Monday, 12 November 2012
Sam and Cat's Bargain Hunt Experience
Friday, 28 January 2011
SamCat Speak Out!
Tonight marks the halfway stage of Take Me Out – show seven of fourteen. Therefore – as one half of SamCat - the twins of this year’s series, I feel the need to address a few misconceptions about my sister and I, and our participation in Take Me Out.
First of all, I’d like to start with a little quiz.
Q1. What do you get when you have a blonde girl with personality?
Answer: lack of intelligence and annoyance.
Q2. What do you get when you have two blonde girls with personality?
Answer: Absolute feeble-mindedness and of course utter annoyance.
Q3. What do you get when these two blonde girls are twins?
Answer: Wooahhh! They must be the most annoying girls on the planet, and with not a brain cell between them.
Sorry, you just scored a big FAT zero!
Being a fan of reality television myself, I know it is only too easy to sit behind a television screen and make assumptions about the people on the show. During The X Factor, for example, I would regularly update my Facebook status to express my absolute adoration of Aiden Grimshaw, and my lack of enthusiasm for other contestants.
However, after participating in Take Me Out, I will never be so quick to pass judgment.
Since being on the show Sam and myself have received what can only be described as a tirade of abuse. Some of this abuse targets our physical appearance, however – although this is harsh and clearly upsets us – this does not infuriate us as much as the abuse which questions our intelligence. I will explain why below.
You see, Sam and I did not go on the show to further a modelling career, to become doting actresses, or to become the next face of Ferrari. I came to apply for the show, on behalf on Sam, after watching an episode of Coach Trip.
I decided that being on reality television would demonstrate certain strengths of personality which would be very appealing to employees in the industry which I desire to go into. I casually typed into the Google search engine ‘reality television auditions’, and the very first search filter brought up:
‘Identical twins wanted for reality TV dating show’
At the time, I had never heard of Take Me Out, probably due to the fact that I couldn’t afford a television license at university. Nonetheless, after a bit of Wikipedia research, I was very intrigued and filled out the form. I used my graphics skills to creatively format it, ensuring it stood out from other applicants.
Despite my efforts to make the application as unique as possible, I was still convinced that it would get lost amongst the mass of other forms, due to the apparent popularity of this show. So much so in fact that I never actually told Sam that I had applied...
Until the very next day - when we were summoned to an audition.
Turning up at the audition we were very excited. Being third year university students who spend their lives in the library, this was quite an adventure for us. At the end of the audition we were complimented for our contribution, and told to stay close to our phones.
“Pffft, I bet they say that to everyone”, we muttered.
The next day we were told we had been chosen from the ream of other applicants – words could not describe – absolutely elated.
Having never auditioned for anything (except the odd primary school play), we were astounded. Without much hesitation, and with much encouragement from our university lecturers, we accepted our part as this year’s twins on the show.
But here is why we find questions over our intelligence particularly offensive…
Our academic results have, in actual fact, always been top notch. In our GCSE’s we received mainly A*’s and A grades, and in our A levels, we both received straight A’s.
From those high academic achievements, the world was our oyster with regards to university applications. Sam decided to stay true to her commitment to the subject of Geography, which – over the course of her study at the (prestigious) University of Manchester – she has been awarded a number of certificates of achievement.
Myself, well – I decided to neglect the academic side slightly and focus on my creativity. I now study Fashion and Brand Management at the University of Central Lancashire, where I was offered an unconditional place at interview, based on my A level grades.
Filming for Take Me Out was actually quite a luxury, as it meant that I was able to spend a number of weeks with Sam for filming, as we only ever see each other during summer and Christmas holidays.
In real life, we are actually not that ‘twinny’. We have very different interests – as demonstrated through our choice of studies, and we have very different career goals. Take Me Out was a once on a lifetime opportunity, and it was amazing to have one final experience together before graduating this year, and venturing into the world of work.
What is next for SamCat? Further education of course - fingers crossed we will both graduate with first class degrees, and regardless - both of us have been accepted by our universities to study a Masters degree.
I hope that by reading this blog you have realised that you can never be too quick to pass judgment on people you see on the screen.
Twins are a novelty in popular culture, nobody wants to accept the fact that they can be intelligent or serious - or down to earth. Producers would much rather see a pair of ditsy twins fighting over a man, than geekily discussing the ethics and reasons why they should not take him out.
And to those insults about our hair, it is very very easy to whack out a packet of hair dye, and plug in our GHD’s – we just so happen to like it like this :)
Pays to be noticed!
