Teen Republik’s host on being true to herself

At just 21, Tracy Wanjiru is a popular TV host of NTV’s Teen Republik, a lifestyle blogger, a YouTuber, an MCee and was most recently awarded Africa’s Best Dressed Female Media Personality/Entertainer at the Abryanz Style & Fashion Awards 2016.

She is one of the youngest members of Kenya’s showbiz industry, but is clearly leaving her mark over time with her incredible achievements. And she is nowhere near stopping.

The rise has been good and challenging but most important of all a very incredible learning process for me. I’m happy with the growth that I have been able to get so far, and I’m definitely looking forward to more opportunities. 

I never once thought I would be where I am today.

But after getting into it, I was convinced that this is what I was meant to do. 

The online show Fashion Rebels is something I did before TV with Vanessa Nderu, Anita Nderu’s sister. It was a fashion based show but we decided to call it quits after a few episodes. 

My co-host Martin was already Teen Republik’s host when I met him at an advertising agency. He told me that his producers were looking for a co-host and told me when the auditions would be taking place, which happened to be on my birthday. I feel like it was a good luck charm. (Laughs) 

I was definitely tensed at the auditions because there were other girls who I had to compete with for the job. They (producers) liked the fact that I was myself and that I didn’t try to be someone else. I got the job after three to be precise. And to me, being chosen had nothing to do with my looks. The whole thing goes beyond looks. 

Kagwe’s Number One video was my first and last

time being on a music video. I feel like it’s not my niche any more. I turn down requests whenever they come these days. I am trying to build a brand for myself and I feel that doing videos is not the direction I would like to go. 

What has really inspired me so far has been

the fact that you never know how far you can go. You see the strides you can make and that inspires me to do so much more. Having an incredible family, especially my mum who supports me and inspires me in everything also pushes me to do better. 

My day is pretty routine. I wake up at 6 am. on my busy days, hit the gym then head to the office or for shoots. I run errands then head back home, cook, watch something and head to bed. When I don’t have a busy day, I wake up at 8 am. I love to cook. I can’t sleep unless I have a cup of tea and I also have to watch one of those documentaries every night of maybe killer children, deadly women or stalkers. I love listening to old school R-n-B after a night out like Jagged Edge and New Edition. 

I will be joining Daystar next month to continue with my studies. I’ll be majoring in Communication, which is totally different from law, which I was doing before. 

I was neither passionate nor driven to do law. That’s why I left the University of Nairobi where I was pursuing it. I realised that I didn’t really like it.

My greatest challenge in show business is feeling like I need to do more than what I am doing, which I believe most people feel. The realisation that things in life should be taken day by day and not in a rush has been of immense help. 

Being at home is my stress therapy. I would rather watch a movie, try some new cooking recipes, hang out with friends, or sleep if I’m not working. My hobbies do not really involve using money, unless I am out partying with friends or out for dinner. 

There are bigger things that I need to accomplish in a couple of years, but for now, I want to go to school because I know it will help me learn and grow more. 

I was bullied a lot both in primary and in high school, especially in my first year of the latter, Loreto Kiambu Girls High School. People used to say a lot of mean things about me. They judged me based on my ‘point-five’ looks and the way I talked. Most of the time, they wondered why I would talk in Swahili or in a ‘ghetto accent’ but what they didn’t know is that I was raised in the hood, where we only spoke sheng’’. English wasn’t my cup of tea. 

Show business is a definite superficial industry, but I’ve learned how to be myself. Of course, I’m careful about what I do, but at the end of the day, I know that it’s important to be myself. 

I’m not dating. I’m a private person, which is why I am able to keep my relationships on a low.