Vick Hope: “What my life really looked like in 2009”

Vick Hope smiling in a pink suit

Credit: Getty

Stylist turns 10


Vick Hope: “What my life really looked like in 2009”

By Kayleigh Dray

6 years ago

In October 2009, the first issue of Stylist was published and magazine history was made. Now, 10 years later, we look back at what Vick Hope was talking about in 2009 – and what she wishes she had paid more attention to.    

Vick Hope is, without a doubt, a household name. Over the years, we’ve seen her front news bulletins for ITN, host cycling coverage for Channel 4, Eurosport, BT Sport and Sky Sports, and take on The Disney Channel’s Saturday morning show. 

She’s also worked on several documentaries, including That’s Not Me, in which she investigated fashion image retouching, and the rise of online horror in The Slenderman Killings. But there’s no doubt in our minds that Hope is best known for co-hosting Capital FM’s breakfast radio show alongside Roman Kemp, as well as being The Voice UK’s digital reporter, a Strictly Come Dancing 2018 alum, and co-presenter of Sky One’s Carnage.

As we say, in 2019, Vick Hope is a household name. But where was she 10 years ago?

Well, 2009 saw a 19-year-old Hope move to Buenos Aires, where she covered arts and current affairs for a national newspaper. And it proved to be a decision which would shape the rest of her life.

This week, as Stylist turns 10, we sat down with Hope to reflect on what her world looked like in 2009, and everything that has changed since. 


10 years ago

I was about to…

This time in 2009 I was 19 and had just arrived in Buenos Aires where I spent a year working for The Argentina Independent, writing about Latin American current affairs, politics, arts and culture. I was their youngest ever journalist, and I was petrified.  

I was reading…

I was reading One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. In Spanish. Trying to quickly get fluent in order to avoid embarrassment.

I was listening to…

Paper Planes by MIA and Sweetest Girl by Wyclef Jean (ft Lil Wayne & Akon). Two years late to the party on both those releases, I know, but they were lasting favourites of our friendship group; my fondest memories involve being surrounded by my favourite people, filled with love and cheap rum, and everyone doing gun fingers together when MIA sings ‘all I wanna do is…’

I was wearing…

I was wearing a denim mini skirt with leggings, ballet pumps, and a long vest with a wide belt over the top around my hips. Zero thought went into any of this, it was just what we wore then and it was awful. I was however obsessed with jewellery and would always be bedecked in huge ornate pieces in bright colours and interesting designs that I’d found in markets when travelling.

I was watching…

America’s Next Top Model. Religiously. Every episode of every series. It’s weird, I barely watched any TV at all for the first 22 years of my life, but this show was my 2007-11 staple. I found it really easy to become deeply invested in, and as a result it served as very effective form of essay procrastination while I was at uni…

I remember feeling so galvanised and emotional and lucky to have exercised my democratic right for the first time

I was talking about…

I was talking about the upcoming general election (May 2010): the very first I’d be able to vote in. At this time I was so excited about the Liberal Democrats and everything they stood for and promised (granted, we all know now how that turned out, and a year later we were attending marches against their U-turn on tuition fees), and although I had to do a postal vote because I was living outside of the UK, I remember feeling so galvanised and emotional and lucky to have exercised my democratic right for the first time.

I was obsessed with…

I was obsessed with ceviche. In fact, I became obsessed with all Peruvian food. I made a really good friend called Lucia while I lived in Buenos Aires. She was Peruvian and cooked me her mum’s recipe for lomo saltado, and introduced me to all these delicious dishes that just blew my mind. It’s still my favourite cuisine in the world!

I wish I’d paid more attention to…

I wish I’d paid more attention to my friends from home in Newcastle. I think about this a lot. I was very driven and worked hard at uni in Cambridge, where I made many really fantastic friendships whilst juggling work experience at newspapers and TV channels, and doing tons of of jobs during the holidays to make money to travel too. Then I spent a whole year away in Buenos Aires, before eventually settling here in London. 

All of this was amazing, but it meant that I only kept in contact with a handful of day ones, and remember seeing on Facebook lots of reunions and catch-ups between friends from school in Newcastle and feeling out of the loop. And, as time went on and everyone’s lives sort of became solidified it felt like it had become too late to reconnect. 

I think there’s something so special about the connection you have with the friends you’ve known for life, and I’m often angry with myself that I didn’t cultivate or nurture that better.

Images: Getty

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