The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
How mum’ s letter led to spell in spotlight for Harry Styles lookalike
Growing up in Inverurie, Harry Moir has been used to being recognised for One Thing. Known as the “Harry Styles boy”, bumping into the girls who chased him around at school and getting stopped for his starlike looks has become a familiar story of his life.
Only a few weeks ago, a train ticket inspector stopped the 18-year-old to ask if he was in fact ‘the’ Harry Moir.
While he says the similarity to Harry Styles has faded now that he has shorter hair, he said: “People do come up to me and say, ‘You look like Harry Styles’ and I tell them ‘Well let me tell you a little story’.”
Mr Moir’s time in the spotlight began when he was six years old with a full head of curls, and all started with a letter from his mum, Jill Moir.
On hearing the newly-formed One Direction were coming to Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre to perform the X Factor concert, she took action.
Mrs Moir said: “I wrote a letter, an old-fashioned letter, and just said, ‘Look my wee boy is six and he looks like Harry. Is there any chance that you might be able to get a signed photo?’
“I stuck it in the post box and never thought anything of it. Then a few days later, the phone rang.
“It was someone from the exhibition centre asking if they could see a photo of Harry so that they could just compare the likeness. And then it just went mad after that.”
When invited to meet the star in Aberdeen, the Moir family decided not to take young Harry’s older sister Hannah. It has become something she has never let them forget.
Mrs Moir said: “They were just on X Factor at the time so they were just reality TV stars. We just took Harry because we thought ‘No, he’s the one that likes Harry and he’s the one that likes One Direction’.
“But if we’d known back then what we know now... She doesn’t let us forget that ever, the day that we didn’t take Hannah to meet Harry Styles.”
Harry Moir said he remembers quite a lot from meeting Harry Styles and the band, but especially the doughnuts after the photo shoot.
“I remember we went running around the hotel looking for some food,” he said. “We were in this bar and there was food on the table and then there was five doughnuts.
“So I took one and then four of them took the other one and I think it was Zayn, he didn’t get one.”
Speaking about the star in particular, his namesake said: “He was very a nice chap, I’ll give him that. He was very kind, very funny.”
When asked if he thinks Harry remembers him, he said: “I should hope so.”
Mrs Moir added: “Harry Styles was lovely, a really, really friendly, welcoming, down-to-earth young lad.
“He said, ‘I can’t believe how much you look like me’. He said, ‘My mum wants a photo of you’, so he had to take a photo on his mobile and send it to his mum.
“So, never did we think that just by writing a letter we would have ended up meeting them all, but we did and Harry’s had to live with it ever since.”
From there things happened “very quickly”. The young lookalike was in our sister paper and several national papers who spent a day at his school, Strathburn Primary, and was on a TV show.
“It was quite an experience,” he added.
At the time, he said he was just excited to have a few days off school for it all, but looking back on the time, it was “quite a strange” experience to have at six years old.
Not long after this whole whirlwind, and encouraged by his dad, young Harry started learning to play guitar. He now owns 10 electric guitars which he regularly plays.
Now a fitness, health and exercise student at Nescol, Harry said he was not entirely sure what he wants to do next. However, he and the family remain firm fans of Mr Styles and he admitted it would be a dream of his to play with the artist.
“I think anyone that plays or likes music would want to do something like that, for sure,” he said.
When approached for a comment, Harry Styles’s management said the star is currently on tour and unavailable.