An Interview With... Federica Clarke-Johnson

Bio:

Proud Mother. Wife. PA. Fitness Enthusiast. Successful Blogger. Italian in London. 

Meeting Venue

Federica and I are meeting in Elan Café based in Market Place, Oxford Circus. The décor is full of the signature floral walls, floral decoration, enticing cakes and bloggers galore. Neither of us were hungry which was a shame because from experience, I know Elan Café cakes are delicious. I ordered a Spanish coffee and Federica, the Jade coffee infused with Matcha tea, giving me all sorts of coffee envy!

The place is busy with throngs of people coming in and out due to the café’s strict 45-minute time slots. There are also bloggers taking their title very seriously and using every inch of the café as a backdrop for their mini photoshoot extravaganza. I don’t know whether to be in awe or roll my eyes at the number of poses they can form on the spot, or how many products they can use creatively as props. 

This is the first time I am spending time with Federica properly, as we have only briefly met before, due to having mutual friends in the beauty industry. My first impression was how great she looks considering she is juggling 101 things in her life and being a mother to an almost 18-month-old baby! Her makeup is natural, and she is wearing an outfit that is styled well, being both practical and chic; a leather jacket with paperbag trousers and currently trending colour, yellow loafers.

Federica outside the Elan Cafe, in Market Place

Hi Federica, thanks for agreeing to see me! It would be great if you could introduce yourself in your own words and please feel free to blow your own trumpet!

{Laughs bashfully} I’m not really good like that! 

Well…I’m a mum, that’s how I feel now. I’m a mum and a wife. If you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have introduced myself as a fitness professional. My main background is in health and fitness but before that, in Italy I was a dancer. The original plan was to come to London, go onto New York or LA and then Japan. That was the dream of my life, but then I got to London and I just loved being here! 

Dancing started to become a little bit difficult because I was 22 when I arrived and though it sounds weird, in the dancing world, you’re already “getting on…” and you have to make a name for yourself. Trying to have this dream and a job in a foreign country was quite hard. Then I met a guy who was older than me and didn’t really understand my dreams of wanting to be a dancer. I don’t think it was a bad thing because looking back, my life has actually developed and turned out to be better.

I started off being a lifeguard, and after 6 months I got offered the manager’s job of this leisure centre where, I eventually started to manage gyms across London and the UK. At the same time, I started training harder in the gym and entering figure modelling competitions and that was my life up until 2 years ago. 

Whilst I was doing competitions, I met Dr Vincent Wong who is an aesthetic medical practitioner. I got introduced to Vincent and he kindly decided to sponsor me by taking care of my face during the competitions. When you diet really hard, your body looks great but your face really takes a hit, so he sponsored me in the beginning, but we developed a really great friendship following that. We got on so well and decided to start a working relationship and I became his assistant. 

At the time, I was doing personal training and working as his PA, but then I got pregnant. I was still working until I was about 8 months pregnant as I like to keep myself occupied.

I wanted to be a stay at home mum which lasted a year, but I still wanted to make it work. I like to think to myself, that I can make things happen the way I want them to happen, so for me that was wanting a job that still allowed me to spend a lot of time with my son. I didn’t want to leave him with childcare, so that’s how I made that happen! So now I manage this clinic called Renova Clinic of which Dr Vincent Wong is the Medical Director.

Federica in her competition days

How do you balance home and work life?

The way it works now, which is really good for us, is that my husband works shifts for the DLR. He wakes up really early in the morning to go to work, he comes back late morning and when he’s back, he takes care of Justin and then I can do my work. I feel like I can’t leave Justin with anybody else. Most of the time, I work from home around, 2-3 days a week, but working from home isn’t as easy as you think. I can get distracted due to home life and concentration isn’t always easy, but I feel so blessed because it is a routine that is working. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone back to work when I did. 

Then I think about Instagram and my blog because I want to get it going. Now I’m going to concentrate on Instagram, which is growing, but I was a bit confused about how to do it, because I like to do so many things. But then I wanted to concentrate on one thing, because my life is no longer all about fitness, I wanted to talk about parenting as well. 

