'I'm not stupid, I've got 17 GCSEs', says girl who thought 'Barraco Barner' was Britain's President: An audience with beauty salon receptionist whose story speaks volumes about modern education
- Gemma Worrall, 20, tweeted about 'our' president 'barraco barner'
- Within 12 hours, her comment had been retweeted almost 7,000 times
- Gemma says the misspelling was down to the 'auto-correct' on her phone
- At first she thought it was funny but became concerned about the reaction
- Gemma has received vicious tweets and even death threats
- But she adds she has also received lots of positive comments online
- Gemma now wants to learn about Ukraine and plans to watch the news
Gemma Worrall, 20, from Blackpool, sent a tweet referring to 'barraco barner' as 'our president'
Opening the front door of her smart terrace house just seconds away from Blackpool’s beachfront, Gemma Worrall’s mother looks decidedly anxious.
‘Can I take your name please?’ she asks, clearly very nervous. I tell her, she half-smiles warily and allows me inside. ‘Sorry,’ she says. ‘But you can’t be too careful.’
It’s a rather fitting greeting for a family who must be more aware than most of the perils of getting a name wrong.
It was this time last week that their 20-year-old daughter did what millions of people do every day and sent a tweet. She had been watching a news programme about the unrest in Ukraine and decided — in hindsight, unwisely — to get involved in the debate.
‘If barraco barner is our president, why is he getting involved with Russia, scary,’ Gemma wrote.
It’s a corker of a gaffe by anyone’s standards. Making the most powerful man in the world sound more like the fizzy vitamin supplement Berocca is one thing. Demoting him to leader of the UK is quite another.
Gemma, a receptionist at a beauty salon in the seaside town, was quick to point out that politics is not her strong suit. But the ripple effect of her blunder was like nothing she could have foreseen.
Within just 12 hours, her comment had been retweeted (where people send on your tweet for others to read again) almost 7,000 times and screenshots of her words were appearing on television news programmes as far afield as Australia, Canada and America.
On Twitter, the hashtag #Barracobarner began trending across Britain (this means it was one of the most popular hashtags in the country). And a parody account @Barracobarner already has more than 1,500 followers.
It was clearly an extraordinarily dippy thing to write. So is Gemma as dumb as her tweet would have her appear?
Tweet: The Blackpool beautician wrote this tweet without checking her facts - or her spelling
No regrets: Miss Worrall said she initially thought the whole thing was quite funny but then became concerned about the impact it has had on her family
While Gemma might not be signing up for Mensa any day soon, she’s certainly no Jade Goody. Softly spoken and articulate, she was educated at a local Catholic school and insists that she has 17 GCSEs — an extraordinary number, as most people obtain 11 at most — in subjects including English, Business Studies, Religious Education, Textiles, Technology and Media Studies, all with passes of grade C and above. She also says she has two A-levels, in Travel and Tourism.
In the immediate aftermath of her tweet, she says she found the whole thing hilarious. But now, stunned by the global reaction, she says she feels responsible for the detrimental effect it is having on her family.
Her parents — whom she refuses to name for their protection — are worried sick for their daughter’s safety following numerous vicious and violent tweets to her account. She has even received death threats.
Miss Worrall, who works at a Blackpool beauty salon, deleted the tweet but the damage had already been done
Reaction: Former footballer turned DJ Ian Wright joined thousands around the world in laughing at Miss Worrall
Cruel reaction: Some people took it upon themselves to send unkind messages to the young beautician
Today, at the immaculate home that she shares with her parents and ten-year-old brother, Gemma maintains she is still stunned by the reaction.
‘I just can’t believe the effect one silly tweet can have on the world,’ she says. ‘I’m still in shock. Since it happened, I’ve not really been bothered by it at all — I’m fairly thick-skinned — but now I’m worried about how it’s affecting my family.
‘My mum was fuming. My Nan is 85 and it’s really upset her, which I feel so sad about. I just want to draw a line under the whole thing.’
