FROM behind the glitz and glamour of celebrity, The Only Way Is Essex star Lucy Mecklenburgh has opened her heart about the abuse she has suffered from some viewers since joining the show.

The 20-year-old has been a fixture in the BAFTA award-winning ITV2 series since it began in 2010.

She was catapulted to fame overnight after being asked to appear in the Brentwood-based reality programme because she was dating the show's leading male character at the time, Mark Wright, 25.

She admits she is enjoying the trappings of fame, which have allowed her to leave her fashion wholesaler job in London and open her own trendy boutique in Brentwood, but it has all come at a price, emotionally.

She told the Gazette: "I get called fat and stuff and I'm like 'OK, that's nice'.

"It's people that haven't got anything better to do, so I don't care any more.

"But they do it to everyone, you look at other people's Twitter and you realise that these people are not really worth it.

"I don't even reply any more. I just leave them.

"I think it's things like that and negative press that are the worst things. But I just ignore it now, you get to a point when you grow a thick skin."

Lucy described the feeling of being recognised on the street for the first time.

She said: "It was weird, I don't think any of us expected it going on to the show, I didn't.

"I think it hit me when I had my first night out after I had been on two shows.

"People were coming up to me and wanting pictures and I was like 'why would they want a picture of me?'

"It's really, really weird but equally I think we're all quite normal and hard-working.

"It's things like the shop and your family that keep you like that because I definitely don't see myself as famous, I come and work in my shop, do you know what I mean?

"We are all very down to earth and there is a fear that I could have gone a little bit different but I am glad that I've got the shop because I think will keep me grounded."

It would appear that coping with criticism has instilled an abundance of fighting spirit and determination in Lucy.

And she is not expecting the TOWIE experience will make her the next Kylie or Keira Knightley, instead she would prefer to concentrate on her clothing business at Lucy's Boutique, in Ongar Road, and LoveLucyx.com

She said: "I cannot act and I can't sing, drama was my worst subject.

"This is how you know that everything I do on the show is real because I am not an actress, I am a businesswoman.

"I would definitely want to look into expanding, my mum and dad worked really hard and I must get it from them.

"I am easy-going to a certain extent and I am giggly but I don't let anyone screw me over."

Describing The Only Way Is Essex as like Marmite, she asks people not to take it seriously.

"I say take it with a pinch of salt because it's supposed to be comedy, it's supposed to be a soap, take it like you'd watch EastEnders or Coronation Street and turn off once you've watched it, that's it.

"Like I say, things are exaggerated, it's got to be a bit extreme, because otherwise people wouldn't be interested.

"We are in competition with EastEnders and Coronation Street where they have train crashes, we have to have some fireworks.

"I would say 80 per cent is real and 20 per cent fiction."

Lucy, who is on call 24/7 during the series in case producers want to get the cast together for a scene, insists the show has been a huge boost for Brentwood.

"I think [Brentwood] is a nice little town. Obviously, it's changed a lot but I heard that it was voted the most boring town years ago, that's mad, I love that.

"TOWIE is a tourist attraction.

"All the shops, restaurants, bars, hotels have benefited from it so I don't see what the problem is.

"If you don't like the people that are coming down on a Saturday night, don't go out in Brentwood on a Saturday night is all I say."

For a ten per cent discount on non-sale items at Lucy's Boutique, just take this article along with you.