Jemma Pixie Hixon has become the latest young singer to shoot to stardom through YouTube, however despite her huge success she has said that she has not left the house in the past two years due to her agoraphobia.
According to the Daily Mail newspaper Jemma Pixie Hixon has been using her recordings of songs as a means of connecting with the outside world as she is unable to leave the house herself.
The 20 year old singer from Malvern in Worcestershire has become a huge hit in China and Japan where she has received more than two million hits on her recordings through the video sharing site YouTube while last month one of her videos achieved the most viewed status in China.
Jemma Pixie Hixon told the Daily Mail: “For the past two years I have been struggling with agoraphobia. I used to perform all the time and I really wanted a way I could continue. I decided to put my songs up on YouTube so I could share them with lots of people, even though I am still housebound.”
She has been no stranger to singing success in the past as when she was 13 years old she won a competition to perform on The Saturday Show with the Sugababes, however more recently she has found herself unable to leave her parents home.
“It's a strange thing because I know logically I have nothing to worry about walking out of the house but it's a completely different thing when I actually try to do it,” she said.
She added: “It is weird to think that there are people in China and Japan with my poster on their wall and songs on their iPods while I haven't left the house for two years.”