Laura Whitmore has shared her disdain for being labelled throughout her career in a new interview.
Most fans will know the ITV star mainly from her TV presenting roles on Love Island, MTV News, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here Now!, Celebrity Juice and her 2018’s stint on Strictly Come Dancing.
But aside from presenting, Laura presents a radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live and has acted in Finding Joy as well as written her 2020 short film Sadhbh and debut book, No One Can Change Your Life Except For You.
Despite her multi-faceted career, the Irish broadcaster, 36, recalled times she was told to "stay in her lane" and needed to stay in her "box" when it came to trying different avenues in the entertainment industry.
Speaking on Gemma Styles’ podcast Good Influence, she began: "Oh my God, I’m sick of boxes. I hate it. ‘Who do you want to be like?’, Please don’t ask me where I see myself in 10 years, I don’t know where I see myself tomorrow. I have no idea, who knows?
"People love to put you in a box being like, ‘you’re like this presenter?’ especially when I started on MTV like, 'this is the route you should do'.
Adding: "Then I remember I do a radio show on BBC5 Live, which is probably not the radio channel you expect someone from MTV to go on, it’s much more chat show, it’s much more topical.
"I’m this young blonde girl on it, where before it’s been more political and sports-orientated and older white male. I mean a great channel and I’m so happy to be a part of it."
Laura, who recorded the podcast at the beginning of the year, went on to share her thoughts on the “expectations” she puts on herself and how we could learn a thing or two about self-belief from our American counterparts.
The host continued: "I talk about expectations a lot because there’s always a lot of expectations on what you should do, and I hate the word should. I hate it.
"It’s really important for me to kind of break those boxes because I give them to myself.
"Maybe that’s one good thing about when I do comparisons between us, over here to our American counterparts," she shared.
"I couldn’t believe in the States how they could be doing a podcast - you could be a writer, you could be on television, you can be an actress, and you can do all these things while over here, it’s kind of like, ‘stay in your lane, don’t confuse the audience’.
"I’ve actually been told, ‘don’t confuse your audience’'"
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