“Academic Barbie” Katie Lloyd has described how students at Cardiff Metropolitan University often mistake her for a fresher before discovering that she is their lecturer.
The 27-year-old, from Bromyard in Herefordshire, received a PhD in marketing and strategy in March and now teaches fashion marketing. She said her age and glamorous appearance can lead people to question her expertise.
Miss Lloyd, who also works part-time as a bridal model, completed four years of study while maintaining her trademark manicured nails and bouncy blow-dried hair. She hopes her career will encourage more women to consider academia and challenge assumptions about how lecturers should look.
“There is a bit of a stereotype that you have to be older and that to be an expert you need age behind you,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to push those boundaries.”
Miss Lloyd said fashion is sometimes dismissed as a “fluffy” subject, while her appearance can reinforce assumptions that she is not an academic.
“When you say the word ‘fashion’, immediately people think it’s a fluffy subject,” she said. “I might look like a young girl that’s blonde and give that stereotypical ‘Elle Woods’ look.
“But when I stand up, people all of a sudden listen and realise I know my stuff and it [fashion] is a really interesting topic.”
She said she was regularly mistaken for a student, particularly at the start of a new term, when people asked whether she needed help or knew where she was going.
“I love fashion, make-up and getting glam – even if it’s for my 9am lecture,” she said. “It’s great that I’m there owning how I want to look and my own personality comes across in how I dress and do my make-up and my identity.”
Miss Lloyd graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University with a first-class degree in fashion marketing management in 2020. She went on to achieve a distinction in digital marketing and data management in 2022, while also working as a personal stylist on social media.
That year, she began a full-time PhD scholarship alongside her work as a bridal model and university lecturer. Her research examined how social media influencers deal with online hate, and included interviews with stars of Love Island and Married at First Sight.
She described being told she had passed her PhD as “one of the proudest moments” of her life.
“When I was told I had passed and was now a doctor, it was quite a surreal moment,” she said. “I was so proud of myself. It was one true moment in my life where I knew I deserved this and I had worked hard for it.”
Miss Lloyd now hopes to establish her own influencer agency, drawing on the research completed during her doctorate. She is also urging women to pursue academic careers and said diversity was important in intellectual spaces.
“I’m not going to change how I look for my job role, I love expressing myself,” she said. “I’ve had a couple of people compare me to Elle Woods as I have a little sausage dog too.
“I also get Barbie and in my bio on social media, I have myself as ‘academic Barbie’.”
She added: “As a woman in research it’s hard to have your voice heard but being able to push the boundaries and navigate this, it’s so important to be done.
“I’m one of those people that will keep knocking on those doors until I’m heard.”
