The UK’s Royal Family is enjoying somewhat of a boom in popularity right now. Thanks largely to the wonderful wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, people can’t seem to get enough of the royals. And of course heading up the whole lot of them is the long-serving and still amazingly active Queen Elizabeth II.
At 92, Liz is the longest serving British monarch but doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down. Now, we may all have seen what she’s been up to over the past couple of decades, but it’s often forgotten the incredibly life she had when she was younger.
Here are 9 amazing things the Queen did before she was 30…
A waxwork made of her at Madame Tussaud’s
It might not be too surprising that the Queen had a waxwork installed at Madame Tussaud’s before she was 30, but it might do to learn that she was only actually two years old at the time! Princess Elizabeth as she was at the time would go on to have several more waxworks at the famous museum over the years.
Appeared on the cover of Time magazine
We know how much US President Donald Trump loves Time magazine and how obsessed he wasn’t and then he was about appearing on the cover, but QE2 graced the cover a long time ago, back when she was just three years old. At an age when most of us are more concerned with flinging food across the room or drawing on the walls, Elizabeth was a magazine cover star – although most of us aren’t princes and princesses, granted.
Became a homeowner
Being a homeowner by the time you’re thirty is something many can only dream of these days. In fact, owning a home at all is something a lot of us can only dream of. However, Princess Elizabeth managed it at the age of SIX! In all fairness, they’re not short of cash and it was actually gift from the people of Wales, so didn’t even have a mortgage to pay off.
Photographed giving a Nazi salute
A bit of a controversial one, this. When she was seven years old, she, along with some other family members, were pictured performing a Nazi salute. This was in the years leading up to the Second World War and was apparently in a mocking gesture of Adolf Hitler, but that didn’t stop news outlets, who published them in 2015, from jumping all over it.
Made a radio address during the war
At 14, the Princess made a radio address to the children of the Commonwealth, many of whom had been evacuated at the start of WWII. Say what you like about the Royals, that’s a hell of a thing to do at such a young age.
Watch it below:
Became a mechanic
Yep, that’s right – the Queen is a fully trained mechanic. When she was 18, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a mechanic to aid the war effort. This is when she learned to drive, despite being the only person in the UK allowed to drive without a driving licence!
Became the Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth Realms
It was at the age of 27 that Elizabeth officially become Queen of the UK and the Commonwealth. Not a bad career path to take, although not sure she really had a choice. That she’s now 92 and still going strong is pretty impressive!
Queen Elizabeth II had an amazing life before and since she was 30 – you can find out what she was doing when she was your age with this tool from Country & Stable.