Like 200 million people across the world, Gemma is a regular user of Twitter. She joined the social networking site two years ago.
‘I like that you can socialise with friends on it,’ she says. ‘I’ve got lots of friends at university who tweet regularly, and that’s how we keep in touch. I tweet about five to ten times a day and I try to make people laugh.
‘But generally I tweet about what I’m thinking. I’m going to have to be a lot more careful about doing that in the future.’
Miss Worrall says she has been sent bullying messages from strangers because of her tweet
Unpleasant reaction: Miss Worrall was surprised by the vitriol of others
Reaction: Despite deleting the original tweet, screengrabs of it appeared on Australian and Belgian news
Despite Miss Worrall putting on a brave face, she admitted the comments she received upset her
It was in the early hours of last Monday when she was suffering from insomnia that she decided to send her ill-fated tweet in what she refers to as her ‘ditzy moment’. She insists she’d had nothing to drink, but had turned on the television and watched the news.
‘I can’t remember what programme it was — I don’t normally watch the news at all — but this thing came on about Ukraine and I didn’t really understand it,’ she says. ‘I picked up my phone and decided to tweet.’
She claims that the unfortunate Barraco Barner misspelling was down to an ‘auto-correct’ facility on her iPhone which changed what she originally wrote. Do we really believe her? I type ‘Barack Obama’ on my own iPhone. Nothing happens. Then I try ‘Barraco Barner’. Immediately, my iPhone corrects my intentional misspelling to ‘Barack Obama’.
Hmmmm. Are you sure that’s what happened Gemma? ‘I really do know how to spell it,’ she insists. ‘Although it’s not the easiest name to spell and I bet loads of people get it wrong. But as for the President [of Britain] bit . . . well, yes, I don’t know what I was thinking there. What can I say? I do sound really stupid.’
Is she aware we actually have a Prime Minister? ‘Yes,’ she smiles. ‘David Cameron. I’m really not as stupid as everyone is making out.’
Gemma sent the tweet and thought no more about it. But in the morning she realised she had become an online celebrity.
Media storm: Miss Worrall was inundated with messages of support as news of her tweet spread
Positive reaction: As Miss Worrall's fame spread, people flocked to show their support with kind messages
Fame and fortune? Many commenters suggested Miss Worrall could consider a change of career to reality television
Kind words: After an initial surge of cyber-bullies, people thanked Miss Worrall for cheering them up
Well done: Others on Twitter praised Miss Worrall for not being upset by unkind messages from strangers
‘I only had 400 followers before all this, and so if I said anything amusing I usually only got around three retweets. But that morning, when I looked, I’d had 50 retweets and had gained another 1,300 followers.
‘I went to work and put my phone in my locker but it kept going off all the time — it alerts me every time I have a new tweet. I rang a friend and said: “What’s going on?” and she couldn’t speak for laughing.
‘I looked back at the tweet I’d sent and realised immediately what I’d done. I thought: “Oh God, that makes me sound so stupid.” But I kept it on there because it seemed to be making people laugh.’
It was when she returned home around 4pm that her family decided enough was enough. ‘I told her to delete the tweet,’ says Mrs Worrall, a petite, elegant woman who says she works in health and social care and also has a university degree.
Her nerves are clearly visible. ‘I was trying to explain to Gemma that you have to be so careful what you say online. We don’t talk about politics particularly in this house, but we’re very respectful of other races and other cultures and the last thing we wanted was for Gemma to upset someone.
‘Everyone makes mistakes like that. It’s human nature. It’s just unfortunate that it went around the world.’
Gemma deleted the tweet but it was too late. ‘People had taken a screen shot of it and had put it onto a website where people take the mick out of other people’s tweets,’ she says. ‘I still thought it was funny, but then my Nan got approached by some people in the supermarket who were talking about it. She was really concerned and rang to ask if I was all right.
