Beckii Cruel

Cruel Angels

In October 2009, Flint was announced as a member of Cruel Angels, At the time of the announcement, Cruel Angels consisted of Flint, 18-year-old college student Sarah Cruel from Lyons, and 16-year-old Gemma Cruel from Portsmouth. In September 2010, Flint confirmed on Formspring that she withdrew from Cruel Angels and Cruel Angels Project, citing a disagreement with her management in being promoted as a member of Cruel Angels instead of a soloist.

2011–2013: Independent music career

In 2011, Flint's parents pulled her out of her contract with Life Is So Cruel. She announced her departure from the agency on August 6, 2011 through a Nico Nico Douga live stream. Some of the reasons that she cited for her retirement from the idol industry included unfair contracts and because she had no interest in relocating to Japan. on digital platforms, which she also performed at MCM Expo on 29–30 October of the same year. It was produced by Tom Nichols and charted at no. 8 on the Music Week Dance Charts. In 2012, Flint performed at Hyper Japan and Brighton Japan Festival and Matsuri.

In May 2012, Flint and her friend Camille Cora produced their own idol group, Oishii! Ichigo, which consisted of international YouTubers making song-and-dance covers of J-pop songs. In the same month, Flint and Cora also produced the idol group Oishii! Mini Cherries, grouping them as the musical collective Oishii! Project. On 15 August 2013, Flint released "Future Fantasy", her first Japanese song in 3 years. In addition, she filmed and posted a self-made documentary titled Beckii Cruel: Independent Idol on her YouTube channel detailing her experience working on the song. She said she had been inspired to focus on both Japanese and Western fashion trends based on her experience being styled for photo shoots during her idol career in Japan, particularly being in a Liz Lisa shop. Since 2014, she has made appearances at Summer in the City. On 28 September 2014, she made a guest appearance at Moshi Moshi Nippon Festival 2014 as a model.

On 17 May 2015, Flint collaborated with artist Jeremy Boydell to release the clothing line "Bcky × SlimGiltSoul". She appeared as a guest at Bandai Namco's panel at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show. In May 2016, Flint became a reporter for the television program NHK World Kawaii International on NHK World. In the same month, she said through an interview with BuzzFeed Japan that she was no longer active in Japan, nor is she producing content in Japanese, due to her lack of fluency in the language. In December 2017, she gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications for their inquiry into the advertising industry.

Flint acted as a judge for the Social Media Marketing Awards in 2018 and 2019, as well as for the Influencer Marketing Awards in 2021. In March 2019, Flint co-founded Pepper Studio, an influencer marketing agency in London. Moneybox Live, The Today Programme, and The World Tonight. She has spoken at events including Social Day and Digital Woman.

In 2021, Flint was a recipient of Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe: Media & Marketing and appeared on the "How to earn a living on social media" episode of The Media Show on BBC News and BBC Radio 4.

Public image

In Japan, Flint became an example of a net idol

Discography

Singles As lead artist Year Title Peak chart positions Album JP UK 2010 "Just Wanna Have Some Fun" — — 84 — 2011 "You Can't Kiss Me" — — 2013 "Future Fantasy" — — "—" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.

As featured artist Year Title Peak chart positions Album UK UKIndie UKBreakers This is Beckii Cruel 2010Released: 9 December 2009 Label: Tokuma Japan Communications Formats: DVD 54 — "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region.

Television

Publications Photobooks Year Title Publisher ISBN 2010 Wani Books

Textbooks Year Title Publisher ISBN 2010 ASCII Media Works 2010 ASCII Media Works