Nicola RobertsGirls Aloud star Nicola Roberts has said she feels like she’s grown up a lot over the last year and is now more comfortable with who she is.

Nicola was just 17 when she auditioned for Popstars: The Rivals and won her place in the girl band after another contestant dropped out.

She told the Sun recently it was hard juggling her new pop star career and her normal life: “I didn’t know what I was doing. I found things difficult. I was trying to still be a girl from Runcorn yet I was in this girl band.”

“I was struggling with trying to be two different people really. It sent me a bit weird for a while. Some people at home were jealous - and I soon realised some weren’t really my friends.”

“I also found it hard dealing with the guilt I felt that my family were still back home in Runcorn working hard while I was having this celebrity lifestyle.”

“I went out and did loads of retail therapy for a while - I went crazy buying loads of pairs of shoes.”

But now 21, she feels on top of things: “I feel like I’ve changed in the last year. I can see where I went wrong - how I wasn’t dealing with things the right way.”

“I feel much more settled and confident now. I’m spending my money on houses rather than wasting it on silly things.”

“When I was first in the band I didn’t even know what the word mortgage meant.”