Would you say the majority of your followers are mums?

It is now, but before it used to be all fitness people. After pregnancy, I started posting pictures of the baby, and I lost a lot of those followers. Before it was a lot of competitors, but then I kept the ones who became mums themselves so now there’s a 50/50 split between men and women. There are still fitness followers lingering, but mainly it’s mums now which is nice as I can relate too and follow them back. 

I don’t share so much personal stuff about what my son does, because I don’t think anyone cares whether he’s done the potty… I will be about to share something but then I think “do people really care about this”. For example, if Justin does or achieves something, I don’t want to feel like I’m bragging about it, so I’ve become shyer and every now and again, I have my doubts. So I chose to move away from this, and speak more about my general life, about aesthetics, and day to day stuff.

Obviously if there’s something personal you don’t want to share; you don’t have to. But at the same time, if there’s something you want to share but worried what others might think, I don’t think you need to because they would probably find it relatable. People who follow you and read your page are adults and understand that children naturally develop at different rates which is normal. You come across very genuine and down-to-earth so I don’t think anyone would judge you otherwise. 

That’s nice to know! I wouldn’t want people to feel like “she’s bragging” because I just not a bragging person. 

When did you come to London?

In 2002 when I was 22, but now I’m 39…

Wow you look amazing and don’t look 39 at all!

You’re too nice! Sometimes I feel like I’m 105 years old! 

I’m not surprised you feel like that with all the things you’re juggling, alongside motherhood.

Well sometimes I feel like I’m not coping. Externally, some people may look at me and think “she’s got it going!” but on a daily basis, there are moments where I feel like I can’t cope. I could make my life a lot simpler… 

I think that’s quite refreshing to hear because especially in the world of Instagram, I think it can almost create an ideal world and ideal family image and of course you have a lovely life, but it’s nice to hear the human element. 

100%. Right now, I feel like my body is about to break down. I’m constantly Googling what kind of disease I have! 

{laughs} 

But I think it’s because I’m constantly on the go and I worry a lot. I overthink and can think something is going to go wrong, but then I have to bring it back and I meditate to counteract this worry. I listen to a lot of audio books which helps. I have gone through some big stages in my life, I used to be a lot worse. I feel now that I’m calm, people think I’m wired but I’m calm. But I have to say, I have reached a point in my life where I feel satisfied and happy.

You should be! You’re successful, you have a beautiful son, and supportive husband. 

I know there are some women who have the above but still don’t feel satisfied but the other day it was my husband’s birthday, with just the three of us at home, we were in our pyjamas and we were saying, “this is so nice and we don’t need much more”. I like to be kept busy, I don’t think I could not be busy, but I think “I’m happy”. Five years ago, I never would have said this. I used to be the one to say “I’m never going to be happy!”

But 5 years later, you’re here and you’re happy. 

Yeah, I’ve come on a big journey and it all started when I managed a Bikram Yoga studio. I came into contact with Yoga teachers and I started to practice Bikram every day, even twice a day and that completely shifted my mind. That was around 5 years ago. 

You’ve been very physical all your life, starting as a dancer, becoming a lifeguard, personal training and then onto yoga. This is so inspiring for me because I would literally get the award for the ‘laziest person’. We were speaking about dancing earlier, what did you specialise in? 

I trained in ballet but in Italy, it’s mainly jazz dancing and you get to do TV shows. It was mainly lyrical jazz, nothing like hip hop. I wish I could do hip hop dancing, but I end up looking really awkward.

{Federica takes out her phone to take a snap of the coffee - standard routine for bloggers - and shows me cracks on her phone}

This is the life of living with a toddler, I’m not even bothering anymore…

{laughs}

I think Justin is gorgeous, I’m not the type of person to compliment someone’s child if I didn’t think they were really cute!

Thank you so much, I am a little biased but sometimes I look at him and think “how did we make you?” 

{laughs}

Federica and Justin

How long have you been married?

We got married in 2017, so almost two years. We have been together for so long, but we aren’t the type of couple who keeps dates. We had a wedding in Italy and also in London, so we have two wedding anniversaries! 

Tell me more about your husband!

