Teen's world Hollywood bound

Jamie Curry.

Kiwi internet sensation Jamie Curry's combined online following outnumbers New Zealand's population by more than two to one, and now the quirky 18-year-old is turning the hobby into a professional, fulltime venture.

Her videos, posted to the Jamie's World Facebook page and YouTube channel, have combined total views exceeding 40 million and she has more social media followers than Grammy Award-winning pop sensation Lorde.

Curry began posting the offbeat videos about her life, family and adolescence in 2012 and her popularity surged almost immediately, reaching 100,000 likes on Facebook within five months and hitting the one million mark soon after.

Now, she has more than 10.1 million Facebook fans, 351,000 Twitter followers and 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, with combined video views of 40-plus million.

In 2015, the teen - fresh from finishing Year 13 at Sacred Heart College, Napier - will take up the gig fulltime hoping the move will pave the way to an acting career in Hollywood.

"At the moment I do my videos just whenever and this year, when I have the extra time, I'll post every single week at a certain time on a certain day, so it will make it more of an actual job rather than just making a video," she said.

Curry is now professionally managed by talent company Johnson and Laird and plans to move to Auckland in the first few months of this year to develop her video content.

"I want to take it out of my bedroom and I'm planning on doing a lot of [collaborations] and travelling around.

"At the moment I'm focusing on YouTube and then we're still looking at moving to acting and getting over to LA and stuff, and getting that more professional experience."

So far, she has done collaborations with well-known New Zealanders including singer Jamie McDell and YouTube make-up star Shaaanxo, and has been to Australia to make a video promoting a Coca-Cola campaign.

She presented an award at the Vodafone Music Awards and starred in a video of New Zealand pop musician Massad.

Meeting fellow internet star Louis Cole of British YouTube channel Fun for Louis was also a highlight of her past year, she said.

While her huge online following has provided an income for the teen, it also comes with its downsides, and Curry has at times struggled with constant attention from strangers.

"At the moment, with the transition from a kid to an adult, I'm doing things that 18-year-olds do and get highly criticised by some of the younger people on the internet who don't understand.

"I kind of wish I could have one day where I can be invisible and just go out; I can't remember the last time I went out and didn't have people recognise me.

"I haven't been to a mall in over a year."

However, she was realistic about the flipside of fame: "There are positives and negatives and unfortunately that's a negative, but the positives balance it out."

Jamie Curry

• Napier 18-year-old makes short internet videos under her

Jamie's World

brand.

• Combined online following of 12 million:
Facebook - 10.1 million likes
YouTube - 1.2 million subscribers, more than 43 million combined views
Instagram - 404,000 followers
Twitter - 351,000 followers