When I got pregnant at 19, I was harassed for lingerie photos, says 1D star’s sister
THERE are a lot of stereotypes surrounding young mothers, and no one knows them better than Phoebe Tomlinson.
The blogger, model and younger sister of One Direction’s Louis shared her experiences with trolls after having her daughter at the age of 19.
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Now 20, Phoebe appeared on the Made by moms podcast to discuss her life as a young mother.
In January 2024, she welcomed daughter Olive with her partner Jack Varley.
Phoebe discussed how she and the footballer had deliberately tried to have a baby despite people telling them they were ruining their lives.
“I always wanted a young baby,” explains the influencer, who turned twenty four months after giving birth.
“I knew I wanted to be a mother as soon as the situation was right, so when I met my partner I said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and he said, ‘Okay.’
“He’s older. If he was 20, I wouldn’t have wanted that. He’s 27, so I thought, ‘You’re doing well, you can handle it.'”
She joked that her partner probably didn’t expect her to want to start a family so quickly, but described him as “the best dad ever.”
Speaking about her lifelong desire to become a mother, Phoebe said: “My family is so motherly, obviously there are seven of us, my mother was such a motherly mother.”
She revealed how the arrival of her younger siblings, twins Ernest and Doris, fueled her dream.
“They came over when I was 10 and I looked like their little mother,” she recalls.
“I really just wanted to be their mother and as I got older I just wanted to have my own mother.”
Phoebe, who is also a twin, joked about how she and her sister Daisy would “get one each” if they had to babysit their little brother and sister.
“I just loved it, it was amazing, you can make yourself their little mother.”
And after her mother Johannah tragically passed away in 2016, Phoebe, then 12, stepped up to help with the little ones.
“[I] I prepared food for them, fed them and gave them baths, I would feel like a little mother,” she said.
Tomlinson siblings
Former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson comes from a large family, he is the eldest of seven siblings.
- Louis Tomlinson – 32 years old
- Lottie Tomlinson – 26 years old
- Felicite Tomlinson – died in 2019 at the age of 18
- Phoebe and Daisy Tomlinson – 20 years old
- Ernest and Doris Tomlinson – 10 years old
“I think that’s why I wanted to have a baby so quickly, because I thought, ‘I love this.'”
So when she became pregnant after just a few weeks of trying, it was no surprise to those around her.
“They saw it coming, but it was really weird because I feel like most 19-year-olds would be a little worried about telling their family, especially their dad,” Phoebe said.
“I was so excited to tell everyone because I knew they would just get it. It was just in me, and it was really cute to tell them.”
However, not everyone was so supportive of Phoebe and Jack’s family expansion.
“I posted my little announcement video, which I really loved. I was expecting some kind of backlash, because that always happens when you post something big, but the responses weren’t that nice,” she recalls.
It was really bad, I have really thick skin, but when I posted the announcement video I remember saying to my friend, ‘Maybe I’ll take him out.'”
Phoebe Tomlinson
“The expected things like ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘You ruined your life.’
“It was really bad, I have really thick skin, or so I thought, but when I posted the announcement video I remember saying to my friend, ‘Maybe I’ll take it out.’”
However, Jack talked her out of the decision, pointing out that most of the responses were “so nice.”
Even though Phoebe waited until she was 12 weeks old to make the announcement, she still didn’t show up for “a long time.”
Once she developed a “little bump,” she began receiving a new wave of online hate.
“I was still working with an underwear brand at the time, so I had posted my last photo for them and I had a little bump,” she explained.
When you’re young, because people doubt you more, and when you’re in the spotlight, that was amplified for me.
Phoebe Tomlinson
“Everyone was like, ‘She can’t put any clothes on? Now that she’s pregnant, she can put some clothes on.'”
Despite this, Phoebe revealed that she “loved having a bump” and said she would “pop out often”.
She further said that people found every possible reason to shame her.
“When you’re young, because people doubt you more and when you’re in the spotlight, I thought that was extra fun,” Phoebe said.
“I feel like people look at you and think, ‘She looks young,’ even now that I have Olive.”
However, she explained that she has learned to ignore the haters and focus on the advice of her loved ones.
“They don’t mean it in a nasty way, they don’t take it as a judgment, they just want to help,” she said.
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