14 DAY TRIAL // Working as a celebrity lookalike can be a very profitable business if – obviously – you really do look like the celebrity you’re impersonating but, as Claire Leeson’s case proves, some people are willing to go the distance to compensate for what they don’t have. She’s up to her eyeballs in debt because she wants to look just like Kim Kardashian.
Claire is 24 years old and she says she first started obsessing with Kim in 2009, when she was introduced to her through her E! reality show. She discovered they had many things in common, including a very special bond with their respective sisters, so Claire decided she would do whatever she could to look like the star.
She appeared on ITV This Morning the other day to talk about her transformation, which, she estimates, set her back about $30,000 (€22,030). What’s worse, that’s money that she doesn’t have: she got all the procedures done and all the maintenance work on credit cards, so she’s not really joking when she’s saying she’s “up to her eyeballs in debt.”
“I've had my teeth whitened, then I wanted my [breasts] enhanced... and with pictures [of Kim] explained to my surgeon that I wanted to look like this,” Claire says on the show, as the video below will confirm.
She’s yet to get Kim’s most prized asset (a large posterior) but, until she finds the money to get fat from other parts of her body injected into her buttocks, she’s faking it.
“I also wear bum padding – it's a silicone base. Pants with silicone inside. They feel very real... and hopefully will end up having that done because my bum is never going to be as big as Kim's is,” Claire adds.
She spends a fortune monthly on getting her nails and makeup professionally done, hair extensions put in, and spray tans, but also on clothes and shoes that replicate (on a much smaller scale) Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe choices.
Claire says that she was bullied a lot when she was a teen, often being picked on for being “ugly,” for which reason kids told her she should “die.” She believes her insecurities stem from being victim of this type of abuse, so she has no regrets about getting herself in debt just so she could become a cheaper version of Kim Kardashian.
“When I get my Kimmy on I feel like I’m unstoppable and untouchable and I feel like no one can stop me and I can make something of myself. I feel strong… and I feel that I have built enough confidence to love myself a little bit more,” she says.
The photo above is from her Twitter feed: she does resemble Kim but only because of the angle of the shot, the filters applied, and the heavy makeup. In real life, as you can see in the video, she doesn’t really look like a Kardashian, Kim or any other one.