Ellie Leach must win Strictly to give her the boost she so deserves and help others to have more confidence

Although the headlines until recently have all been about Bobby Brazier, it has been fascinating to watch Ellie Leach’s confidence grow every week and this was before I discovered that she has always had issues with low self-esteem. I want her to win for two reasons, firstly to win her battle with confidence issues and secondly to help others in their own battle when it comes to lack of self-belief.

Lack of confidence is something that is not exclusive to any sex, but I know first-hand from working in a school when I was training as a secondary English teacher how teenage girls seem to be particularly badly affected.

In one school in particular, I noticed that incredibly intelligent girls were allowing boys to dominate the class when they had valuable contributions to make but seemed unable to articulate them. This was heartbreaking for me to witness and I tried in my time at the school to encourage them to speak out. 

Although one would assume that former Coronation Street star Ellie Leach must have had a certain degree of confidence to become an actor, she revealed to The Mirror that “Self-confidence is something I’ve always struggled with-and I think as an actor, people don’t see that. They think you’re just this confident person, and you can do anything.”

Ellie Leach also said that she was keen to take part in Strictly Come Dancing 2023 to “help me believe in myself a bit more,” and that “being cheated on was upsetting, but now is the perfect time for me to put my all into Strictly and give that 500 per cent.”

Ellie Leach had been in a relationship with dancer boyfriend Reagan Pettman for five years, but the couple split in May this year after he allegedly cheated on her. This undoubtedly had a serious negative consequence on her overall confidence but she has also spoken about issues with body confidence too previously.

Ellie revealed to The Sun that “Body confidence is probably something I’ve always struggled with. As a young woman and growing up in the public eye as well, it’s been amazing, but it’s also quite intense, and there’s always eyes on you, everything that you do.”

What struck me in particular when it comes to Ellie Leach’s comments about body confidence is the words ‘there’s always eyes on you,’ as it made me think back to when I was teaching and how bright female pupils resisted offering their insights because they didn’t want ‘all eyes on them.’

I firmly believe that primary school and secondary school teaching should include a unit on how to garner confidence in all pupils because without self-esteem, it is impossible not only to want to participate in class but want to learn in the first place.

Ellie, you so deserve to win Strictly Come Dancing 2023. And if you do take the crown, I hope you can encourage others to have confidence in themselves because as the psychoanlyst Anna Freud once said "I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time."