TikTok star and teacher Shabaz Ali: ‘Kids should not be going without food in this country’

Shabaz Ali was working in a hospital morgue when he saw an Instagram advert for getting into teaching. He wanted to do something different and – he speaks candidly – there was a £30,000 bursary and he needed the money.

“So I fell into teaching,” the 30-year-old chemistry teacher from Blackburn remarks, but it wasn’t as though he had finally found his life’s purpose. He hated it initially, made to work alongside an older teacher who apparently disliked children. It wasn’t until he started teaching himself that he felt sure it was the right career path for him.

“When I walked into my own classroom and I had all these kids listening to me, and I realised I didn’t have to be anything other than their teacher, I thought: ‘This is what I’m meant to be doing.’ I love my job. All the teachers told me it’ll wear off, but six years later, I’m still skipping to school everyday.”

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After he has skipped back home, Ali takes on another persona. He is famous on TikTok for his witty takedowns of the outrageously rich and anyone else who flaunts their lifestyle online. It started in lockdown out of boredom, and his account blew up. People resonated. 

Usually wearing a ‘oodie’ (an oversized hoodie-stroke-blanket), and posting from bed, some of Ali’s most popular videos start with the tagline: “In today’s episode of I’m rich, your poor…” He then proceeds to poke fun at the latest influencer urging us to buy a ridiculous item with an eye-watering price tag.

“Anyone that boasts about their lifestyles online gets a slight roasting. It’s never malicious. I’m not attacking anyone. It’s saying to people that you don’t have to be made to feel bad about a lifestyle that’s not the same as yours, because it is just entertainment,” Ali says.

“These people have full production crews. They haven’t just woken up like this. You know Dorothy and the Wizard? It’s literally pulling the curtain and showing that actually there isn’t this grand wizard. It’s literally just a man behind the curtain.”

Shabaz Says now has nearly two million followers on TikTok and just as many on Instagram. It didn’t take the kids at his school long to notice. “Eventually the novelty wore off,” Ali says. “I’m still their teacher. I’m still the one giving them detention and homework.”

He calls himself the King of the #PovvoGang. His content probably isn’t to everyone’s taste, but it is helping people feel less alone, and removing some of the shame around poverty.

“When I grew up, the word ‘povvo’ was used at people. It was used at me. We were from a working class family. I didn’t have brand new pencil cases and bags. People would say: ‘That’s povvo corner.’ I knew that word as a negative. I took a slight spin on it, and now it’s a badge of honour,” Ali says.

“I think the beauty of my content is that there are people in the comment section everyday saying that they can’t afford things, and that’s OK. Other people are saying ‘me too’ and I love that. There’s support and a community out there, and people who are saying: ‘I’m poor as well.’ It’s nice to know that we’re not isolated.”

Of course, it’s not OK that there are 14 million people living in poverty in the UK, but Ali wants to eradicate stigma, while also being part of a movement demanding change. He was recently named an ambassador for Save the Children and is working with them to call for an end to child poverty.

“I was genuinely really honored and overwhelmed by it. Between you and me, I always thought ambassadors were the Queen’s sister the Queen…” Ali says.

“It was always on the news and TV that people from Blackburn and the North weren’t going to amount to much. We don’t have big careers. We don’t have fancy jobs and houses and lifestyles. The age limit for how long we survive is really low. Everything’s run down. 

“But when I grew up, I became so proud of my hometown. I moved back and I won’t move from here. I know where the corner shop is. I know where the ASDA is. Everything is on my doorstep. My friends and family are here. People have my back. I have a community here.” 

Ali is taking part in Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day this year, and running the marathon for them next year, and he’s also raising awareness of child poverty issues on Shabaz Says. 

“I think child poverty has gotten worse,” Ali says, speaking about how much has changed since he was at school. He worries that children in his school cannot access free school meals because of an “unrealistic threshold” (if their parents earn a penny more than £7,400 a year after tax, they are not eligible for free school meals). 

“Christmas is always my worst time of year as a teacher,” he adds. “I know it sounds awful, but it just is. It was bad six years ago when I started teaching. Now it’s even worse. Parents are forced to buy stuff because social media is telling children that they need to have a brand new phone or new jacket. 

“Then there’s parents who can’t afford to who are being pressured to go bankrupt and afford it. There’s children who don’t get it because these parents can’t physically afford it, who will be who are missing out. It’s just such an awful time.”

Christmas Jumper Day is one part of the festive season that Ali loves, however, but he’s not about to encourage parents to go out and buy a spanking new Christmas jumper for their kids. In previous years, he has worn glued tinsel and baubles on an old jumper, an activity he has done with the kids in school too, to ease the pressure on their families.

It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness of child poverty. And Ali will keep on doing that on Shabaz Says, using his platform for good.

“We need to take care of children. I think the government needs to take care of children. Free school meals is a massive one for me. Every child should have access to free school meals. The two-child benefit cap needs to go. We need to lock child benefits,” Ali says, referring to Save the Children’s calls for a ‘child lock’ to ensure child benefits increase by whichever is highest: inflation or earnings.

“I just don’t want kids to go without food in this country. We should not be having that problem. There’s more billionaires than there were ever in the world, and there’s still millions of children starving. There’s got to be something done about that. I would love to see less child poverty, which seems like a pipe dream, but the frustrating thing is we could eradicate child poverty. It’s not beyond our ability.”

Shabaz Says is fundraising for Save the Children here. To take part in Christmas Jumper Day, get together with friends, family, colleagues or classmates, throw on your favourite second-hand sweater on 12 December and donate £2 (or £1 for kids) to Save the Children. Find our more here here. Shabaz will embark on his debut comedy tour I’m Rich, Your Poor in February 2025.

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