Travelling alone gave me time and space, free of the pressures of trying to verbalise experiences, so I could simply feel the joy of my own existence. This was an extremely powerful realisation: I didn't just find strength and solace in being alone, but I learned to love it.Collection: Alone
I used to do people's online dating for them. I had clients in San Francisco, L.A., New York and they'd pay me $800 a month to basically make them profiles on all the best websites for the demographics for them.Collection: Dating
Of all the people I've ever met that I got a bit tongue-tied around was Chris Moyles. And it was just down the corridor at Radio X. I grew up listening to him, in the car on the way to school, and that voice, you feel like you wake up with him.Collection: Car
My mum's from a very rural village in Nigeria, she grew up in a war, and for her it was really important that my brothers and I knew how to fend for ourselves. My dad bought me a Swiss army knife for my 13th birthday and we used to go camping and he showed me how to light fires.Collection: Birthday
I have to get up about half four every morning for the 'Breakfast' show.
When I first came to London to find work in TV, it was impossible because someone needs to take that chance on you.
One of the first and most important times someone put their faith in me was when I first worked at ITN, one of the news and entertainment editors trusted me with producing and presenting the 4Music breakfast news. I'd been a runner and did researcher work but I had very little experience in front of the screen.
Sometimes, when something good happens, it snowballs, and you can't put a price on someone taking a chance on you.
I just felt really ugly growing up.
I did not feel beautiful. I didn't know anyone who looked like me. I remember asking my mum to wash the brown off me in the bath.
Of course, who you are and what's inside your head is more important than how you look, but that isn't going to be nurtured properly if you don't feel comfortable in your own skin.
It shouldn't be normal to be told that 'radio is an old boys' club, you'll learn to get used to it.'
The idea of what forms your identity and whether you fit in as one thing or another is something that we all think about, and something that's definitely been a preoccupation of mine.
I'm from Newcastle and went to Cambridge University and I worried whether I'd fit in; I'm mixed race, so my mum grew up in Nigeria and my dad grew up in England, and I'd sometimes wonder which culture I felt I identified with better.
I climbed Kilimanjaro when I was 18.
It was called 'The Surgery' at the time, but the 'Life Hacks' show was a very important place for me when I was growing up. I remember so many things that I didn't know how to talk to my teachers or my parents about; those hard questions that I had, they were answered on that show.
It sounds like I literally stand outside of the offices of ITV shouting, 'Give me another spin-off.' But I do love them, I love getting the gossip, I'm a chatty head. With all of those shows, it feels like I'm watching TV and then having a WhatsApp group discussion with my mates. Analysing why people have done X-Y-Z.
I find children amazing and so interesting, intelligent and insightful - their curiosity is something I can relate to. And I feel they deserve stories that can cultivate them, and if that happens at a young age, then the sky's the limit.
When you see someone every single day, at 5:30 A.M. in the morning, you have to break down all barriers, you become very close.
Even at weddings, I'm quite often put on the children's table, even though I'm very much a full adult.
I'm always up for playing around with fashion and I'm quite open to new ideas and experimenting.
I'm like a magpie and am drawn to anything shiny, sparkly or bright and you really get that with Ted Baker.
I love supporting British companies, especially British fashion, and Ted Baker just encapsulates our heritage.
Fandoms are less tribal than they used to be.
Back in the day, you belonged to a tribe, whether you liked rock, whether you liked pop, whether you liked hip-hop. But I think music has become more genre-fluid.
Having been labelled at school and in the workplace as 'sassy,' 'feisty,' 'aggressive,' 'hard' and 'dramatic,' I started to believe these stereotypes. I self-stereotyped and became sure I would eventually become 'too much' for whoever I was with.
It feels dismissive to suggest relationships can ever be truly colourblind. And more importantly, I don't believe they ever should be. To not see colour or race would be to ignore racism rather than combating it.
Malorie Blackman's 'Noughts & Crosses' was my favourite as a kid - it was the first time I'd heard of interracial courtship outside of my family.
Exploring my racial identity, my blackness and my whiteness as living, breathing, moving parts; confronting race as an issue head-on, learning about it, talking about it, celebrating the beauty of my cultures, being honest about the ugly parts of our history, and consolidating my sense of self has been liberating in so many ways.
It shouldn't be normal to seldom see a single female face in a managerial position or on the boards of the biggest media companies, or to feel out of place sitting in a meeting room full of middle-class, middle-aged white men explaining to you how to tell your own story.
Together, we can put pressure on our employers to do better, to represent the rich diversity of the audience they serve, to stop painting women as sidekicks, as appendages or accessories to men.
As I grow older, it's getting more and more important to me. I'm becoming conscious and learning to celebrate where I'm from and my roots. I think I rejected it to an extent when I was young, because it was different, and you want to fit in and look like other kids.
We have a responsibility to help people who are less fortunate.
Giving back is really important. My mother always instilled in me that you have to help others.
I wanted to stand out from the other kids who had gone to Eton.
There is no prescribed route into presenting.
I was working as a print journalist before I gave broadcasting a go, and spent years behind the camera in production while building up on-screen credits, but I know so many others with totally different experiences.
I guess you could say my beauty routine is to do fun stuff with great people, laugh lots, work hard and be kind: because when I'm stimulated, invigorated and exhilarated, that's when I feel beautiful.
I use skincare by REN mainly. Twice a day double cleanse, serum, moisturiser, and a lovely Mimi Luzon facial oil packed with vitamins and Fenty Beauty night cream before bed.
I've felt too stupid and inadequate amongst my ultra-intelligent course-mates, yet too geeky and opinionated for commercial radio.
I counted down the days until I turned 16 when I'd be allowed to straighten my 'crazy, frizzy hair,' as the other girls had called it.
I wanted to be white and blonde so I could be an angel in the school Nativity play. Because only the blonde girls were allowed to be the angels and angels are lovely and I just wanted to be lovely too.
We are where we come from but also where we are going.
We can endure much more than we think we can, but that doesn't mean we should.
Taking risks doesn't mean shirking responsibility, but embracing possibilities.
I played football at uni right up until I broke my leg. This girl slide-tackled me, studs up and broke it on impact. I was in my fourth year and mentally it made such a difference having that taken away from me when I needed it.
I feel like I had to prove myself a lot because people doubt you. If someone does doubt me it does ignite a bit of a fire.
During a university gap year in Argentina I got a job presenting for MTV, and in my final year I was doing bits and pieces for them in London and at ITN. Then, when I graduated, MTV asked if I wanted to be a runner. I said: 'Absolutely!'
Goodbyes do not need to be negative, as you're saying hello to something new.
Sometimes I worry that I'm terrible at communication and keeping in touch, but there are some friends who you can reconnect with whenever and it's like no time has passed at all; those relationships are so special, because they feel like home.