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Meet Isla Nelson, Britain's 4-year-old political influencer

Isla in a screenshot with her dad, Mark
Isla in a screenshot with her dad, Mark

When I meet Scottish comedian Mark Nelson, he is exhausted. Doing the school run, as always, there was a morning drama, and his headstrong, four-year-old daughter Isla was at the centre of it.

“I had to tell her off for shouting at her gran,” he sighs, shaking his head. “She was putting away the dishes and Isla was telling her, ‘the cups don’t go in that drawer, they go in the other one’. She was properly yelling at her and I was like, ‘you can’t do that. It’s your gran.’”

There was another issue the day before. “She kicked off about not being able to sit in the front of the car. She kicks off a lot - mostly about stuff she’s not allowed to do. She’s very opinionated; the usual toddler tantrums.”

Isla, however, is no ordinary tot. The four-year-old was last week named one of Scotland’s most inspirational ‘women’ under the age of 30. The ‘comedian and political commentator’, as she is dubbed, was included on the 30 under 30 list, alongside the likes of singer Emeli Sande, actress Katie Leung and Paralympian Kayleigh Haggo.

The recognition came from her starring role in News at 3 (her then-age) - a hugely popular online series she has with her father on BBC Scotland’s Short Stuff. In it, the pair discuss their views on everything from politics to the Kardashians, and have racked up more than 100 million views. Nelson, an award-winning comedian in his own right, is funny, but it is Isla’s adorable and slightly terrifying rants that steal the show.

Typical lines from her include: “All people do is stare at their phones every day. Making people stupid”, “I’m sick of elections” and “Strong and stable, strong and stable, strong and stable. It’s all she [Theresa May] says. This isn’t IKEA.”

Though Nelson writes a loose script for their conversations, he says some of the funniest parts are when an ‘enraged’ Isla goes off-script. Examples include Donald Trump’s hair - “it looks like a dead fox” and Easter - “but bunnies don’t even lay eggs.”

“There’s a lot more improvising now,” says Nelson, who used to have to bribe her with Haribo sweets to join in. “She often tells me, no Dad it’s better if I say this or that way. The other day she said, why is it she can’t have sweets but then when it’s Halloween and we’re trying to get rid of them, we’re making her eat them.”

Her natural flair for comedy has also earnt her Best Actress award at the Scottish Comedy Awards which her father collected on her behalf. “I was really, really hoping she’d win,” he says. “If she hadn’t, I would have had to tell her and deliver that first experience of devastation. Her prize was an engraved whiskey glass. She looked at it and was like, ‘what the hell am I going to do with this?'

They discuss politics at the dinner table, listen to news on the radio during nursery runs, and and Nelson treats his kids more like adults

“She also seems to find that it very funny that she’s won more awards that her dad has,” adds Nelson who is currently touring with his “pithy-but-charming” show Irreverence.

The 36-year-old lives just outside Glasgow with his wife Amy, 32, who works in finance for Scottish Enterprise, and their two children: Isla and Seamus, 2. Her dad says she revels in her big sister role, playing the comedian off camera as well as on.

“She’s learnt to put on voices and accents that make people laugh. Her and her brother have started telling their own jokes. They’re not that funny, because they’re kids, but they know the rhythm of a joke and when to put in the punchline.”

When the father-daughter duo first started their online series, News at Two, Nelson had no idea if Isla would be particularly funny. The idea came about from amusing messages he would write on the wall with magnets during his daughter’s bathtime - from ‘Vote Trump’ to ‘To-do list. 1) play with toys. 2) tidy room. 3) murder Dad.’ They were messages he’d come up with, but they were inspired by her strong-minded attitude, and when he put them on Facebook, the positive reaction he received made him realise there was a market for a toddler discussing politics. One meeting with BBC Scotland later, and it transpired that Isla was a natural.

Some may raise their eyes at parents talking politics to kids, feeling that exposing children to politics at a young age could unfairly influence their views on complex issues. But its not something that concerns Nelson and his wife.

Mark Nelson - Credit:  Trudy Stade
Mark Nelson Credit: Trudy Stade

They discuss politics at the dinner table, listen to news shows on the radio during nursery runs, and and Nelson prefers to treat his kids more like adults, explaining: “You have to allow them to deal with things in their own way. If they need you, they’ll ask for it. But they’re resourceful wee things and can sort stuff out alone.”

His wife fully supports the pair’s comedy, though she is kept in the dark about the content until each episode until it airs online. “She watches it without me, and then texts me what she thinks,” says Nelson. The couple have had to discuss the legitimate concerns of exposing children online.

Isla has been on the internet since she was two, and her videos have been watched by complete strangers hundreds of millions of times. There are obvious safety risks, as well as the fears around what a future Isla embarking on a serious career or relationship may think of her childhood videos being plastered over the internet.

“People have asked me if she’d be embarrassed in the future, but I like to think she wouldn’t,” he says. “We do it is because of how much fun we have doing it so I like to think she’d see it that. I really find it a shame that [the safety issues] have to be considered. But we feel we’re very much in control over what’s used and how.”

It seems ironic that Isla has been airing opinions on the internet for two years but is not allowed to be photographed with her father for this article. However Nelson says that is where the couple’s boundaries lie. “She’s four and I feel that people forget that despite how grown-up and confident she looks on the videos, they’re a very comfortable environment for her.”

News at four | Isla Nelson's best lines
News at four | Isla Nelson's best lines

The pair often receive positive feedback from people coming up to them in the streets - though they both hate compliments and tend to “shuffle away awkwardly” - but the internet is not always so kind. Their videos are not immune to internet trolling, with people occasionally criticising their ‘stupidity’ and ‘staged’ performances.

How does that make him feel?

“It was more tough to deal with at the start,” he says. “I was more worried how Amy would react but she doesn’t care. I’m used to it because of my career, and I’ve been heckled on stage. We’ve grown a thick skin over it because as with most internet trolls, it’s just pathetic.”

Does he ever worry people would say anything to Isla’s face? “I didn’t, but I am now,” he grimaces. “But the kids at school think it’s really cool right now.”

The plan is for them to continue until Isla stops enjoying it, and her “cuteness goes.”

“I know there’s a shelf life to it, and I don’t want it to continue and be less funny,” explains Nelson, who has also decided against Isla’s youner brother Seamus continuing the videos (“I think we’ll find something new for him”). “Isla and I won’t be doing News at 13. Though I could do a 40th anniversary one with her when I’m in a nursing home somewhere.”     

Mark Nelson performs his Solo Show "Irreverence" at London's Soho Theatre 8 - 10 February and at The Stand for the Glasgow International Comedy Festival on 8 & 9 March 2018.