Molly-Mae Hague has credited Scots influencer Emily Shak as one of her biggest ‘inspirations’ behind her social media career in her new docuseries.
Molly-Mae Hague: Behind It All was released on Amazon Prime on Friday, January 17 with the first three episodes of the Love Island star’s documentary explaining how the 25-year-old shot to fame, as well as more details about her highly publicised break up with Tommy Fury.
In the second episode of the show, the Maebe owner, who shot to fame on Love Island in 2019, reveals how she already had an impressive social media following before entering the ITV dating show.
The mum-of-one explains that she used to post on Instagram and YouTube for fun when she was a teenager before she realised she could turn it into a career.
She tells the camera: “I started posting on Instagram when I was about 15. I also started my YouTube around that time as well. Even when I was at school I had about 8k followers and I very quickly understood I wanted to make something of my platform.”
Sharing old footage of her younger self when she first started out online, the camera switches to clips of Emily Shak modelling outfits on her social media channels.
She is heard saying: “Emily Shak. Lucy Roddy. They were my inspo. When I was living at home and I looked at all these girls and they were doing exactly what I dreamed of doing it. But for me, it happened really quickly.
“In the space of a year I probably went up to about 150,000 followers which back then was quite good. And bigger brands were starting to work with me, that’s when I started working with Pretty Little Thing. They weren’t paying me at the time, it was just gifted but at that time PLT was the pinnacle.”
Speaking of how much she looked up to the Glasgow-based influencer, Molly said: “When I was starting out, Emily Shak was the ‘It’ girl on Instagram. My mum used to take my pictures and I was always trying to recreate what Emily did.”
Emily, who boasts 2M followers on Instagram, welcomed her baby girl Nada in October 2024 with boyfriend Chick Connolly, and Molly-Mae was among one of the first to publicly congratulate her.
Writing underneath Emily’s sweet post of her newborn, the influencer wrote: “Absolutely perfect. Sending you three so much love.”
Emily and Molly have since collaborated together for work when they were both part of a Coachella trip organised by MUSE Talent in partnership with White Fox Boutique.
Elsewhere in the episode, Molly shows off her old childhood bedroom which her “career took off in” as she reveals how much she used to charge per brand post.
She said: “I found this old message that was like ‘hey I’m wondering if you’re interested in collaborating. I’m charging £30 a post. Let me know if you’re interested.'”
She added: “Most of the time they’d say no but at the time like £30 for a post, if I made that I’d be like ‘Mum, I’ve made it!'”
However, for many fans, their main focus was about Molly’s highly publicised split from Tommy Fury which came as a huge shock when the influencer announced the news last August.
The mum-of-one, who shares one-year-old daughter Bambi with the boxer, opened up about how she had been forced to break up with Tommy after his drinking problems started to destroy their relationship.
Fans are now hoping the pair will rekindle their romance after Molly herself said her ‘only hope’ is that they end up back together as a family.
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