YouTuber eager to get cracking on big plans for movie future

Jamie Curry hopes to turn internet fame into a film career. Photo / Natalie Slade

We are catching up with people who made the news last year. Today: Jamie Curry.

Internet sensation Jamie Curry plans to take some time offline in the future in a bid to work on making a bigger dream come true.

The 17-year-old from Napier has had a stellar year, with her funny videos gaining her millions of fans around the world.

Her Facebook page - Jamie's World - has attracted 6.5 million "likes" since she made it in 2012.

Videos she posts on the page collect hundreds of "likes" seconds after they go up and she has almost 200,000 followers on Twitter. Her YouTube videos - which poke fun at the trials and tribulations of adolescence - have also collected millions of views.

"It was an interesting year," she says quietly, before erupting in laughter. "Unexpected is probably the main word I'd use to describe it - and crazy."

The teenager's dramatic rise to fame in a matter of months has turned her into a local and even international celebrity. She has appeared on German television news and taken calls from radio stations around Europe.

Back home she appeared in her first video clip for Kiwi musician Massad, in which she played a geeky girl next door.

She has become a good friend of Auckland singer-songwriter Jamie McDell - who has appeared in her videos - and was also invited to present an award at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards.

"Now that was fun," Jamie says. "I was so nervous, but being at the awards was amazing. I was sitting on a table next to [singer] Lorde and I was too scared to ask for a photo, so I took a photo of her back."

Jamie will be a senior at Sacred Heart College this year, and reveals that she has already started making plans for her life after high school.

"I've just got an agent and I really want to get into movies. I'm not sure if I'm going to a drama school, but I'm really excited about the future. I just want to get into it already! But I know I have to finish school first."

The down-to-earth teen is set to fly to the UK next month to tour with British boy band M.A.D. She will travel with the band for three weeks.

"Mum has to be with me at all times. But I'm really excited ... I have two weeks at school and then I'm off."

Jamie also reveals that she is working on a "big campaign" which she insists she can't talk about, but has been very busy with.

She acknowledges that her new life has come about thanks hugely to the internet. Although most of the journey has been a fun and smooth ride, there have been a few issues along the way, including negative comments and messages.

But Jamie would rather emphasise the positive, saying: "I feel like I'm more confident and more happy to be myself."

Working on an acting career might mean she takes a break from the social networking scene, but Jamie assures her fans that it wouldn't be for long. "If I disappear from the internet for a while, know that I'm just doing some stuff ... but I'll be back."