Here it is part 1:
On 16 October 2009, Tanya Burr posted her first YouTube video, a ‘get the look’ tutorial showing how to recreate Serena van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl’s make-up. Tanya, who was working on a department-store make-up counter in Norwich at the time, is sweet, funny and a little bit shy in the 10-minute clip – a normal girl, unremarkable even. Today, she is a phenomenon. She has ridden the wave of cyber-superstardom as half of one of YouTube’s most-loved couples; she’s worked with some of the world’s biggest fashion and beauty brands, written books and created a make-up line; she’s accumulated 3.45 million YouTube subscribers, and has three million followers on Instagram; and she has a promising parallel career in acting. Hers is, you might say, a fairy tale for our time.
But in 2019, a decade on from starting the videos that changed her life, the queen of influencers has had her own annus horribilis. ‘There have been a lot of lows this year, it’s been really difficult,’ she reflects when we meet for coffee the morning after Stella’s shoot. Her lips are as bee-stung now as they were in that first video and her skin is luminous; the formerly pencil-thin brows are fuller and her long, light-brown hair has been swapped for a shaggy blonde cut. Style-wise, Tanya’s got that nonchalant-chic thing going on: with a grungy grey Current/Elliott jumper covered in purposeful holes (‘which my dad thinks is ridiculous’) and her favourite Re/Done jeans, she’s wearing a cameo ring given to her by her parents plus chains and more rings, stacked, mostly by Missoma.
In March, Tanya and her husband (and fellow YouTuber) Jim Chapman announced their split after 12 years together. They’d met at sixth-form college, rising to fame together thanks to the relatable, light-hearted videos (she specialised in beauty, while he covered everything from cocktail-making to style advice for men) documenting their lives. They reportedly accumulated a fortune of around £4 million, and married in 2015 at Somerset’s chic Babington House.
‘Just wanted to let you all know that a few weeks ago Jim and I made the painful decision to no longer be together,’ posted Tanya on Instagram Stories. ‘We have a huge amount of love and respect for each other and will continue to remain friends for ever.’ Their Fulham home has been sold and they share custody of their dachshund, Martha. At the start of May, 31-year-old Jim confirmed a new relationship with model Sarah Tarleton. In blogger terms, this was the equivalent of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s split.
Tanya, who turned 30 in June, could frame this year as an exciting new chapter. When she shows me the incredible shot
that will eventually end up on Stella’s cover, in which she’s swooshing up the skirt of
her Giambattista Valli gown, she looks powerfully graceful, as if she’s literally rising above the bad stuff.
And there are plenty of good things on the horizon. Her acting career is going from strength to strength: she’s currently in the middle of filming Twist, a contemporary
retelling of the Dickens classic; her first feature film, Hurt by Paradise, came out earlier this year; and she played a bridesmaid to
Lily James’s bride in the Comic Relief Four Weddings and a Funeral sequel in March. She’s left YouTube to focus on Instagram, where she earns money via paid partnerships with brands including Amazon, Mango and Olay, and she’s also one of Dior’s favourite It girls, sitting front row at its shows and sporting the label on the red carpet.
But Tanya wears her heart on her sleeve –that was, after all, part of the charm that endeared her to a generation of young women. She’s not pretending that it hasn’t been a struggle, both the break-up itself and living it out in the public eye.
‘I’ve been there, where I’ve seen someone saying, “Ooh, have you heard so-and-so and so-and-so have split?” and then thought, “Let me look that up,”’ she says, eyes glistening a little. ‘It’s what people do. I’m not angry with anyone. People are just being people. It’s hard and horrible. I’ll never google myself again. All that matters is what Jim and I think. It’s boring – he’s still my best friend. We’ve been best friends for 12 years, [but] people will want some drama from it. We’re always going to be in each other’s lives, hopefully.’
Until now, Tanya’s fame (the kind where young girls would lose their minds at getting the chance to meet her, but their mums might not have a clue who she is) has been predicated on her being one of Britain’s original social-media stars. So it was a big step when she decided to stop posting videos on YouTube six months ago.
