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LITTLE YEARS

JADE: I was always quite a shy kid, until I got to know people. The only time I felt really confident was when I was performing. I started doing it when I was six, going to dance and theatre schools, and I loved it. I’ve got an older brother called Karl and we were really supportive of each other. I would always go and watch him playing football, and he would watch me perform. He’s still really supportive and protective now. He always said I would be a singer and he believed in me from the start. In fact, all of my family have been amazingly supportive. I feel so, so lucky. My mam is my best friend – she used to take me everywhere, to every show. She must have spent a lot of money! I’m also really close to my dad. They’ve been there for me every step of the way.

When I was younger I used to sing at the old people’s homes at Christmas and they used to go, ‘Eee, pet, you’re going to be a star one day!’ I loved doing little shows like that because it made the people who lived there smile, and it was great experience.

I was a proper swot at school. My mam worked at my primary school so there I had to behave! I was quite an all-rounder. I loved maths and English and I always wanted to be the best I could be in whatever I did. I kept changing my mind about what I was going to do as a career. At first I wanted to be Diana Ross, then a forensic scientist, then a lawyer, then an English teacher and then an artist.

I was top of everything in secondary school but I still had no idea what I wanted to do long term. I loved dancing and singing, but I didn’t see it as a realistic career, so I was always looking for a plan B.

I had loads of friends in primary school and I met lots of people through doing performing arts, but it was different when I got to secondary school. I was the only person from my primary school to move there, so I was totally on my own. It was awful. I went from being really popular to knowing absolutely no one. I really closed off from people and became super-sensible and quiet. I used to have my tie done right up to the top and all of my hair scraped back. I was like a normal spotty teenager. I worked really hard and went to all of my lessons, and people must have thought I was soft, because for the first two years at that school I got picked on quite badly. I was still going to tap and ballet classes until I was about 13, and I did drama at school, so that was my outlet when I was feeling upset or lonely. It gave me something to look forward to.

There was a time when I was bullied so badly by one girl that I bunked off school to avoid her, but in the end I told one of the teachers and thankfully it got sorted out.

I joined the choir and then in Year 9 my music teacher asked me to get up in assembly and sing, and despite being terrified I went for it. After that I gained more popularity and got more friends, and it was such a relief. My friends Holly, Anna and Sarah are still my best friends now. I know I can always rely on them totally. They really helped me be more confident with my singing and were so encouraging to me.

I started appearing in lots of musicals and plays, both in school and out of it, so that helped me to meet people too. I tried everything I could to get as much experience as possible when it came to performing, and it was a real release for me. By the end of secondary school I was head girl and everyone knew me because I’d been on The X Factor. I’d managed to take something really swotty and make it cool.

When I was 16 I started performing gigs in local pubs and clubs. I can’t even count how many shows I did back then. I did everything that came my way. Around the same time I started going to house parties and being much more sociable, so I guess I had more of a balance. Singing always came first for me, though.

I first decided to try out for The X Factor in 2008. I was 15 and even though I did a lot of performing I was still a really nervous person. Singing was what gave me confidence, so I decided to give The X Factor a go. I didn’t really know what I was doing; I literally just turned up and sang. I made it through to the first stage of Bootcamp, but then unfortunately I was sent home. I was heartbroken and I cried for weeks.

Simon told me to keep coming back as I was only young, but I took a break the next year to concentrate on my GCSEs.

I nearly didn’t try out the next year either. I thought because Joe McElderry had won they wouldn’t want someone from the same place again. But my mam encouraged me and I felt happier about doing it because I kind of knew what I was doing. I got to the end of Bootcamp that time, but I didn’t cry when I got cut because I’d already decided to come back the following year.

That same year I won the Pride of South Tyneside Young Performer of the Year 2010 Award, which felt like an amazing achievement and spurred me on to try for The X Factor one last time! At that time I was doing A-levels in English literature, fine art and media studies, and I was planning on doing a fine art degree, so that was going to be my back-up if I was cut from The X Factor again.

I was doing quite a lot of gigs around the North East. I mainly sang Motown tracks, because I grew up listening to that music thanks to my mam and my Great Auntie Norma. I was also teaching singing and dancing at a theatre school, so it was all good practice for the show.

Jade putting on an early performance

Jade on her fourth birthday

JESY: I grew up around Essex with my younger brother Joe and my older brother and sister, Johnny and Jade. We lived in 12 different houses growing up, and even had a stint in Cornwall, but we moved back when my brothers got scouted for West Ham football club when I was 10.

We all really loved performing, and when I look back at videos from when we’re younger we’re all singing and dancing along to songs, and using whisks and hairbrushes as microphones. I always thought Jade would end up being the performer, but she’s now a football coach for West Ham and my brothers do building work with my uncle.

I was a funny little thing when I was small. I had really curly hair and I was quite eccentric. I looked a bit like Peter Andre’s daughter Princess. I was always telling stories and putting on funny little accents. Looking back you could tell I was always going to be a performer. I was really confident and outgoing.

