Exclusive: Frankie Bridge talks toxic comparison culture during girl band days

The Loose Women star was in The Saturdays with Rochelle Humes and Mollie King

The Saturdays have carved out successful careers for themselves since disbanding, with Frankie Bridge killing it on, Rochelle Humes regularly appearing on and Mollie King presenting on BBC Radio 1.

While the women are one another's biggest supporters, in an exclusive chat with HELLO!, Frankie revealed that she used to compare herself to her bandmates.

"I was less confident in my twenties and it's no surprise that that coincided with being in a girl band and being in the public eye," Frankie told us.

"I'd find myself comparing myself to the other girls when I was in the group. As sad as it was, if someone lost a bit of weight, you'd be aware of it, the same happened if you put on weight.

"When I was pregnant, I was really self-conscious," Frankie continued. "This comparison thing is just so unhealthy, but I do find I do it less now, but sometimes I do fall into and I still struggle comparing myself to others."

EXCLUSIVE: 'There's a toxic amount of opinion': Frankie Bridge on ignoring the trolls and finding happiness 

Frankie believes Instagram is to blame for comparison culture, explaining: "I think it's so hard not to compare yourself to others with social media. It's something as humans we've always done, but now it's so much easier for us to do it."

Why is comparing ourselves to others bad?

Comparing ourselves to others can be hugely detrimental to our confidence, as confidence coach Tiwalola Ogunlesi explains: "Comparison is one of the biggest thieves of joy and it is such a confidence killer.

"When you compare yourself to others, the narrative says 'they're so amazing and I am terrible,' we compare the worst of ourselves to the best of others, making us feel inferior and bad about ourselves." This isn't a good grounding for self-confidence, which is essential when it comes to happiness.

Happily, Frankie is at her most confident now and feels her best going makeup-free.

"When I was younger it was a case of the more makeup, the better," she tells HELLO!. "The more pairs of eyelashes I had on the happier I was, and that was what gave me confidence.

"Then I went through a stage when my skin was really bad and I had to train myself to not wear makeup to help repair my skin. Now, makeup-free is when I feel most confident. When I'm comfortable in my own skin, that's when I feel confident within myself."

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