How YouTube Star Wengie Almost Passed The Role Of A Lifetime Off As A Prank

Being the voice of the fourth Powerpuff girl is the dream YouTube megastar Wengie never knew she ever had, and is 'the icing on the cake' for a girl who grew up in Australia with Aussie TV. "I'm just really proud to be the Australian Powerpuff girl, who can say that? I'm so excited!"

However, she almost passed on this once in a lifetime gig, as she initially thought the role was one major prank. "Cartoon Network actually reached out and sent me an email," she recalls, "and at first I thought it was a prank almost. There's only three Powerpuff Girls like, what is this email? I feel like this is a scam!"

Thankfully for Wengie, she got her team to investigate further. "After we realised it was real I was like, 'Oh my god I need this! No matter what you do, I need this role!' Then after that they were like 'Oh wait, but you've gotta audition.'" The internet sensation describes that despite being on camera 24/7 with her successful YouTube channel, which boasts a whopping 8.5 million subscribers, her nerves were running high. "I'd never auditioned for anything. I don't need to give my own permission to be on my own channel you know, so it was very nerve-wracking.

"There'd be a scene where my character would get punched, and she would go 'ow' so I actually literally punched myself for that," she admits, offering a window on the methods used to get the perfect sound for her first ever voice acting role. "I couldn't just make the sound. We were just standing there so I got really physical with myself, I was like punching myself, throwing [invisible] things...it was actually a lot of fun."

Wengie's character Bliss shows striking similarities to her, especially with the newest Power Puff Girl's blue hairstyle, despite not being directly based on her. "I think they created the character then thought 'who would suit this?' So when I actually read the role I thought 'this is so me, this is literally me'... and she was also made from Chemical W!" she laughs at the coincidence, "there's so many similarities there, it's great!"

Alongside landing the soon to be iconic role, Wengie is best known for her YouTube show, and as one of the planet's most vibrant "influencers," via her more than one million Instagram followers. While she is now a YouTube A-lister, she admits to not watching much on YouTube when she began her own vlog, taking her inspiration instead from online make-up guru Michelle Phan. "I read about her and then watched some of the videos because of that, so for me, it wasn't really 'Hey I'm onto a thing' for me it's just that I really enjoy making videos.

"Every time we [her fiance Max works alongside her] choose a video concept we'll have some rough ideas so we'll write the scripts, we'll have ideas on what shots we want then we'll go out and buy the supplies and costumes and props and then that will come together and then we'll pick a day to shoot that and then it gets edited, so it's like a pretty big process."

Wengie is herself now a major influence on up and coming YouTubers, and was recently a featured speaker at Australia's first Vid Con event. "It was amazing, there was so much support, so much community", Wengie beams, showing how passionate she is for her followers. "I loved meeting my fans as well and hugging them. My favourite part of it is the meet and greet." But is it really daunting having your public life on display all the time? "I think it's a really strange feeling to have a lot of people know a lot about you, but you not knowing a lot about the other people. Then I always just forget people know stuff about me.

"The other day I did a speech and the Google team gave me a tea as a thank you gift and I'm like 'Oh my gosh! How did you know I loved tea?!' and then I realised I told the whole world that I like tea."

Wengie makes her debut as Bliss on The Powerpuff Girls, on Cartoon Network 23 Sept.