THE POWER OF CC

Voted the UK’s top beauty blogger, Letchworth’s CC Clarke has made a career as an influencer. Nowshe’s heading into fashion and music too

- Julie Lucas

Ask a teenager what they want to do for a job these days and an increasing number will say, ‘Instagrammer, travelling the world’.

Instagram – the hugely popular photo and video-sharing social networking service – has become the foundation for a new type of career. Instagrammers with huge followings, known as influencers, can earn thousands of pounds through advertising and product endorsements, as followers hang on their every word.

For Letchworth beauty blogger, CC Clarke, the dream became reality. CC began a beauty advice blog in 2015 and quickly established herself as someone to watch (quite literally), amassing a staggering 2.1 million followers to her transformative tips. Last year she was named the most influential online beauty influencer by The Sunday Times.

‘I didn’t expect it to grow this big,’ the 28-year-old admits. ‘I’ve been lucky to bond with an audience and be flown all over the world by different brands and represent different products.’

She’s been the face of Maybelline cosmetics, worked with L’Oréal and YSL and designed her own clothing range in collaboration with inthestyle.com

CC (short for Chelsea Clarke), spent her teenage years writing music and performing in musical theatre in Essex and the West End. She grew up in Colchester and credits her mum, a beauty therapist and make up artist, for her interest in beauty. ‘We bonded through makeup.’ Four years ago, she moved to Letchworth to be near friends and for its easy links to London.

It was her years in musical theatre that inspired her blog; she loved not only the singing but the looks too.