‘That feels like so long ago. My audience on YouTube was more intense and younger than on Instagram,’ she tells me. ‘I just wasn’t into it any more. I think with life – and this sounds very Marie Kondo, which is
so not me because I’m a mess – but if it doesn’t spark joy in your life, get rid of it. I’ll always be grateful for what YouTube did
for me.’ Her interests have evolved, too: she’s posting less about make-up and beauty, and more about her style.
One of her reasons for leaving was to not feel the need to share so much. She describes a growing unease at being so open with
so many people – she and Jim often appeared in each other’s videos, talking about the
minutiae of their life together. ‘Over the past five years, I’ve been more private online and not shared much personal life, but you naturally share more on YouTube because there’s so much time to fill,’ she explains. ‘I feel comfortable with what I share on Instagram. That’s super-important for your mental health, just to feel comfortable in what you’re sharing. Even for someone who’s not in the public eye.’
On holiday in Mexico with then-husband Jim Chapman two years ago
When Tanya started on YouTube, she had little idea of the impact she would come to have. She’s still a little bit fazed by the idea
of millions following her now. ‘I didn’t realise I’d have this many people know who I am, so I was very “whatever”, filming really unedited, super-personal stuff. Then someone said, “You realise there are all these people watching who you don’t even know?” If you share a relationship [online], people want to know everything about it. I just thought, “This isn’t for me.”’
Part 2 (sorry if formatting is bad!):
Tanya grew up in Norwich with younger sister Natasha, younger brother Oscar, her mother Melanie, who’s a teacher, and her lorry-driver-turned-web-designer father Neil. She loved drama as a teenager, attending the Anglia Region Theatre School after ‘regular’ school. She did a drama GCSE, but anxiety put her acting dreams on hold, and then she got into YouTube instead. Has social media helped or exacerbated her mental-health issues? ‘There have definitely been times when it wasn’t good for me, and there are other times where it helped me to gain some confidence,’ she says carefully, adding that she protects herself from a lot of negativity by not looking at Instagram messages from people she doesn’t know. ‘I still suffer with anxiety and depression – it’s a constant battle. Sometimes I’ll be fine for six months, then I’ll have a bad period. If I had children, I don’t know how I’d feel about them being on it.’
She follows accounts and uses apps that help with positive thinking (such as Poppy Jamie’s Happy Not Perfect), writes down what she’s grateful for each morning and
has found balance by looking after herself with candlelit baths and regular Barry’s Bootcamp workouts. ‘Sometimes you can make it work, and other times you forget
to use any of those coping mechanisms
and then you have the darkest day,’ Tanya admits. ‘All you can do is try.’
In the last few weeks, she feels like she’s turned a corner. ‘I always thought I knew who I’d be with for the rest of my life, who
I’d have children with, then suddenly when you don’t know that any more it’s really unsettling. I had people say that I should try to be excited, but it’s taken me a long time to get to this place,’ she says. ‘I was comparing myself to my best friends and my sister, my mum and dad, who’ve been together for ever and are still totally in love. It can feel quite scary, but there are a lot of people who are 30 and single. Now I can see light at the end of the tunnel.’
Although she didn’t date over the summer, Tanya says she’s now ready to start
dipping her toe in: ‘I feel more powerful,
I’m happy to go out and meet people, but I’m not going to settle.’
It’s helped that her acting work is getting busier all the time, but having a hugely successful career as an influencer and then following it up by taking a notoriously tough path can’t have been easy. ‘I’m someone who sets myself really high standards. When I first started [acting] again back in 2014 and got my agent, I thought, “I have to get a film in the next month,” which was just so unrealistic. This is the slowest industry in the world – you have to have the patience of a saint.’
Part 3
Tanya remains stoical, though, and currently juggles her Instagram commitments with auditions, workshops and filming.
She’s found she can dedicate up to 80 per cent of her time to acting. A role in Holby
City has led to more BBC auditions (guest spots on Casualty offered a gateway to Kate Winslet and Minnie Driver, after all). She’s been soaking up advice from David Walliams while filming Twist with him, and
next spring, horror film Cassette will be
released. In the movie, she plays a psychic with purple hair and tattoos – the look couldn’t be further from her own signature style. ‘That was definitely my biggest transformation yet,’ she agrees.
I’m laughing so much.
www.telegraph.co.uk
