YouTuber Nikki Lilly: 'Ugly is such a thrown-around word'


Media captionNikki Lilly spoke to Chloe Tilley on Victoria Derbyshire about the highs and lows of being a YouTube star

YouTube star Nikki Lilly, 15, has already interviewed a prime minister, won Junior Bake Off and pulled off a ukulele rendition of Here Comes the Sun that would have made George Harrison proud.

Now she is being officially recognised at next month's British Academy Children's Awards, where she will become the youngest ever recipient of a Bafta Special Award.

So it's going to take more than a few internet trolls labelling her "ugly" to ruin her day.

Confidence boost

At the age of six, the presenter was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation - a life-threatening medical condition, which began to affect her appearance and cause severe health issues.

Two years later, as a way of coping with the sudden changes, she began to post videos of herself up on YouTube. Initially she had the comments section switched off and found making the videos really helped to boost her confidence.

Now seven years on, more than one million followers regularly watch her give makeup lessons, talk about cyber bullying and generally lark about with her family, like an "average teenager".

Nikki, who has undergone more than 40 operations, says she's learned a lot about herself and other people too along the way.

"As soon as you put yourself online you're exposing yourself to the whole world," she told BBC Two's Victoria Derbyshire show on Thursday. "So you are going to get the positives with the negatives.

"Even the most beautiful girl or guy in the world is always going to get something.

"I think when I first started it was a lot of 'you're ugly' - ugly is just such a thrown-around word."