'Missed out on growing up!' Diversity's Perri Kiely opens up on struggles of early fame

express.co.uk:

Britain's Got Talent victory for his dancing prowess followed by a performance at the Royal Variety Show, where he met the Queen.

His dream job came with sacrifices, though, including missing out on parties and friendships to pursue his career."I've had to tackle certain things sooner than someone my age," Perri explained."When I was younger, all my friends were going to parties and enjoying that element of growing up."I kind of missed out on all of that and went into a full-blown job."Perri also described his fears of "getting rugby tackled" by the Queen's security team if he forgot to follow the correct protocol in how to greet her."I was just a kid," he recalled of his intense attack of nerves.He revealed that he felt he had "been forced to mature" at a very young age, despite acknowledging that he may still not be "a mature person".However, Perri is adamant that he "wouldn't erase" any of his past and is glad of his rise to fame - even if he is still stereotyped by some as "the little kid" that he had been back in 2009."I'm a bit taller since then," Perri chuckled. "A lot of time's passed."He added a positive comment to the account of his struggles to grow up in the public eye too."At the same time, it never felt like a job.

I was genuinely doing what I love, I was doing my hobby," he explained.Meanwhile, 26-year-old Perri, who fronts his breakfast radio show on KISS, has to wake up at 4:30 each morning and has teamed up with Naked Smoothies to suggest ways to maximise potential in spite of an early start.According to the smoothie brand's latest survey of 2000 people, just 17 per cent remember not to skip breakfast - so they enlisted Perri to encourage the nation to embrace all things early morning.The brand claims.