GLAMOUR's new Spring bi-annual magazine, which is on sale now, features three very modern beauty icons and social media stars - Huda Kattan, Patricia Bright and Zoella. Here, Zoella invites us into her world...
She's the queen of social media - yup 12.7 million of us follow her on Twitter, 11.1 million on Insta, and a casual 17 million across her two YouTube channels. Zoe Sugg, AKA Zoella, is a force to be reckoned with. And saying we were excited when she agreed to star on our Spring cover is an understatement! Just as cute in person as she appears on screen, she was all too happy to open up on life away from the lens.
While we know exactly which concealer she swears by (Collection Lasting Perfection, if you're asking), and the bath bombs she swears by from Lush (that's a whole separate article), one topic Zoella doesn't usually touch on is her relationship with her equally famous boyfriend, Alfie Deyes.
Zoella actually met Alfie, who runs the hugely popular Pointless Blog, at a meet and greet - and while she now has more followers than he does ("I don't tease him about the fact that I have more followers, because everyone does it, so I don't need to!"), it was her who queued up with her friend to meet him. Who would have thought?
We may be accustomed to seeing them lovingly snuggled up on the sofa in their vlogs but even social media's power pairing need space like every other couple.
"Alfie and I both have days when we feel the pressure on our relationship and want to punch each other in the head - who doesn't?!," Zoella candidly revealed. "But we know when to talk, and when to give each other space. Alfie films every day which I took a bit of getting used to, but we have a routine where I might say, "I don't fancy being in your video today," and he'll just say 'OK'. But really, we don't argue very much at all. We're kind of boring in that sense."
Her life appears far from boring, if her fun-filled blogs are anything to go by. In fact, her life looks pretty perfect all things considered, but it isn't - Zoella suffers from anxiety disorder, a long-term mental health condition, which causes the person to feel anxious about wide-ranging issues, small and large.
We know this because she was brave enough to tell the world on YouTube, filming herself mid-panic attack, in tears, breathless and riddled with self-doubt. She did this to raise awareness of the issue and to help sufferers feel like they're less alone and has since campaigned tirelessly with mental health charity, MIND, to raise awareness. This is an area of her life, she says, where Alfie plays an instrumental part.
"He's the best person to have around when stuff like that happens", she said. "He says, 'Why do you care? Those people don't matter, they're not the ones who know you or care about you, so don't give them the time of day.'
"It's easy to say, 'I'm not going to care what anyone thinks about me or this [video],' but at the end of the day, you do care. He's 100% the best at dealing with negative comments and scrutiny - he doesn't take any of that stuff on board.
"Our relationship is never competitive. I can talk to him about an issue and I don't have to explain it because he understands immediately. The downfall is we talk about work a lot and we both work from home so we're around each other a lot."
It's this refreshing honesty about her life - and the relationship woes that come with it - that has helped cement Zoella as one of the world's most-loved social media stars.
Read Zoella's full interview in the new-look Spring 18 issue of GLAMOUR, on sale 1 March.
