An Evening with Louise Pentland

On Friday 10^th August 2018, I ventured out to Leeds to meet one of my favourite youtubers, Louise Pentland, at her book signing for her latest novel, Wilde About The Girl!

I used to go to these kinds of events by myself all the time and I was never fussed about it. I mean, some other girls and I went to meet Union J dressed in monkey onesies – if that doesn’t shout ‘not bothered’ I don’t know what does. Anyway, there was something about this event which made me feel more nervous about going by myself. I think it’s because I was older, and I guess more self-conscious about making a fool out of myself, thinking that people would judge me for going by myself. When I arrived at Leeds Waterstones, I sat pretty much at the back of the talk, looking like a loner, until a really lovely girl called Grace sat with me so we didn’t look as though we were by ourselves – I’m so glad she did because it put me at ease slightly knowing that I wasn’t the only person there who came alone.

Even though I was anxious about going to the talk and signing by myself, I wouldn’t let it stop me as I absolutely loved Louise’s first novel, Wilde Like Me, and I finished it within a day. So I couldn’t wait to finally meet the woman I’d been watching on YouTube for so many years and get my hands on my own signed copy of her second novel to find out what happens to single mum, Robin, during her quest to find love (yes I’m a sucker for a love story what can I say) !

Before the actual signing, Louise and her editor came out and did a little talk about the novel and answered a few fan questions (of which I didn’t participate because I didn’t know what to ask). Louise was so welcoming and warming and I think it put everybody in the room at ease and provided the beginning of a lovely evening; particularly as Louise was cracking jokes every now and then, making niche references to things in her life, which evidently everybody in the room knew about because we were all fans of her YouTube channel. Louise’s humour is very similar to my own and that’s why I love her weekly vlogs and her jokes just get me; it was lovely to see this in person as it definitely made her feel more relatable than just simply watching her on YouTube.

The main reason I love going to book signings and talks (besides meeting those people you love) is that you’re able to get a further insight into the author’s thought process during that book. Louise’s talk about her writing experiences and the inspirations behind certain characters was really eye-opening for me. It was particularly emotional when she was talking about her mum, who sadly passed away when she was young, and explaining that she physically couldn’t write about the relationship between Robin and her mum (and simply just said Robin hated her mum) because she’d never experienced adult life without a mother figure and didn’t know how she would be able to write it authentically. I thought this was just really moving and it just shows how down-to-earth she actually is, as she doesn’t really mention her mum on her YouTube channel, obviously because it must be a really difficult subject for her to tackle and, therefore, this insight was so powerful and made me respect Louise a lot.

After the talk about her novel, Louise proceeded with a signing to meet all those who attended that night. For most people this would be a wonderful experience, and it still was for me. However, I’m super awkward at meeting ‘celebrities’ as I never know what to say, I’m awful at small talk, and even though I’m such a big fan and have been following Louise for such a long time, I felt as though I had nothing to say even though I could’ve just brought something up random from her previous weekly vlog.

Nevertheless, Louise was so lovely and she even complimented my outfit (which never happens because I have the worst fashion sense), we had a short conversation and then I felt so awkward that I was just going to say ‘thanks for signing my book’ and then walk away, that I almost forgot to pose for a picture with her! It’s a good job she reminded me, otherwise I wouldn’t have my photographic keepsake to go with the rest of my celebrity encounters (priorities lol).

Overall, it may seem that I’m just a really awkward person (which most of the time I am), but I really did have an amazing night meeting someone who I have been a fan of for so many years. I also met I met two lovely girls whilst queuing to meet Louise and hopefully, if our other favourite Youtuber does a meetup, we’ll meet each other again!

I can’t wait to read Wilde About The Girl, but it’ll have to wait until I get some of the novels from my uni reading list out of the way. Once I do, I’ll be sure to write a review once I read it because I’m sure it’s going to be just as amazing as the first novel, if not better.

I'll leave you with Louise's weekly vlog dedicated to her book tour!

Bonus points if you can spot me in the background!

 Thanks for reading!

Em x