‘I’ve explained that it’s nothing to worry about, but it’s really bothering her. I’m so worried about her.
‘The next day, I thought it would have died down. But a friend rang and told me my tweet was trending in the UK. I was even in newspapers in Australia. I was in shock.’
Silly typo: Miss Worrall insists she does know who Barack Obama is and how to spell his name
Enlarge
Spoof account: As Miss Worrall's tweet went viral, a joke account for 'Barraco Barner, UK prez' was set up
Another one: There's also a 'Michelleo Barner' Twitter account for the 'First Lady of the United States of Britain'
Although many internet users have seen the funny side, some have been less than kind. She’s received dozens of cruel messages, some branding her the dumbest girl in Britain,
‘You’d think that a lot of the vile stuff would come from young people of my own generation, but it seems to be the mums and dads who say the worst things,’ she says. ‘They’ve said to me “Make sure you don’t breed” and called me an “oxygen thief”. Strangers have called me a “stupid cow”.’
Alarmingly, one particularly nasty tweeter described a visceral way he would like to kill her. When this arises in our interview, her mother looks shaken.
‘I didn’t know that, Gemma,’ she says, softly. ‘I didn’t want to worry you, Mum,’ she replies gently.
Although she hasn’t reported the threats to the police or Twitter, Gemma did contact Facebook about abuse she’d received on its site.
Miss Worrall has denied cynics claims she wrote the tweet to gain notoriety and says she'll be more careful over what she writes in future
‘I’m not happy with Facebook,’ she says. ‘All they said was that they had looked into it and weren’t going to do anything about it. So I’ve de-activated my account.’
Will she do the same with Twitter? ‘If it keeps going, yes,’ she says. ‘At the moment, I simply scroll past the negative comments and read the positive ones. I’ve had loads of messages from people who say I’ve made them laugh.’
Although she says she doesn’t regret sending the tweet, the experience has opened her eyes to the reality of cyber-bullying.
‘I’ve got lots of friends who have helped me see the funny side, but I feel really sorry for anyone on the receiving end of this kind of abuse who doesn’t get that kind of support,’ she says.
Cynics have argued that Gemma may have written the tweet to gain notoriety. You only have to see the lucrative ‘careers’ of reality stars Joey Essex, Chantelle Houghton and the late Jade Goody to see that stupidity is a valuable currency.
But Gemma denies she is a fame-seeker — although she certainly could have cashed in on her fleeting fame if she wished to.
‘I’ve had two radio stations contact me for interviews and Piers Morgan has tweeted me two or three times to ask if I’ll chat to him,’ she says. ‘Russell Kane, the BBC3 comedian, has asked if I’ll go on his podcast and Ian Wright, the former Arsenal footballer, has asked if I’ll go on his radio show.
‘I’ve been offered thousands of pounds to do a news quiz, but I’ve turned them all down.’
Regardless, it does seem extraordinary that a young girl with so many educational qualifications could have made such an error. Does she wish she knew more about politics — and has this experience changed her?
‘Definitely,’ she says. ‘I would like to get educated [about Ukraine] now and I’ll definitely make more of an effort to watch the news. People are saying to me “Go back to school”, but even at school we never learned about politics and current affairs.’
Gemma tells me that she intends to go to university to study business. At the moment, however, she is simply working to be able to afford to work in Ibiza over the summer months.
Her phone is constantly buzzing with new tweets and I ask her to read out the last two. ‘I think you’ve handled this whole thing really well, I’m sure it will calm down very soon,’ says one. Another reads:
‘So what if Gemma has got Barack’s name wrong and the fact he is President wrong . . . we’re all human, we’re not all perfect.’
Indeed. As I get up to leave, Gemma thanks me and distractedly asks: ‘What’s your name again?’
Part of me can’t help wondering if a Gill Forrest might appear in one of her tweets very soon.
Part of me can’t help wondering if a Gill Forrest might appear in one of her tweets very soon.
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