A POPULAR mumfluencer has lifted the lid on the strict rules she had to follow as a teen – from dating and makeup bans to cinema blacklist.
Jules Spence, from Scotland, is a bubbly TikTok personality who regularly inspires her 85,000 followers with her upbeat and motivational content.
The mum of three, 46, also likes to show off her figure-hugging outfit picks and fashion choices.
But life wasn’t always as carefree and liberal for Jules, as her family were members of a very strict church in her youth.
Some groups of the Pentecostal Holiness Church strictly adhere to set rules, such as modest dress among women and hair guidelines for all adults.
Many even forbid movies, sports and “mixed” swimming. In select divisions of Pentecostalism, women are not even allowed to wear trousers, makeup, tight clothing or jewellery.
Jules told The Jim King Show: “Part of the journey that my parents went on, they found God. But the church that I was part of had very strict guidelines.
“I was brought up in that for 10 years and it became my whole life.
“It was all I knew so in a sense I was happy because that’s all I knew I didn’t know any different.
“I didn’t wear makeup, I didn’t have jewellery, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs, I didn’t socialise with non-Christians, I didn’t go bowling, I didn’t go to the cinema. I didn’t have a TV either.
“For me, boys were a no-go. Relationships weren’t allowed unless we were advised by the church that they were allowed.
“You were kind of advised who you would be getting into a relationship with and you would be of a much older age and you would get married quite quickly.”
Jules admits she broke the rules and “discovered boys” which led to her making decisions the church didn’t approve of, and she was eventually shunned at the age of 19.
She continued: “It really affected me. I was a young girl thinking I was madly, passionately in love and it was forbidden, it wasn’t allowed. And I felt I didn’t have much support to get through that.
“Everything I’d known my whole life, I was at church seven nights a week. It was my world, it was everything I knew. It was all just ripped away.
“Eventually somebody suggested maybe I shouldn’t be in the church and I left. And I left to nothing. I had my family still, but I had never made friends outwith the church. I didn’t have a social life.”
Now, the marketing manager is a thriving TikTok influencer (@SparklingJulesOfficial) and doesn’t have to hide any part of herself.
But it wasn’t a direct path to social media stardom, as the mum of three only set up an account to keep tabs on her daughter.
She said: “TikTok obviously wasn’t a thing when I was younger, YouTube was.
Everything I’d known my whole life, it was all just ripped away.
Jules Spence
“I always would have loved to be a YouTube star, I thought that’d be so cool but obviously I had kids and then my mindset was I’m just too old.
“I remember my husband saying to me ‘oh Jules if you had been born in a different era you would have been a YouTuber without a doubt’.
“I [thought I’d] missed my chance and then the kids kind of started growing up and then lockdown happened and that’s when I first got TikTok.”
She added: “I would watch all the mad little videos. I can’t sing or dance, I’m pretty untalented in that way, so I just started doing little daft videos and my kids’ friends started following me.
“That was actually one of the reasons I joined TikTok. It was only to keep an eye on my daughter’s accounts because I wanted to be the responsible parent and all these kids started following me.
“I was like oh bless them they all feel sorry for me, they’re all following me, that’s so nice of them.
“Then before I knew it I’d hit 10K and then 15K and I was like something’s happening, this is really exciting.
“I just get such a kick out of doing it. I loved it and I love everything about it. It’s really good fun.”
