LAUREN BEJAOUI

Social influencer, centre, pictured with, from left, her sister, Amy; her nan, Elizabeth; her mum, Carol; and her sister, Nejia

2016 absolutely flew by. It’s been a good year in terms of my career, and a good year in terms of what direction I want to go. I did some pretty exciting collaborations with companies.

I’ve had my Instagram for a couple of years, but 2016 is the first year that I feel I’ve used it as an adult. One of the highlights for 2016 was in February — I got to go to London with Canon for the day. Another big moment for me was my LIFE Magazine cover in August.

Every year, for Christmas, everyone comes over my mam’s house, and she and my aunty would cook a big dinner. That’s what I look forward to the most. My family, we’re all so busy; we all have quite demanding jobs. We don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like to. To have one day where everyone has to get together, it is just really, really nice. There will be about 16 of us on the day.

I wouldn’t help with cooking, but no one is allowed to touch the Christmas tree but me and my sister Amy. My mam assembles the tree, and we decorate it. I definitely indulge around Christmas time, but I wouldn’t have a sweet tooth, and tend to stuff myself on my main meal. One thing that we all kill each other for in the house is my mam’s stuffing. She makes like the best home-made stuffing.

The only people who get up on Christmas morning are my mam and my two sisters. My dad wouldn’t get up until later, and the rest of the family don’t come over until the evening. We are all still children, and we love getting up early in the morning and giving all the presents. We will do that for ages and then all of us will have a big fry and put Christmas movies on.

I always put The Grinch on, because that’s my favourite. For Christmas Eve, we always buy each other matching pyjamas. I would love to stay in those, but usually I get dressed. I would just go comfy/casual. I’m usually so stuffed that I wouldn’t usually want to be worrying about what I’m wearing.