A young woman has told how she cured her fear of embarrassment and rejection by deliberately forcing herself into hundreds of extremely awkward situations.

Sophie Jones, 23, has placed herself into over 500 embarrassing positions all of which she says have helped her take back control of her life.

These include include:

* Doing her food shop in a wedding dress

* Going to to the gym in a cow costume

* Wearing a monobrow for a day

* Walking around outside wearing bright green face paint...

Sophie has also asked a stranger if she could take a pizza out of their shopping trolley and wished an entire jet full of passengers a happy holiday.

She started the challenge last year after reading about the idea of 'rejection therapy.'

This helps desensitise people to the fear of rejection by exposing yourself to rejection situations regularly - which she noticed she suffered from after a messy break-up.

Now Sophie says she is feeling as "confident as ever" and also believes she is a "completely new person"."

Sophie said: "At the time I was just so scared of being embarrassed - a year on I now see the world as a playground."

"I knew I was suffering as just thinking about the idea of rejection would make my skin crawl. "

"I noticed it was affecting me that much that I wasn't being the authentic me at my then job or in relationships."

"The challenge has made me realise that felling embarrassed is a choice - we are so much braver than we think."

Sophie started posting videos of her facing her biggest fear on social media in early May 2024 after a breakup left her with low self-esteem.

This was also when she noticed she was holding herself back at her job as a social media manager dreading she would be dismissed for her every action.

She said: "I wouldn't pitch ideas in meeting, I wouldn't start conversations."

"I wouldn't even give a compliment if I thought someone was dressed nicely as I was just so afraid of the response."

It began with a 30-day challenge where she decided put herself in positions she was likely to encounter rejection and embarrassment to tackle her issue head on.

Sophie came up with ideas for the challenge herself alongside searching on social media for similar challenges others have done.

In that time, she asked a Domino's employee if she could make her own pizza, took a crimpled shirt to Curry's and asked to borrow an iron it in store.

She even asked a stranger if she could fill up their car with petrol for them.

Sophie said: "Looking back it still makes me cringe but I'm not a shamed of it - it was all part of the process."

"There were several turning points during those 30 days which I had to tackle head on."

"During that time noticed little changes."

"The videos I was making pushed myself out my comfort zone and they made me anxious."

"By the end even though everyone was looking at me I wasn't bothered - it felt really freeing not caring."

After completing the 30-day challenge Sophie decided to continue posting similar content.

The social media star has revealed that a huge turning point for her was when she decided to crawl on her hands and knees around Liverpool city centre.

It was so anxiety-inducing for her that she was nervous to continue the challenge the following day.

Sophie said: "I had a group of girls walk over to me, take a video and laugh in my face pretty much."

"It was humiliating as that had never happened to me before but I continued on."

"Afterwards I realised I'm still here, I'm safe, and that it happened."

"It was scary but pushing through that fear is what ultimately built up my resistance even further."

Sophie says the support she has received throughout tackling her fear has been overwhelming.

The TikToker said: "If people choose to comment on my posts 'saying they don't like me' I don't mind."

"I like 'me' and I know that my content is inspiring the right people through the countless other reactions."

A year on Sophie still posts embarrassing videos on a daily basis - so she can continually train her "fear of rejection muscle"."

She said: "The more I do the challenges the more I realise it is something I have to train."

"I can now manage myself in situations that I would have run away from before."

"The whole thing has reprogrammed my brain - I've realised it's never as bad as you think it will be, and the world will keep turning."

"Before, every single day I used to hold myself back in some way - now I think what is the worst that can happen."