My husband’s name is Steven. We met at work where I used to be the Operations Manager at a sports centre, and he came in as a health and fitness supervisor. I still remember the first time I saw him, for me it was love at first sight, for him it wasn’t. He thought I was quite silly and he wasn’t really interested. I had to work hard to get him to be interested in me but basically when I showed him that I didn’t like him that much anymore, that’s when he started to show an interest. I remember it like it was yesterday…

Federica and Steven on their wedding day

Talk to me about your Italian wedding, it looked beautiful!

Thank you! We got married just outside of Rome, in a big villa that belongs to my cousin in this village. I love them because they built it from nothing. Their first job was selling tomatoes on a market, then moved onto a fruit shop, then they started to sell fish, and then got a fish shop, etc. Eventually they bought land just outside of Rome, when no-one else had done this. They used to host parties for family and friends and one day, we said to them “you know what, you’re really good at this!” Then they started hiring the place out and organising parties for other people and turned it into a massive wedding business. They could literally have 5 or 6 weddings going on the same day, and you wouldn’t even know there was another wedding happening.

I felt so blessed because on my wedding day, I had the whole place to myself with all their resources and it was spectacular. Everybody still talks about it because there were a lot of things happening but for us, it was the people (who attended) because we just felt so much love. There was a lot of impressive factors from the wedding but there was an atmosphere of pure, pure love from everyone.

It was lovely to see how the families got together. I look back at who was there and it was amazing, people from lots of different backgrounds and I have a friend who is gender neutral, who sang for us at our wedding which is an unusual thing to have at an Italian wedding but this is my life and I wanted it to reflect what my life is about – about inclusion really. 

I loved how my wedding reflected my life, and how everybody just got on and we were there from the night before. Inside the compound, there are different suites and we had a lot of guests, especially from my husband’s side, staying in the special suites so it was like a party from the night before. I wasn’t partying, I was pregnant and sick but everyone else was {laughs}.

I can’t thank my cousins enough because they gave me the best day, for us and the people who attended. They say it’s your day, but you want everybody to also have a good time, especially when they came all the way to Italy for it. 

Federica and Steven in Fontana Di Trevi, on her cousin’s villa

You’re from Rome originally… I’ve been to Rome and the architecture is so beautiful. My standards now so high that sometimes when I travel to other European cities or capitals, I am less impressed because my eyes have been tainted (in a good way).

I know what you mean! In Rome wherever you look, there are churches everywhere, you could look up, or look down and there is something to see. But it isn’t really well maintained, and I get upset when I go back to the city, because there is so much graffiti (not artistic graffiti). My favourite city is actually Florence!

Last but not least, if you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be? 

Gosh, this is a question for my husband, he loves these kinds of questions! I think I would be able to teleport to other places. I could go to quickly see my mum in Italy, because currently we face time each other around three times a day. Sometimes I just feel like I need to be next to her, just to be able to give her a quick kiss and say “hi mum!”

I’m exactly the same as you, that would be the dream!

I also love travelling by myself. The only holidays I really take are back to Italy to see my family but before I was pregnant, I used to travel a lot. I even travelled to Kuwait to do consultancy for gyms opening there. I had a big contract with Golds gym who were building a big female only gym.

I’m really lucky because my husband is so understanding. I used to travel for around one week every month to different places. I really loved travelling by myself, but that wasn’t really a holiday. Only one time, I went to Ibiza by myself during off season just to chill. The place was empty, it was just the sea and there was a medieval funfair which was cool. I went for three days just to have some time to myself. 

Thank you so much Federica, it’s been amazing speaking to you!

Thank you so much!

Why I think she’s special…

Though I don’t know Federica that well, I have known her for a few years now and have witnessed her transition from a fitness guru to a mother. I’ve always admired her drive, especially in the fitness world, but also being able to balance this with her day to day work and being a mother to the beautiful Justin. She has struck me as a very hard working, driven, but also humble character with a great sense of humour. I also loved her honesty with regards to her daily struggles, and sharing her worries on such a public platform, which I’m sure many people will find relatable.

Until next time xo 

Federica and Justin