I had to work extra hard to be taken seriously in the City

SAMIA DAR, 41, is a commercial property manager in the City and runs a private tutoring business. She lives in Chigwell, Essex, with her solicitor husband, and their three children aged 14, eight and eight (11 months apart). She says: AS A smart, professional woman, fighting against the Essex stereotype is bad enough, but throw my Chigwell address into the mix and it’s even worse, thanks to the TV sitcom Birds Of A Feather which was set here. Even now, 30 years after the show first aired, people assume that women in Chigwell are all a bit thick and common like its main characters Sharon and Tracey, with husbands who are either crooks, or rich, or both. When I was growing up, people were quick to do impressions of Sharon and Tracey if I said where I was from. Now, it’s doubly hard thanks to The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE), which paints yet another unfair picture. I decided in my teens that I wasn’t going to allow the Essex stereotypes to hold me back. Perhaps I’m more successful because I’ve had to work extra hard at how I present myself.

If it crops up in conversation that I’m from Essex, there’s generally a pause from people and then a disbelieving, ‘Oh, OK,’ which makes me want to scream.

I’m proud to be from Essex. But I have to work that bit harder to be taken seriously in a professional environment.

Most of my friends in Essex drive Range Rovers and I have a Mercedes, but we’ve worked damned hard to afford them.