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Growing Up Gypsy

Stacey heads to Bedfordshire to the private site where 23-year-old Chantelle lives with her husband, Swaley. Chantelle prides herself in keeping with the ‘old’ Gypsy values her granny Rita taught her and sharing them on social media, where she has blown up with nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok and 15 million likes on her page. Her chalet is where she films all her ‘Gypsy Cleaning’ videos for her loyal fanbase. Chantelle shares her cleaning hacks with Stacey.\n\nOver two months, Stacey gets to know Chantelle and Swaley, hearing what courting looked like for this young couple, the reaction Chantelle has had to her viral videos and the vital role of family in their lives.\n\nEighteen-year-old Serena and her family live in Lincolnshire and welcome Stacey into their bustling family life. Serena explains to Stacey that they have decided to invite her into their home to show people that they are normal. Serena is in the middle of planning her wedding to her fiance, Marco. He is from a Gypsy and Traveller community too, and Serena wouldn’t have it any other way.\n\nSpending time with Serena’s sister Ivana and mum Teresa as they help Serena get organised for the biggest step in a Gypsy girl’s life, Stacey learns that this community often chooses to marry within their own, as it enables them to protect the values and traditions they hold dear. Serena has been searching high and low for all the things she is going to need to create her new married home.\n\nSerena gets Stacey mucking out the horses in her stable, where she has taken her childhood passion for horse riding to launch her own business buying, breeding and selling horses. The Traveller community has long been associated with horses, but the business is usually left to the men, and Serena is breaking the mould at just 18 years old. Stacey is surprised to hear that Serena often feels it is best to keep her ethnicity hidden when she is meeting potential clients, as she fears they may not want to do business with her.\n\nIn Nottinghamshire, Stacey meets a young woman taking a new job in a busy, thriving salon in the ‘gorger’ (non-Traveller) world. At an age when many Gypsy and Traveller women may be hoping to get married, 22-year-old Ebony is pushing ahead with her career in beauty. Stacey joins her for her first day at the new salon, and Ebony confides in Stacey about the compromises you sometimes have to make to fit into the ‘gorger’ world. But, proud of her Gypsy heritage, Ebony has found a salon where she isn’t afraid to own who she is.

Source: BBC 3