City youngster aims for stars as acting prodigy

EIGHT-YEAR-OLD HAS ALREADY TAKEN PART IN FILM AUDITIONS

- ZHARA SIMPSON

AN eight-year-old Plymouth girl and aspiring actress is enjoying a meteoric rise which has earned her comparisons with Drew Barrymore.

Willow Youel recently came away from Plymouth’s Speech and Drama festival with no fewer than five awards, including one which branded her the ‘most promising under-12’.

That trophy, which has been in circulation since 1975, came alongside a gold for Willow’s prose speaking, a silver for prose reading, silver for monologue, silver for humorous verse and gold for her sight-reading.

Aspiring actress Willow has always had a passion for performing from the age of just two years old and, at five, she joined the Geraldine Lamb Dance School, where she has been working hard to reach her dreams.

Willow’s mother, Adelaide Youel, was told by one of the directors at an audition last week that her daughter was like a “mini Drew Barrymore”.