Jade Thirlwall

Thirlwall was born and raised in the Laygate area of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, north-east of England. Her grandfather Mohammed moved to South Shields in 1943 from Yemen and worked as a firefighter in the merchant navy, and later worked as a laborer at the docks. It was in South Shields that Mohammed met her grandmother Amelia, whose dad was from Egypt. Her grandmother died when Thirlwall's mother was only four years old. Between the ages of 8 and 10 she lived close by a mosque where she attended a Muslim School every Saturday to learn how to read and write in Arabic and attended church every Sunday.[11][12]

Thirlwall was born to parents Norma Badwi and James Thirlwall and has an older brother named Karl.[13] She is of Egyptian and Yemenite descent from her mother's side and of English descent from her father's side. During her teenage years she attended performing arts college at South Tyneside, where she studied a range of courses.[14] Thirlwall identifies as being mixed-race,[15] and in a 2020 article for Vogue Arabia, revealed that she is learning to embrace her Egyptian-Yemeni heritage more. In the interview, she stated that she is learning to connect more with her Arab side and its language in hopes of travelling more to the Middle East.[11]

Thirlwall began her music career after auditioning for The X Factor in 2008, singing "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" by Whitney Houston,[16] but was later eliminated at the bootcamp stage. She then returned in 2010, but missed out for a second time.[17] Thirwall came back for a third attempt in 2011, auditioning with the song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles, and earned four "yes" votes and went through to bootcamp.[18] After she failed the first bootcamp challenge Thirlwall was then placed in a three-piece group named "Orion" alongside Leigh-Anne Pinnock. Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson were in another group called "Faux Pas". Both groups were eliminated and called back by the judges and later formed into the four-piece group Rhythmix, and they progressed to judges' houses.[19] They eventually reached the live shows and were mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.[20] On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group named had changed to Little Mix.[21][22][23] On 11 December 2011, Little Mix were announced as the winners, becoming the first group to do so.[24]

With Little Mix Thirlwall has released seven albums; DNA (2012), Salute (2013), Get Weird (2015), Glory Days (2016), LM5 (2018), Confetti (2020), and Between Us (2021).[25] In 2019, Thirlwall became an official songwriter after signing to Sony/ATV via joint venture TwentySeven.[26] On 31 October 2019 she was a guest judge on the "Girl Group Battle Royale" episode in RuPaul's Drag Race UK.[27][28] In May 2020, it was announced that she would be hosting an MTV web series, titled Served!.[29]

In December 2020, she won the Equality Award at the Ethnicity Awards 2020 with group member, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, in recognition for their work towards racial equality in the United Kingdom.[30] On 29 January 2021, it was announced that Thirlwall would be appearing as a contestant on the fourth series of The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off, which aired on March later that year.[31] She was announced as the winner and was crowned as the "Star Baker" of her episode.[32] In November 2021, she appeared on NikkieTutorials YouTube channel, to promote her Beauty Bay Palette.[33] In January 2022, she is set to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race, special UK vs The World series.[34]

On 10 March 2022, Thirlwall signed a solo deal with RCA Records.[35]

From 2016 to 2019, Thirlwall was in a relationship with Jed Elliott, a member of the English rock band The Struts.[49] Since 2020, Thirlwall has been in a relationship with British singer and actor Jordan Stephens. The pair started dating in May 2020 and were first spotted together at a Black Trans Lives Matter rally in central London.[50][51] She has multiple tattoos. On her spine, she has an Arabic tattoo that reads "Anyone can achieve their dreams if they’ve got the courage" as a nod to her Egyptian and Yemeni ancestry, as well as a tattoo on her ribcage that means "queen" in Arabic. Thirlwall also has tattoos located on her feet, and in 2019 revealed a henna-style design on her right foot. In 2021, she got a tattoo on her leg to commemorate the day Little Mix were formed in celebration of the group's 10 year anniversary.[52]

Thirlwall has been open about her experiences with body image, racism, and eating disorder. As a teen, she experienced bullying and racism for her ethnicity and the loss of her grandfather contributed to her suffering with anorexia for five years. She began her recovery and left hospital weeks before she auditioned for The X Factor in 2011.[53] In 2020, she opened up in Leigh-Anne Pinnock's documentary titled Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power about wanting cosmetic surgery after her images were heavily edited to look "as white as possible" during her earlier days in Little Mix.[54]

In 2020, she called out the media after journalists had mistaken her for Little Mix member Pinnock, after using an image of her in an article that was focused around Thirlwall. In the interview she also stated that journalists often confuse the pair during interviews and that photographers often shout Pinnock's name at her when she is attending events.[55] In 2021, she spoke about how she finds Twitter and Instagram to be bad for her mental health and has reduced the amount of time she spends on social media.

Thirlwall is known for being a prominent supporter of the LGBT community, Black Lives Matter, and her involvement with charity work. In May 2014, she donated a haul of clothes, with all of the proceedings going to the homeless.[56] In 2017 she donated another collection of her clothes to help raise money for Cancer Connections. In the same year she helped raised money for Stonewall at her drag-themed 25th birthday party.[57] In May 2018, she spoke at the Stonewall Youth Awards about what it meant to be an ally and encouraged more artists to do the same.[58] In 2018 she became an LGBTQ+ rights ambassador for Stonewall[8] and in August 2018 attended the Manchester Pride, with LGBT charity Stonewall, and 50 young LGBT people at the front of the parade.[59]

In 2019, alongside Michelle Visage, raised £10,000 for the Mermaids UK. That same year, she together with band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock, and other British celebrities, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day.[60] In December 2019, she spent her birthday raising money for cancer connected charities which has become a yearly tradition for her.[61] In 2020, she attended a march with Stonewall during Manchester Pride and took to social media to call out someone who questioned the importance of pride month.[62]

In June 2020, she attended the Black Lives Matter protest in the United Kingdom, that surfaced due to death of an African-American man George Floyd.[63] In the same year she attended the Black Trans Lives Matter march in London.[64] In July 2020, Thirlwall called out the brand L'Oréal, for not supporting the black trans community after their treatment towards model Munroe Bergdorf.[65] In March 2021 she then partnered up with Unicef to learn more about the war in Yemen.[66]

In November 2021, Thirlwall was awarded the GAY TIMES, Honour for Allyship and was featured on the cover of GAY TIMES Magazine.[67] In an interview with the latter, she spoke of her commitment to being an LGBTQ+ ally, saying: "I think the more that I learn about my allyship and what I can be doing and how I should be doing those things, the more passionate I’ve become in using my voice and using it in the right way".[68] In 2022, she teamed up with a renowned designer to create a limited edition community shirt for a North East football club, for all donations to be donated to charity Cancer Connections.[69]