Tulisa Contostavlos - Tulisa Contostavlos Writes Novel

The N-Dubz star was raised on a tough housing estate in north London but beat the odds to find chart success with the hip-hop trio before signing up as a judge on Simon Cowell's hit British TV show The X Factor.

And she's using her own story as inspiration for her next project - a novel about a girl from a poor background who finds stardom in showbusiness.

Contostavlos tells Britain's You magazine, "I've been writing a book. This isn't me just trying to milk it (cash in), for once, trust me! This is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid.

"When I was younger the one thing I was good at was writing stories... So I'd love to take my experience from the council estate and show what that world is like. I'm fully involved in the writing. I've storyboarded the whole thing, done a good few pages."