Loose Women star Andrea McLean has admitted she was never really part of a "girl gang" at school. The TV favourite says she finally feels part of an amazing friendship group thanks to her website This Girl Is On Fire, plus the amazing women she works with on TV. Andrea celebrated the one-year anniversary of her and her husband Nick Feeney's motivational website at a luxurious tea party in Belgravia on Thursday; the site is made for "real women" and was born out of the presenter's book, Confessions of a Menopausal Woman.
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"I've never been in a girl gang in school or in my personal life. I think that is born of shyness because I have always kind of been the one on the edge, I would rather sit quietly and listen to what other people are saying, I don't have to be the centre of attention. What This Girl Is On Fire means to me, is now I actually feel that I have a girl gang. In fact I have two - my Loose Women one, they are my work girl gang, we go out, we have been on holiday together. We are genuine friends now. And now I have this incredible group of tens of thousands of women, who all want to be positive, who all want to move forward and see how they can make great changes in their life. I love it."
Video: Andrea McLean talks about having a girl gang
"It is something incredibly important to me, I feel for the first time ever I am part of something. I know I am the one at the front but I don't necessarily feel like a leader, I just feel like a vehicle, that I am passing through all this amazing information and all the experts I am getting in touch with and all the enthusiasm, that takes the fear away."
Andrea is hoping to go on another Loose Women holiday
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The presenter and her guests were treated to amazing vegan cupcakes by Wulf and Lamb as they mingled in Niquesa Travel's beautiful offices. Celebrity pals including Loose Women's Brenda Edwards and Place in the Sun's Amanda Lamb toasted the site's success. At the event, which was organised by Dovetail PR, Andrea, 49, also spoke about her Loose Women gang, saying the ladies are hoping to plan another joint holiday.
"We are all in a Whatsapp group and someone put a picture up and it came up on Facebook – one year ago today, we were in Ibiza together. So we're all devasted because we haven't got around to organizing anything together this year. We are going to have to organize something, we just haven't been organized enough this year."
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