Stacey

When we filmed Stacey at 14, she’d only left her birthplace of New Mills to go on a family holiday. Painfully shy, she didn’t even enjoy the one time she’d made the 45-minute journey to Manchester, which she found frightening and alienating.

The first member of her family to gain a place at university, Stacey graduated from the University of Lancaster last summer, and with no real idea of what to do next, applied to teach English in China. At 21, we catch up with her in Changsha - a city the size of London - in Hunan Province, Southern China.

We’ve seen you aged seven and 14 – but where are you now?

"After finishing university, I made the decision to go and work overseas. For the last year, I have been working as an English teacher in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. I am about to head back to China to complete another year."

Are you following the path you imagined for yourself when you were those ages?

"Not at all! I really don’t think I could ever have imagined my life would have turned out the way that it has. You have an idea in your head at a young age of what you would like to happen, but I have honestly never set myself a certain path to follow. But I am truly grateful that things have turned out the way they have for me."

And how have your relationships changed?

"I’ve found that as I have gotten older, my familial relationships have improved so much. As a youngster living at home, you really do take your family for granted. You don’t realise just how important they are to you, until you don’t see them every day. Since moving away from home - at the age of 18 - to attend university, and then moving overseas at the age of 21, I have found that any time you get with your family is precious and should not be taken for granted. My family have always been important to me, but even more so now!"

Looking back to those ages, what advice would you give yourself?

“Be confident! And have belief in yourself!”

Are there any moments you look back on and think ‘perhaps I would have done that differently’?

"I’m not a big believer in looking back on the past and thinking 'maybe I should have done that differently', 'perhaps I should or shouldn’t have done this'. What’s done is done. There’s nothing I can do about it now. I don’t regret anything I have or haven’t done at all."

Where should we expect to find you when Up New Generation returns in seven years' time?

"At the moment, I literally have no idea! I do not have a path set out for me at all. I’m lucky enough to be able to decide my life one year at a time for now. Once my time working in China comes to an end, I may move back to the UK, or I may not. I haven't made any decisions yet. Obviously I have ambitions in life - to settle into a career I enjoy and to have a family - but I don’t want to predict when these things will happen. I will be 28 during the next series, so I hope I will have made progress on my ambitions - but who knows?"