Girl who proves reality TV can make you rich (no matter how little talent you have)

A year ago she was earning £190 a week in a salon. Now Amy Childs is on her way to a £10 million fortune. Here she reveals how she did it...

By Lisa Sewards

Last updated at 11:36 AM on 3rd December 2011

Amy Childs is now a bonafide brand, which is no mean feat considering that a year ago she was virtually unknown.

For the few who are still asking, Amy is Britain’s best-loved Essex girl and the breakout star from the Bafta-winning reality/drama series The Only Way Is Essex - or TOWIE as it’s known to its millions of fans - which has just finished its third series.

A beautician by trade, Amy shone in the first two series of the cult show, with her airhead charm and inane chit-chat (remember the classic: ‘Who done the dictionary? Wasn’t he from Essex?’), not to mention her love of blinging beauty treatments.

Ready for action: Amy Childs stepped out in her leathers this week - for a simple trip to the salon to get her hair done

She was also first to utter the term ‘well jel’ (very jealous), which caught on instantly.

‘I meant to say jealous,’ she confides, ‘but I was so angry with Kirk [Norcross, her on-off lover], that it came out as jel. Before I knew it, it’d gone global on Twitter.’

And now her unlikely star quality has catapulted her from an Essex beauty parlour to the pages of Vogue magazine and beyond.

If you've got it flaunt it: Amy Childs parades around in her bikini on new reality show It's All About Amy

Co-stars again: TOWIE's Harry Derbidge appears on Amy's new show as they are cousins

She took a cleverly calculated risk by leaving TOWIE at the end of its second series for a stint on Celebrity Big Brother, hoping it would be the launchpad for her own show, a risk that paid off handsomely with her eight-part Channel 5 series, It’s All About Amy, which sees her open a salon.

‘TOWIE was huge and I’d become a celebrity overnight,’ says Amy, 21, ‘but I realised I had to leave.

'I was a massive character in the first series, with my on/off romance with Kirk, but they started scaling me back in series two when that ended. I wanted to go out on a high.’

Inevitably, Amy’s departure created resentment among the cast, with co-star Lauren Goodger saying they barely noticed her absence.

Desperate or daring? Amy stripped off to promote her new Channel 5 show, letting her body do the talking instead of her brains

But Amy will not be drawn into backbiting, simply saying: 'People will see the real me in my new show, whereas in TOWIE I was edited to look stupid, like when Kirk took me to the zoo and they made it look as if I didn’t know what elephants or giraffes were. I’m not clever, but I do have common sense.’

She says heartthrob Mark Wright, who is starring in I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! suffers in the same way.

‘I’m glad he’s doing well in the jungle. He gets portrayed in TOWIE as a ladies’ man but really he’s quite shy. To me he’s just a lovely mate. Anyway, the show got very competitive. I have no regrets about leaving.’

Drama: Amy with 'lovely mate' Mark Wright in the beauty salon on the set of TOWIE

Which is hardly surprising as Amy is predicted to earn a cool £10 million from TV shows and endorsements in the next few years.

This may be a conservative estimate considering she’s already become the face of Tesco’s Bra Queen lingerie range, set up the Amy Childs Collection clothing range (which caused such a frenzy when it launched online that the website crashed), shot a calendar and is making a fitness DVD – and now has her own beauty salon.

On It’s All About Amy we see her interviewing staff and choosing uniforms and decor for the business.

A risk worth taking! Amy left TOWIE to star on Celebrity Big Brother - and was rewarded with her own Channel 5 show

‘I can’t believe I have my own beauty salon – it’s a dream come true,’ she says. ‘Can I tell you a big secret? My beauty salon in TOWIE wasn’t real – it was all fake and set up in mum and dad’s garage.

'I can’t believe people didn’t know. The salon where I was working when I started on the show didn’t want to be part of it.’

At that stage, Amy was earning £190 a week at her salon job and was living with her parents in Brentwood, Essex – as she still does, despite becoming a star.

A family affair: Amy introduces mother Julie, father Billy and brother Billy Junior in her new show - crediting them with giving her a good work ethic

When we meet there she apologises for looking ‘lowdown’ (dressed down), but is, in fact, stunning.

Her flame-coloured hair is swept back into a ponytail, revealing Bambi eyes and pouty lips in an elfin face even more beautiful without her trademark layers of foundation – although the fake eyelashes are ever-present.

My beauty salon in TOWIE wasn’t real – it was all fake and set up in Mum and Dad’s garage. I can’t believe people didn’t know...

She says she’s toning down the make-up to ‘cope with the HD cameras’ for the new show but she promises – by a ‘millyan pah cent’ – there’ll still be plenty of glamour.

It seems we can always rely on Amy to provide the glamour, right down to the bling white Range Rover she’s just bought.

‘I would have loved white leather seats, but with the fake tan I wear it would have been a disaster,’ she giggles. And when the car dealer asked for her occupation, she was stumped.

‘I thought, “Oh my God, what am I? Model, reality star, beautician or what?” I’m just a girl from Essex but I’ve gone global. I’ve never worked as hard as I have in the last year.’

The famous sofa! Amy even appeared on This Morning after becoming a household name

Amy says she inherited her work ethic from parents Julie, 45, and Billy, 48, who both grew up in poverty in London’s East End. Billy now has two flower stall pitches and three shops and raised his family in a spacious detached home, while Julie worked her way up to running a hairdressing salon.

‘Both Mum and Dad worked round the clock to send me and my older brother Billy to private school.

They also worked hard to pay for extra tuition for me because I was diagnosed with dyslexia,’ says Amy.

‘Mum didn’t want me to be the brightest, she just wanted me not to struggle and to enjoy school.’

It paid off as Amy became head girl, even if she was often in trouble for applying make-up during lessons. ‘That’s just me. I just couldn’t help it. I love glamour,’ she giggles.

It’s All About Amy, Channel 5, Thursday, 10pm. Amy’s salon is now open, see www.amychildsofficial.co.uk