Immediately after we meet, 16-year-old Ami Charlize will be chauffeured from her home in Essex to Simon Cowell’s London mansion to film TikTok videos with the mogul documenting her search for a new boy band. She’s still a little hoarse after a night at Wembley singing alongside Taylor Swift (she’ll see her twice more as a corporate event guest).
Ami (real name Amelie Hobson; middle name Charlize) started posting videos online when she was nine. She is now one of Britain’s most successful social media stars and has a lucrative full-time career.
She has over 3.4 million followers on TikTok, another 676,000 on Instagram and 362,000 on Snapchat. She hosts a podcast, is an ambassador for the clothing brand Pretty Little Thing and is now publishing a book. My world: challenges, changes and the search for my dreamsAs her mother, Dawn Hobson, 52, says: “She’s leading an incredible life.”
Aware of the envy this provokes, Dawn does not reveal exactly how much money her daughter earns from adverts and brand sponsorships on her channels. Ami recently told her 346,000 YouTube followers: “I don’t have a million pounds in my bank account… Personally, I don’t think I’m rich.”
Ami, aged five, in her first school photo.
But it’s clear that she’s doing very well. Her father, Mark, 53, who built a water treatment business so successful that he retired at 50, looks after her profits. “We’re investing it for now,” says Dawn.
“We thought we could buy him a house for £200,000 or £300,000, but stamp duty is already payable on the first house, so he should do it when he is older and buys the house he really wants to live in. That would save him a lot of money. However, we won’t charge him a penny.”
Ami is inundated with gifts from brands that want her to promote them. “We’re self-made, we grew up with nothing,” says Dawn. “So we always tell Ami, ‘Be careful, don’t show off everything you’ve been given, because what most people make in a year, you can make with just one brand. ’”
There is still envy, though. At school, Ami was bullied. “A lot of girls didn’t like that I was doing well on social media,” she says. “I was always scared: ‘Is this the day I’m going to get hit?’ I would see nasty things written about me on walls. One time, when I was playing netball, girls started throwing balls at the back of my head. I had my group of friends, but I felt like no one was on my side.
I would end up texting Mom: “I’m sick, I need to go home.” Sometimes I would just leave. I didn’t want to miss school — it was playground time. Maybe life would have been easier if I’d just quit social media? “Teachers would say that,” Dawn says. “But it was the one part of Ami’s life that she absolutely adored. Why take that away from her?”
We’re sitting in the Hobsons’ spacious kitchen. The open patio doors reveal a wide lawn being mowed by a robot. The family’s Staffordshire bull terrier, Hugo, and later their XL bully, Bluie, greet me enthusiastically, then settle down for a nap on the sofa.
Ami is wearing a crop top, black jeans and full makeup, her long blonde hair (enhanced with extensions) falling over her shoulders. She is chatty, friendly and extremely self-assured.
Ami now has a full-time career as an online influencer.
Dawn left her job at a City investment bank to become a full-time mother after the birth of her second daughter, Georgia, now 23. There is a legal requirement for children under 16 to be accompanied at photo shoots and fan meetings in places such as shopping centres, so until last year Dawn accompanied Ami to such events.
Now that her daughter is older, she increasingly goes to work alone or accompanied by a member of her management team, especially to evening events where, if alcohol is available, she has to wear a wristband to prove she is under 18.
Ami, a young girl with a passion for dancing, started using social media to promote herself. Encouraged by her older sisters, Robyn, 27, who works in digital marketing, and Georgia, who edits her videos and who also have a large following on social media, she started uploading videos of herself lip-syncing to sad songs. “I would make myself cry by putting VapoRub under my eyes – it’s probably not healthy. It was fun, but I never dreamed it could be a career.”
Her videos gradually became more fun, and by the age of 13, she had a million followers on TikTok, some of which had been viewed more than ten million times. Kids loved watching her talk about her life, for example, describing her skincare routines. “I don’t think anyone younger in the country was as strict[about posting content regularly]as I was.”
Dawn kept a strict eye on Ami’s social media accounts. Her anxiety is understandable: her Instagram is filled with photos of her often looking much older than her years, posing in revealing outfits and bikinis. “She would get 200 messages a day and I would go through them,” Dawn says. “I deleted all the (inappropriate) photos of men.”
Ami, who suffers from severe dyslexia, left school after her GCSEs (she failed everything except maths, English and sports studies). “It was a difficult decision,” says her mother. “My eldest daughter went to university and it wasn’t like I was saying, ‘Yeah, leave school!’”
I was worried that Ami would miss out on making new friends, but then I thought about the time she tried to join a netball club and couldn’t make friends because people either looked up to her or treated her badly. I thought, “What if she goes to university and the same thing happens to her?”
They decided to try their luck as full-time influencers. Authorities strongly advise against leaving education before the age of 18 and monitor children who do so to ensure they are spending their time intentionally and not being exploited by their parents. “The council calls her regularly to make sure she is staying on track and that we are not pressuring her to make money,” says Dawn. “I tell them: ‘She is very happy, doing what she wants.’”
Ami is making new friends at work, although she is cautious. “Sometimes I spoil my friends too quickly and that can come back to haunt me,” she says. Between the ages of 12 and 14 she had a boyfriend, Alfie, and fans who had followed the relationship, predicting they would marry, reacted angrily when they split up. “I was scared to break the news to them.”
She now tries to keep her relationships private. “I didn’t show my last boyfriend’s face, but my followers zoomed in on a photo of his watch and figured out who it was by seeing posts I’d liked from someone wearing the same watch.”
There is a growing movement to ban under-16s from owning smartphones, with studies linking their use to anxiety and loss of concentration needed for learning. Ami got her first phone at age ten, which she believes is the right age, if parents supervise.
“Parents should know that it’s not a good idea to let their six-year-old use TikTok,” she says. “You can be exposed to a lot of dangerous things there and you can’t go back and see what they’ve been looking at. But there are pros and cons. I wouldn’t have enjoyed school as much if I couldn’t make TikToks with my friends.”
“Social media (companies) should be more responsible,” Dawn says. “I’ve reported so many things, our address was leaked everywhere on the internet, but they don’t do anything.” She’s clearly proud of her daughter, she just wishes Ami would wear less lip liner and go overboard with fake tan.
“There’s orange all over the toilet seat,” she sighs, and continues, “We have to make sure she stays grounded. But I’m loving this little journey I’m on with her.”
Ami’s book, My world: challenges, changes and the search for my dreamswill be published on 18 July from Ebury for £16.99. To order a copy for £14.44 until 21 July, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK p&p on orders over £25.