I guess I’ve always been quite theatrical and I started off wanting to be an actress, so aged eight I began going to a Saturday theatre school. Once I was in a performance of Annie and had to sing on my own, and my voice went all funny because I was so nervous. I think that really affected me and gave me a fear of singing. When you’re dancing, nerves can be a good thing because they can give you extra energy, but when you’re singing your throat dries up and you feel really panicked, and there’s nothing worse.

When I was about 12 I went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, which was in Marylebone then. Rita Ora was in my class, and Vanessa from The Saturdays was also there at the same time as me. That’s when I first started beat boxing. I don’t do it properly, I just kind of mess around, but I really enjoy it. There were three boys in school who used to do it all the time and I thought it was so cool, so I got them to teach me and I’ve done it ever since.

I loved Sylvia Young’s, but a part of me didn’t want to be branded as a stage-school kid because I always wanted to be myself. I didn’t like being given elocution lessons and being told to speak properly. We’re all different, and the world would be boring if we were all the same. I didn’t want to be something I wasn’t.

After I left there I couldn’t get into the schools I wanted to go to because they were full, so I went to one near my house that I hated. I got picked on and I couldn’t wait to leave. One of my teachers told me about this new school in Dagenham called Jo Richardson’s which was just being built and was going to be specialising in music and dance. I ended up going there for the last three years of my schooling, and that’s when I got even more into music and drama.

At school the subjects I tried hardest in were the ones I loved, like drama, singing and dancing. I used to lose concentration in science and maths. To me there was no point in trying hard in those lessons, because I didn’t want to be a mathematician or a scientist. My science teacher told me off for not working hard enough, and I turned round and said that I didn’t need science because I wanted to be a singer. He looked at me like I was mad, but I knew in my heart it was all I wanted.

Later on I got really into street dancing. The Diversity dance troupe who won Britain’s Got Talent used to put on shows around the country, and one day I was in Lakeside Shopping Centre with my mum and they were performing. I told my mum I wanted to do what they did, but I never imagined I could. I went along to one of their classes and that was it. I was hooked. I joined the sister girl group called Out of the Shadows, and from then on it was all I wanted to do.

Before I auditioned for The X Factor I was working in a bar and really enjoying it. I’d had quite a hard time from other girls at school, which gave my confidence a bit of a knock, but working in the bar and meeting so many people and having to interact with strangers really helped to build it up again. But I knew I couldn’t do it for the rest of my life. I kept thinking about auditioning, but the only person I’d ever sung in front of was my best friend Solitaire, so I was really nervous about other people seeing me. I’d watched the show and seen the massive queues of people and thought I’d never have a chance. In the end she convinced me to go for it, and the next thing I knew I was filling out the form.

Jesy and her brother Joe on holiday

Jesy in a school photo aged five

Jesy aged ten

LEIGH-ANNE: It may seem hard to believe, but I was really shy as a child, and I always used to say to my dad, ‘I don’t like peoples!’ I loved my mum and my dad, Debbie and John, and my older sisters, Sarah and Sian. But I was quite closed off from other people. I didn’t have any hair for ages, so I used to look like a boy. Then, when it did grow, I got this huge afro that used to stick out all over the place!

My sister Sarah is an amazing performer, and we used to put on shows with my cousins. I remember we did a Spice Girls routine when I was about five. I was trying to copy everything Sarah was doing because I was so in awe of her.

The whole time I was growing up in High Wycombe I used to tell people that I was going to be a star. I think people thought I was crazy, but my family always believed in me. I took part in every play I could at school, like Grease and Oliver!. I also took part in a Stars in Their Eyes competition at primary school where I sang ‘Ooh Stick You’ by Daphne and Celeste. I also went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School on a Saturday when I was 11, but it wasn’t for me so I didn’t stay long.

School was okay for me generally. I got teased a lot at primary school because I was never one of the ‘cool’ kids. I did hang around with a cool group, but I never really felt properly part of it. For some reason boys in particular were mean to me. But by the time I reached secondary school things changed a lot and I had a really solid group of friends who I’m still incredibly close to now. My best friend is called Hannah and she’s the most supportive person ever. We’re so close and we’re always there for each other. I’m a bit of a party girl and we used to go raving together, to house parties or clubs. Hannah and I used to do spontaneous things like go to London for a night without knowing where we were going. I’m very much a live for the moment kind of person.

I loved music, drama, English and French at school. I was quite a good girl and rarely got into trouble. I did so many things growing up. While I was at secondary school I tried out acting, I played the drums for a while, learnt piano, had singing lessons – you name it, I gave it a go.

I took part in loads of talent shows, and I was also in a choir called Street Dreams and we used to busk in supermarkets to raise money for charity. I still support them now because they’ve done so much for me. I was also in a music company called Songbirds, which gave me some good experience.

Leigh-Anne in a school photo aged four

Leigh-Anne as a baby

After leaving school I got a job as an Aim Higher mentor for Year 8 students at my mum’s school. I would help them to maintain their targets and concentrate on their studies and watch their progress. It was a really rewarding thing to do.

I stayed on for sixth form at my school to study for my A-levels in music, English and psychology, and while I was there I was made head girl. We had to have interviews for it and I must have done pretty well! My job was to be a good role model and set a good example for the younger students. That was good, because before I used to hate public speaking, and it really helped me to build up my confidence.

