She found fame on children’s TV playing the role of frizzy-haired teenager Tracy Beaker, but Dani Harmer is winning a whole new generation of adult fans thanks to her sequin-spangled turn on Strictly Come Dancing.
"I’m a womanly hourglass shape, I love having curves – particularly my Kim Kardashian bum!”
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And now Closer has given her a glamorous new grown-up look, transforming the 23 year old from fresh-faced tomboy into Dita Von Teese’s minxier younger sister. She tells Closer: “Wow, I look amazing in this dress!”
In the flesh, the 5ft 1 actress looks so petite, it’s hardly surprising that her and 5ft 7 Strictly partner Vincent Simone, 32, have been nicknamed “Team Smurf.”
At a size 6-8 with “rock-hard thighs” thanks to a daily seven hours of dance training for Strictly, Dani reveals she is perfectly happy with her figure.
“I’d always go for a bikini on the beach,” she says. “I’ve got big boobs, a big bum and a little waist, but so what? I’m a womanly hourglass shape, I love having curves – particularly my Kim Kardashian bum!”
Dani says she never weighs herself, but reckons she hasn’t lost any weight since starting Strictly – and wouldn’t want to. She says: “I’m already quite tiny and I don’t want to look like a skeleton. My bum is shrinking a bit though, which I’m quite upset about.”
Unsurprisingly, Dani rolls her eyes when the subject of her size is mentioned. Since appearing on Strictly, she has been targeted by Twitter bullies who have called her fat.
“It makes me so angry,” she says. “I try to put it down to jealousy, but some of the nastier comments have made me doubt myself. I started to think, ‘What are they seeing that I’m not?’ It got to the point where I thought about taking a photo of my top with the [size 6] label showing! You feel you have to prove yourself.”
And Dani reveals that she’s turned to her Strictly co-star, ex-Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley, 36, to help her cope with the negative comments. Dani says: “Lisa’s my best pal on the show and I’ve talked to her a lot about it as she gets c**p on Twitter over her weight as well. She’s great, she loves her body just the way it is and she’s getting out there every Saturday night, enjoying it and ignoring the haters. Her positivity really rubs off on me.”
Berkshire-based Dani reveals that she tries to meet up with Lisa at least one night a week to catch up and relax. She says: “We go out for a few drinks and lots of chat. Denise Van Outen sometimes joins us too, and quite a few of us go out for dinner on Friday to relax before the show on Saturday.”
“I think sexiness is just being confident with your body and not caring what people think”
Dani tells Closer she wanted to do Strictly to get away from her teen TV role.
“I wanted people to get to know me as Dani, rather than Tracy Beaker,” she says. “It’s been a great opportunity to spread my wings and show I’m no longer a kid.”
She made her showbiz debut at the age of six in a West End musical, but her big break came after landing the lead role in the CBBC series The Story Of Tracy Beaker when she was 12, a character she played until last year.
She says: “Most teenagers don’t even like having their photo taken, so going through puberty and dealing with the changes to my body and things like frizzy hair, braces and spots on camera was very embarrassing. At times, I just wanted to hide away.”
Although she says growing up on camera actually made her more accepting of her body – “you learn to embrace your differences” – she admits she does still have a few insecurities, saying: “I’ve got a really round face and sometimes develop that extra chin if I put on a few pounds, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I just won’t ever have my hair cut in a bob!”
Dani says that learning to dance has been helping to boost her body confidence further. She admits she’ll be cringing with embarrassment if she has to dance a steamy rumba – “the dance of love” – with Vincent, but Dani says that she is feeling sexier as she gets older.
“I love the fake tan, false lashes and skimpy outfits. And what girl doesn’t love glitter? I like being a sexy smurf!”
“I think sexiness is just being confident with your body and not caring what people think,” says Dani. “My secret weapons are Lipsy dresses. They really show off my figure.”
The actress is currently single, after splitting from her boyfriend of a few months, assistant TV director Graeme Livingstone, just before she started Strictly. She reveals: “We’re still in touch and on good terms, but we knew the show schedule was going to be manic. There’s no time for men!”
Meanwhile, she’s enjoying the freedom of being single and says the only thing she misses about being in a relationship is having someone to have a good rant with, adding: “Now my Mum’s taking that role!”
She’s hoping she’ll manage to stay in the show until the final and is overwhelmed by the public’s support. “I get people approaching me every day to congratulate me or wish me luck,” she says.
And, despite being a self-confessed tomboy, Dani reveals one of her favourite parts of being on the show is getting glammed up.
She laughs: “I love the fake tan, false lashes and skimpy outfits. And what girl doesn’t love glitter? I like being a sexy smurf!”