BBC Breakfast’s Steph McGovern, who grew up in Middlesbrough, is swapping the global economy for smaller sums, hosting CBBC’s new Pocket Money Pitch. She talks to Keeley Bolger

As a familiar face on BBC Breakfast, business and economic presenter Steph McGovern is mindful of ensuring she looks, and remains, relatable to those waking up to her show.

“I think we’re genuinely like our audience on BBC Breakfast,” explains the 33-year-old broadcaster, who used to present business news on Chris Evans’ Drivetime show on Radio 2. “My parents and my friends would kick off if I suddenly turned into a prima donna TV presenter, so I wouldn’t want to change.”

Despite having worked as a financial journalist for more than a decade, covering, among other things, the global recession for the Today programme, she has been on the receiving end of some negative comments in the past about her Teesside accent, as well as her looks. But when she was sent a few messages about her weight, McGovern took it all in her trademark stride.

“It wasn’t people being nasty,” she says with a laugh. “I was a bit podgy and had a bit of a pot belly stomach, and I was like, ‘Oh God, I need to go to the gym’.”

She says being conscious of how you look on telly is “part and parcel” of the job. “I’m never going to be the gorgeous, glamorous one,” she says casually. “I’m lucky in that, when I’m out and about on TV, I’m in hard hats and high-vis, and actually, that’s what I like the most. Don’t get me wrong, I like to look nice; I like to wear make-up, I dye my hair. I’m not really stressed about my weight.”

A former Irish dancing champion, McGovern was born in North Tyneside and raised in Middlesbrough, and studied science communication and policy at University College London, winning the title of Young Engineer for Britain aged 19, thanks to a design she created for Black & Decker.

Clearly the die was cast early when it came to business acumen, too.

“I was always looking for ways to make money as a child,” admits McGovern, who is also friends off-screen with her Breakfast colleagues Carol Kirkwood and Sally Nugent, even going on holidays with them.

“My friend’s brother was Sean Maguire and was in EastEnders, so I used to sell his autograph to my mates at school too. I ran a jumble sale at the end of my next door neighbour’s drive. I used to rummage through her garage, looking for anything that I thought people might buy.

“I’d then set up a table and try to sell what I could to the people walking by. Whatever money I made, I split with my neighbour.”

With a healthy bank of work, there’s no need for flogging stickers on the sly these days – but she’s passionate about encouraging kids to realise their potential, which comes in handy for her latest gig, hosting new CBBC series Pocket Money Pitch.

Over ten episodes, the programme will see a string of budding young entrepreneurs – both individuals and teams – aged between 8-14, vie for a year’s worth of pocket money to invest in their idea. Each episode will be grouped into themes, including food and fashion, with the winning pitch securing the help of an industry guru to kick-start their business, and the final episode showing what happened next.

Gurus include food entrepreneur Levi Roots, and Myleene Klass, who shares her expertise in fashion.

“I was blown away by the ideas because they were just so original,” McGovern reveals. “They were so well thought through and professional. They thought about every element. They hadn’t just said, ‘I really want to sell something’; they thought about the name, the branding, the drawings, the marketing, and that was really impressive. It felt like they were well ahead of their years.”

And McGovern, who made her first TV appearance when she cropped up to discuss women in science aged 19, is keen to make business integral to education.

“Business leaders regularly complain that young people don’t leave school with the right skills,” she says. “Encouraging young people to be entrepreneurs makes the connection between school and the world of work, teaching them about practical thinking, team work, communication and financial literacy. This is vital if we are to fill the skills gap and get the economy moving more.”

Much as McGovern, who lives in Salford near the BBC Breakfast studio, is immersed in the heavy world of business, she admits she opts for lighter entertainment on long journeys for work. “I’ve got this terrible habit of watching things that are really sad,” she says. “So I’ll be sat on the train watching Call the Midwife and I’ll be crying, and you can see people looking at me going, ‘What’s happening?’ Whether she’s blubbing or not, she regularly attracts attention when she’s out and about. Not that she minds in the slightest.

“I think for me, with my accent and being a Northerner, they might think I’m going to be friendlier than the rest of them, so people come up to me quite a lot,” McGovern ponders. “They go, ‘You’re the Northern one aren’t you?’ and I go, ‘Exactly, the Northern one’. I love it, because it’s nice that people remember where you’re from, and it gives you a bit of an identity.”

Pocket Money Pitch begins on CBBC on Monday, February 8.