

older than me doing worst things at house parties.

Some of those memories still haunt me to this day.

Some of the things I saw in house parties just..

I don't think you should see it as like a fifteen or sixteen years old to be quite honest, but

I never felt like I needed to do that.

I didn't feel like I needed to..

smoke or drink or do drugs.

I just.. I kind of..

watched everyone else do it and I was like, "that doesn't really look fun,

I think he just looks stupid"! Like I just used to look

at people and just be like, "you just look stupid"! I don't know,

like.. it..

for me it was like.. it was actually quite like a.. turn off?

I was just a bit like.. "ugh, no.. that's not for me!"

Umh.. and the only sort of like pressure I had really

was me at the back of my head thinking

"but I am a teen, like.. should I be trying these things? Like..

shoud I be.." It was almost like it was me

pressurizing myself? It was weird! It was like.. well I guess

everyone should try something once in their life!

Turns out.. you don't really have to because

I can see what everyone else is doing and I really don't feel like I was

missing out and luckly I wasn't

within a group of friends where I felt pressured.

Umh.. but

I know I would've stood

my ground and just said "no, I'm okay, thanks" and I do think

if you ever feel that pressured within a group of friends

you have to put your foot down because you'll never look

back on that memory of trying something for the first time

and feel confortable about it because

you'll never be too sure if you really wanted to or not

and I'm just not sure that that's a nice

way to ever do anything. I think everything

you do and everything you experience should ultimately be down

to you because it's your life. If anyone

is making you feel pressured to have sex, to smoke,

to drink, to do anything you are not hundred percent

confortable with

say no

and if they are your friends they will understand that

and if they don't understand that they are not your friends. "Did

you ever question your body or feel insicure about your figure?

How did you overcome it?"

Yes! I feel like I've touched on this a little bit

in my Question I've Never Answered.

I went through a stage where

I had grown in height and

I was super skinny

and all my friends were getting like hips and boobs

and a bum and I was still a bit like.. ugh,

when's mine coming?

And then

they happened and they happened very quickly

so my boob.. it's like I almost woke up one day and my boobs were there and my bum was there.

So now I've got like stretchmarks , umh..

and

for a while I didn't like it

because it almost made me look skinnier?

Because it was like.. ugh, these boobs don't like..

go with my body and like.. I don't look