Why Turning to Fame Will Save my Family
Recently I have found myself in the public eye. This was however no accident, it is a goal I have been working towards for quite some time. Some of you may snigger at that statement, after all why would someone seek out fame? But bare with me. There is a reason for it!
Some of the press attention has not been entirely positive, but then I expected that. Good press is boring press, right? And sensationalism is much more popular. I had of course prepared myself for that. But I am hoping that the negativity will soon turn into awareness and understanding for a predicament that I feel will resonate with many families across the UK.
The bare bones of it is this: over the last three years, more than 50,000 families were pushed out homes in London Boroughs due to welfare cuts and soaring rents. This issue has pushed me to crusade not just for my own family, but for those around me who are also suffering.
In March 2014, after escaping what can only be described as a horrendous case of domestic violence and mental illness, I brought my children back to the safe haven of South London, considering the area my home and place of security.
We moved into a relatively cheap house (for the area) that we affectionately named “Norman”.
Having been a teacher for twelve years I still had a small nest egg which I could put down on the property to gain a six month tenancy which I paid in full. Still, to this day, I feel the need to explain this part of my story, almost in an attempt to justify my actions. I did not move back to London to jump on a benefits bandwagon. I made the move to better my family.
Upon returning, I realised my children needed me at home with them so I took the difficult decision to put my career on the back burner and help them heal emotionally after a tumultuous three years. After all, right now, what they needed was their mum.
PTSD, night terrors and self-harming had gripped our family and it took time to work through these issues. But being in London and close to two of my children’s fathers and grandparents helped enormously. (For those curious, yes I do have 4 children by four different fathers. I can almost hear the gasps of judgement as I type that.)
The thing that shook me the most, was my children’s pleas that we never move house again. They felt safe here. It was now my job to keep them safe, secure and stable in one home.
That it seems, would be a more difficult task than I had anticipated.
“Norman” is quite dilapidated (which I’m sure is one of the reasons we got the property so cheap), but he is still worth well over £300,000. Currently a two bed property, we feel at “home” here, but with four children it is a little cramped. We need at least £100,000 to extend the house to a comfortable four bedrooms (it is currently two).
Those figures would unnerve even the financially fluid among us. Let’s be realistic for a moment, even at the height of my career as a deputy headteacher, I could not afford a house as pricey as that on my own.
But I had a goal, and I was working towards it with strong determination.
Then, in the summer of 2014, things started to go wrong.
My youngest child began losing weight incredibly quickly and could not hold down food. Her health deteriorated so much, it was touch and go whether she would survive.
Dealing with a sick child will put a special kind of strain on any mother, but add to that the “section 21” we received only a few weeks later and I was almost a broken woman!
We had been given four weeks to “vacate the property.”
And when was the notice given? When else but just one week after Christmas.
Most people would crumble at that point, but as a mother, something pushes you to get out of bed in the morning and fight just that little bit harder. For me, it was this final jolt that pushed me into politics.
In desperation, I contacted all my local political parties and wrote to every single national newspaper. I even tried to attract the attention of Russell Brand.
No-one was listening.
My baby daughter was still very poorly but this did not deter me from holding a demonstration outside my house. The demonstration was photographed by local press, but of course the story was buried.
Finally, I won the right to stay in my house. I had never been late with the rent but being on benefits, having four children with different names and no parents or grandparents to be guarantors, we were not “good tenants on paper”.
We are now living in a grey area of uncertainty. The old lady who owns the property could pass away and I am acutely aware that her three children would sell “Norman” at the first opportunity as he is a developer’s dream.
Despite my tenacity and determination, I was fighting a losing battle. Most would have given up and allowed the system to take us into emergency housing, but that was never an option for me. I would run the risk of losing two of my daughters in the process.
When the politicians were not taking note, I decided it was time to take much more “visual” steps. If you want to be heard, you need to be famous!
This is when my quest for media attention began.
As a catharsis to get over all the terrible events that were living with domestic violence, I wrote my first novel “Putting Back Together The Pieces You Broke”.
After self publishing and barely getting any sales, I realised I was missing one vital element: my internet presence was almost non-existent.
I needed to make a “name” for myself. Only 5% of authors actually make a living from their writing, and to be in that 5% I needed to get myself known.
