There are a few things I like about Essex, and a few things I don’t. I’m not a massive fan of the ‘Basildon’ sign, and seeing as I live here I have to pass it pretty often.

Even though I live more or less behind it, I can’t say I would ever enjoy a night out over the festival Leisure park, or ‘Bas Vegas’ as the music is atrocious and the clientele are worse. When I took my friend from Walsall down there for dinner she actually asked why we were in a giant car park.

To be honest though, there is one massive bug bear I have about Essex, and that’s the stereotype people from all over the country give us. Watching ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ and assuming that this is 100% reality and everyone from Essex only cares about spray tans, seems to be a hobby for some.

Thousands of jokes circulate about Essex girls being ‘loose’, while actually most of the people I know are happily settled in long term relationships. We don’t all run around cheating on each other, remember TOWIE is a TV show set up to create drama.

So this gives me a great platform to start on what I LOVE about Essex. I love Essex’s resilience to all of the derogatory comments and piss taking. I love Essex Girls. I love that if someone calls us all orange we’ll still be like ‘fuck it I’m going for a spray tan’. I love it that we WILL genuinely dance round those hand bags (as long as the club floor looks clean). I love it that we don’t give a shit so much we’ll still pitch up in leopard print left, right and centre. I love it that we’ll wear false lashes religiously and NEVER be seen without eyebrows. I actually shit myself when the postman knocked yesterday because I was mid eyebrow drawing and only had one. I love it that we will still have outrageously long brightly coloured nails, no matter how much people say they don’t like them.

The REAL Essex might not have as much glitz and glamour as the actual TV show, but it’s close.