Carrie Hope Fletcher

I write books and songs and all sorts of bits and pieces on the side. It's important to have that creative outlet - I'm really passionate about it.

Good people can make bad decisions and bad people can be redeemable and that is an important message for teenagers.

The mark of a good agent is someone who you feel is on your side, fighting your corner.

I really hope post-Covid no one asks me when I'm going to get a real job again.

I've been very lucky to have worked in theatre all my life.

It was a very normal working-class family. My dad used to play guitar in a band around pubs and clubs and stuff, so we've always been surrounded by music and we all love musicals. There was really no escape from it as a child. It just manifested itself in me and my brother in that we want to be actors.

I don't think it was ever a conscious decision to go into musical theatre. It just felt like the natural progression.

Performing and creativity were the only things I was truly passionate about.

There is a certain limitlessness to children's novels. You can be as fun and imaginative and creative as you want and your audience is going to believe it because they still have that huge imagination.

Children don't have to suspend disbelief like adults do... their brains can take in whatever crazy magical ideas you throw at them.

A lot of people have made the valid point that if you don't believe the arts are a 'viable' job, or you think we're low-skilled, then switch off Netflix, close your books, turn your music off. If you don't think this is important then you shouldn't be allowed to enjoy it. See how great you feel with no entertainment.

I've been part of shows that are long runners, and they're much more rigid. You get told, 'This is where the character stands, and this is how you say that line because we know it gets a laugh.'

I have a relationship with the people out there who follow me and I take my responsibility to them very seriously.

I had a difficult start to secondary school, missing the first month because of 'Mary Poppins.' Everyone knew who I was, who my brother was - McFly were huge by then - and had made their mind up about me. One girl made everyone's life a misery, picking on insecurities. But that's just teenagers.

My motto is you should never take criticism from people you would never go to for advice.

I'm not nervous being in front of people, it's being myself in front of people that I hate.

I can never say no - I hate saying no to anything - so whenever my agent rings up and says, 'I've got a new job for you' or my publicist says, 'you've got to be here on this day,' I'm always like, 'yay, ok, great!'

Girls are worried about the same things: loneliness, falling out with friends, the pain of being excluded, another girl trying to poach their best friend, and worrying about how to make friends or keep friends.

I started posting initially because I just wanted to get my voice heard. I sang cover versions of show tunes and got such nice feedback that I began singing songs I had written.

It is really important for young girls to see a more natural shape on stage and not your supermodel sizes - seeing someone the same size as them.