Reinventing myself as my pen name Cecily Baker was not only liberating, but gave me a strong internet presence and a way of regaining my lost confidence.
I continued to gain momentum and discovered that I was a natural in front of the camera so appeared in live television debates, on Victoria Derbyshire and even in a game shows.
But it wasn’t enough and my determination to get myself known was growing. Each knock back made me stronger and being declined a loan from Virgin started what has now become quite a significant part of my life.
As well as appearing in the last spoof chapter of my novel, I have painted Richard Branson many times. He even made a “cameo” appearance in a show I starred in recently, called “Tattoo Disasters” when the camera zoomed in on his nude portrait hanging in my living room…
But becoming “well known” creates as many negative attitudes as it does opportunities. A recent appearance on a Channel 5 programme about people living on benefits certainly got my face and name out there, but the backlash I received from some viewers was less than favourable. Once again, I had to reassure myself that sensationalist stories sell.
The tabloid media reaction to people on benefits is usually one of disgust and this was certainly true when it came to their opinion of me:
“On Benefits viewers furious over scrounger using handout money to find fame” – The Daily Star
Changing one fact alone can completely open up a barrage of benefits haters to freely troll at will.
Taken from the Mail online femail section: Single mother who left her teaching job to pursue fame has been claiming £24,000 in benefits for TWO YEARS as she still hasn’t had her big break.
Of course this headline would grab more readers than the more accurate statement : “Mother fights for home of her own after escaping domestic violence”
It would of course have been absolutely insane to leave a stable, secure and solid career such as that of a teacher simply to pursue “fame”. Especially being a single parent. The inevitable trolls at the end of the articles were actually quite right to be negative, based on the information provided.
If I had left my secure teaching job to pursue fame and live on £24K a year – when my rent alone is £12.6K a year – that would indeed be “irrational” at best.
What hasn’t yet been fully grasped however is why I am going to such lengths to get my name out there. I am doing this because I have no choice. No voice and no other options. I am doing this because unless you are a celebrity, no one hears your cries and pleas for help. As I have experienced, discrimination is still alive and real. I don’t need someone to hold my head above the water for the rest of my life, but I am screaming for help in a room where the only voices that are heard are those of the rich and famous.
I, for one, am proud of our benefits system. Without it my family would have fallen apart and we may have even been split up.
We live in a country where there is a safety net and never again will I judge those who have fallen on hard times. But that does not mean that I wish to rely on this safety net for the rest of my life.
Recently, a new TV programme has caught my eye. ‘The Perfect World Project’ is a show that aims to take a group of 10 people and transport them to a luxurious villa on an island. There they will compete against each other for the chance to win the ultimate prize:
“An all access Perfect World black card loaded with a six figure sum…”
Of course I jumped at the chance to apply, not because I want gold and diamonds and a wardrobe full of Louboutin – but because my ‘Perfect World’ simply means a stable home for my family.
My dream is not a world filled with yachts and champagne, as you can see from my entry video, all I want is “Norman”, our very own small and quirky home.
*Cue Shameless Plug* I have made it through to the final 50 contestants and need only 6,000 votes to get through to the next stage. It doesn’t seem much, does it? 6,000 votes to see me compete for a six figure sum. 6,000 people currently stand between me and my best chance at fighting for a better life for my children.
The exposure alone could give me the platform I need to begin campaigning into politics, to really help change my life and the life of others.
I wonder, if JK Rowling had raised her head above the parapet whilst she was writing her novels when she was by admission “as poor as you can possibly be”, would she have experienced the same reaction from trolls and negativity in the press?
The Perfect World could be our one step closer to “Norman”.
So why have I chosen the path of fame? For notoriety? To stroke some deep seated narcissistic tendencies? No. Simply put, I have chosen to face fame and all its negative attributes for one reason, because it seems that the only voice that gets heard is the loudest. If the politicians won’t listen, I will grab my soapbox and outlandish outfits and scream from the rooftops. At some point, someone has to take note.
(Note from The Editor: Many thanks to Deborah Hodge for opening up to tell her side of the story with us here at The Glass House. To #VoteForHodge you can register your vote here. To learn a little more about Deborah you can take a look at her other articles on her author page here and that of her alter-ego Cecily Baker here.)
Deborahs Book :Putting Back Together The Pieces You Broke: Story behind a Revolution can be bought on Amazon here.