Just before I auditioned for The X Factor I was working as a waitress at Pizza Hut in High Wycombe, and I was planning to study educational studies at university if music didn’t work out. I wanted to do a Postgraduate certificate in education and go into primary school teaching.

I used to save up all of my tips and travel to London to spend time in a recording studio called Atomic Studios with a producer named Jerome. I’d posted on Channel AKA a recording of ‘100 Days’, a song that I’d made with an artist called Rampant. I started getting a bit of recognition off the back of that, and Jerome’s brother rang me up and asked me if I wanted to go into the studio and work on some tracks.

Jerome used to make all of my beats for me, and we’d write together. I’ve been writing songs for years and years and I love it. I also worked with a guy named Varren Wade, who used to be in a band called Fun-Da-Mental, and with a girl named Katie Pearl who sang on the funky house track ‘Something in the Air’.

I was really happy with the music I’d been working on as a solo artist, then one day Jerome said that I should be in a girl band. He probably meant it to be encouraging, but it made me cry, because I thought it meant that he didn’t think I was good enough to make it on my own. I couldn’t see myself as anything but a solo artist, but I didn’t know what was around the corner …

Dreaming of being a star. Leigh-Anne singing karaoke at home on her eighth birthday

My dad had been telling me for years that I should audition for The X Factor, but my mum was putting me off because she was worried I’d be crushed if it didn’t work out. Funnily enough, my dad then suggested that I get a girl band together, but I still wasn’t into the idea. Some time later I was having one of those days when I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, so I sat down at my computer and filled out the X Factor application form. I just thought I had nothing to lose. Then I got a call to say I had an audition, which was a real shock. And that’s when it all started.

PERRIE: I was born in South Shields and I loved performing from a very young age. I get my love of singing from both of my parents because they both perform. My mum and dad broke up when I was young, so it was just me, my older brother Jonnie and my mum a lot of the time. But my mum and dad have always been super-supportive and we’re really close. It’s always been cool having two houses to hang out in as well. My brother Jonnie and I used to fight like cat and dog, but he was like a fatherly figure in my life and he really looked after me. We get on really well now.

We moved around quite a lot and even went to New Zealand for a while. We were there for just over a year when I was about 11, but we ended up moving back to the UK because sadly my granddad had a stroke so Mum wanted to be able to look after him. It’s a lovely place, though, and I’d love to go back one day. I had some of the best times of my life there and I have so many amazing memories.

Perrie aged two with her nan

I had a really nice time growing up in the North East. I come across as quite ‘out there’, but in fact I was really shy as a child. I could talk when I was about eight months old, and my mum said that people used to find it dead weird that I could have conversations that young.

Perrie in her favourite red coat, aged two

One of my earliest memories is from when I was a toddler. Mum was wheeling me through the Metro Centre in Gateshead in my pushchair and we saw some other young kids. They didn’t have dummies so my mum said to me, ‘Look Perrie, they don’t need dummies because they’re big girls. Are you a big girl?’ I took my dummy out and threw it into a nearby pond because I’d seen people throwing money into it. Then I decided I wanted the dummy back and I screamed and screamed, so my poor mum had to take off her socks and shoes and go into the pond and get it back.

I first decided I wanted to be singer when I was about six. I was in the launderette with my mum and I stood up on one of the laundry machines and starting singing ‘The Sun Will Come out Tomorrow’ from Annie. All these old ladies who were in there washing their clothes were giving me 20p coins and I thought, ‘Ooh, I’d like to do this for a living!’

I loved school, and when I was in primary I was real hard working and well behaved, but things started to slide a bit when I got to secondary school. I hated maths and science – unless they had the Bunsen burner going – and I was always trying to get out of PE. I used to stay with my dad every Wednesday, and I’d try and get him to write letters for me so I didn’t have to do it, but my mum would always find out and make me go. I could always get away with lots more with my dad than I could with my mum. He’s so much fun.

I wasn’t at all sporty and I ran like a headless chicken. Sports Day was often on my birthday as well, and if so I wouldn’t go in to school because it totally ruined the day for me.

I loved English and I really enjoyed writing stories and poems, which I guess is a bit like writing songs. I joined the choir in my early teens but I never got the leads because I was too shy. Then later on I took drama for GCSE and I was Alice in Alice in Wonderland, which helped me with my confidence.

After school I went to Newcastle College to do Advanced Performing Arts and in the first year I had a real laugh. But in the second year I was in different classes to my friends and I felt really lonely. I was also always being told by my teachers that my voice was ‘too pop’, which was frustrating. But my form teacher, Steve, was so encouraging and he always made me feel like I was on the right path.

All I wanted to do as a career was sing, but I had to do dance in my classes as well so I got a bit knocked when I didn’t do very well. But Steve helped me to get past that and keep focused on what I wanted.

While I was at college I decided to try out for The X Factor. I’d heard that they were doing auditions in Newcastle. My mum encouraged me to apply, so I went for it, thinking I had nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Perrie on her mam’s knee