Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Joe Sugg: My Strictly turn has encouraged other young men to dance

Joe Sugg said he is much more confident about performing (Ray Burmiston/BBC)
Joe Sugg said he is much more confident about performing (Ray Burmiston/BBC)

Joe Sugg has said taking part in Strictly has encouraged other young men to take up dancing.

The YouTube star, 27, said taking part in the BBC One show has given him a huge new platform and he is now more likely to be stopped in the street by older fans than younger ones.

He said: “I have a large online following but in the grand scheme of things it’s still so unknown.

“It’s big in its own sense, in its own pocket of entertainment, but to the more traditional media it’s such an unusual thing so when I was announced to be on the show I think I got one of the most controversial reactions from the general public, a lot of ‘Who? Never heard of him!’”

He added: “I just thought I would give it a chance and see what happens and it’s a whole new audience and it’s gone down an absolute storm and nowadays I think I get stopped more out and about by the older generation, people that have known me from Strictly rather than from YouTube and stuff, it’s been so nice.

“But on the other side of things I’ve had so many positive messages from my own audience that have followed me into this especially from younger guys,

“Even when I was younger at school, we didn’t do dance, if you were a boy you just didn’t do dance.

“It was an option but no-one took it, it was all just sport or not dance.

“But I have had so many messages from younger guys saying ‘I would never normally think about doing dance but from watching you on Strictly I can see you’re having so much fun and you’ve actually made it cool’.

“I’m not cool but somehow for them I’ve made it more acceptable and they said ‘I’ve started going to dance classes with my girlfriend’ or with their friend.

“That for me is one of the best things about doing the show, the effect it’s having on a younger generation and hopefully getting them into dance.”

Sugg said taking part in the show has given him the confidence to believe he could have a career in performing, adding: “I went into this in my head thinking ‘Cool, we are going to do this and then go back to doing YouTube’, which is still what I love doing and the reason why I had this opportunity in the first place.

“Going down the stairs the first time and performing on that stage, it is terrifying, but I felt this show has slowly improved my confidence in performing so I think now I’m much more open to the idea of doing this performance-wise.”

The Strictly Come Dancing final is on BBC One at 6.30pm.