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Elyse Knowles opens up on what she hates about social media
ELYSE Knowles got noticed on Instagram long before The Block made her a start. But she admits there’s something about it that “kills” her.
Instagram got her noticed. But The Block star Elyse Knowles admits there’s something about it she can’t stand.
The part-time renovator, part-time model and part-time social media influencer opened up to Stellar on Sunday about her meteoric rise to fame and her love-hate relationship with the platforms that helped launch her career.
“I’m so sick of proving myself to everyone: proving you have to be this kind of person or you have to look like this or you have to be in a bikini in every shot. It kills me!
“I don’t have to do that, no-one has to do that, but they think they do to get anywhere on social media. I don’t want it to control me; I want to control it.”
Knowles and her partner Josh Barker became Australia’s loveliest property mogulswhen they sold their winning house on The Block in October last year for a whopping $3.06 million. Comedian Dave Hughes was the buyer.
Knowles, 25, was praised by viewers of the show for being down-to earth and avoiding petty drama.
It’s helped her succeed in everything she’s tried her hand at, even if some insist she got her start on social media.
“It’s a business for me,” she told Stellar. “I’ve used social media as a tool to get more awareness around me, my brand and who I am as a person. But now I don’t want to rely on it. I want to be bigger and better. It’s a love-hate relationship, really.”
“We’ve got our phones stuck in our hand, scrolling through life. It’s my business so I need tospend time on it, but when I’m switched off, I’m switched off. When you look at your phone
you just compare yourself to everyone and it makes you upset sometimes, seeing what everyone else is doing. You shouldn’t.”
She told the magazine that she had a “freak-out” moment days before filming started on The Block and didn’t want to do it. Thankfully, she changed her mind.
“It was a scary thing, going onto a television show where you have no control. On social
media, you have control. On TV, they can turn you into whatever character they want.
“I’ve been working so hard for so long, since I was 10 years old, on this modelling career — was this TV show going to destroy that?
“Then Josh talked me back into it. He said, ‘This is a platform where people can see the real
you. People can see your true personality, see your wackiness and how down-to-earth you
are. They can’t completely turn you into something you’re not.’
“So I just went in there being myself and hoped to God they didn’t edit me in a way where I was a bitch or anything like that.”