Thank you very much for reading and please continue to enjoy the show, any questions drop me an inbox and I will happily reply.
First of all, I’d like to start with a little quiz.
Q1. What do you get when you have a blonde girl with personality?
Answer: lack of intelligence and annoyance.
Q2. What do you get when you have two blonde girls with personality?
Answer: Absolute feeble-mindedness and of course utter annoyance.
Q3. What do you get when these two blonde girls are twins?
Answer: Wooahhh! They must be the most annoying girls on the planet, and with not a brain cell between them.
Sorry, you just scored a big FAT zero!
Being a fan of reality television myself, I know it is only too easy to sit behind a television screen and make assumptions about the people on the show. During The X Factor, for example, I would regularly update my Facebook status to express my absolute adoration of Aiden Grimshaw, and my lack of enthusiasm for other contestants.
However, after participating in Take Me Out, I will never be so quick to pass judgment.
Since being on the show Sam and myself have received what can only be described as a tirade of abuse. Some of this abuse targets our physical appearance, however – although this is harsh and clearly upsets us – this does not infuriate us as much as the abuse which questions our intelligence. I will explain why below.
You see, Sam and I did not go on the show to further a modelling career, to become doting actresses, or to become the next face of Ferrari. I came to apply for the show, on behalf on Sam, after watching an episode of Coach Trip.
I decided that being on reality television would demonstrate certain strengths of personality which would be very appealing to employees in the industry which I desire to go into. I casually typed into the Google search engine ‘reality television auditions’, and the very first search filter brought up:
‘Identical twins wanted for reality TV dating show’
At the time, I had never heard of Take Me Out, probably due to the fact that I couldn’t afford a television license at university. Nonetheless, after a bit of Wikipedia research, I was very intrigued and filled out the form. I used my graphics skills to creatively format it, ensuring it stood out from other applicants.
Despite my efforts to make the application as unique as possible, I was still convinced that it would get lost amongst the mass of other forms, due to the apparent popularity of this show. So much so in fact that I never actually told Sam that I had applied...
Until the very next day - when we were summoned to an audition.
Turning up at the audition we were very excited. Being third year university students who spend their lives in the library, this was quite an adventure for us. At the end of the audition we were complimented for our contribution, and told to stay close to our phones.
“Pffft, I bet they say that to everyone”, we muttered.
The next day we were told we had been chosen from the ream of other applicants – words could not describe – absolutely elated.
Having never auditioned for anything (except the odd primary school play), we were astounded. Without much hesitation, and with much encouragement from our university lecturers, we accepted our part as this year’s twins on the show.
But here is why we find questions over our intelligence particularly offensive…
Our academic results have, in actual fact, always been top notch. In our GCSE’s we received mainly A*’s and A grades, and in our A levels, we both received straight A’s.
From those high academic achievements, the world was our oyster with regards to university applications. Sam decided to stay true to her commitment to the subject of Geography, which – over the course of her study at the (prestigious) University of Manchester – she has been awarded a number of certificates of achievement.
Myself, well – I decided to neglect the academic side slightly and focus on my creativity. I now study Fashion and Brand Management at the University of Central Lancashire, where I was offered an unconditional place at interview, based on my A level grades.
Filming for Take Me Out was actually quite a luxury, as it meant that I was able to spend a number of weeks with Sam for filming, as we only ever see each other during summer and Christmas holidays.
In real life, we are actually not that ‘twinny’. We have very different interests – as demonstrated through our choice of studies, and we have very different career goals. Take Me Out was a once on a lifetime opportunity, and it was amazing to have one final experience together before graduating this year, and venturing into the world of work.
What is next for SamCat? Further education of course - fingers crossed we will both graduate with first class degrees, and regardless - both of us have been accepted by our universities to study a Masters degree.
I hope that by reading this blog you have realised that you can never be too quick to pass judgment on people you see on the screen.
Twins are a novelty in popular culture, nobody wants to accept the fact that they can be intelligent or serious - or down to earth. Producers would much rather see a pair of ditsy twins fighting over a man, than geekily discussing the ethics and reasons why they should not take him out.
And to those insults about our hair, it is very very easy to whack out a packet of hair dye, and plug in our GHD’s – we just so happen to like it like this :)
Pays to be noticed!
Thank you very much for reading and please continue to enjoy the show, any questions drop me an inbox and I will happily reply.
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