Hollyoaks actress Ruby O'Donnell daunted by pregnancy storyline

The soap star is a year younger than her 15-year-old soap character, who has just found out she is 10 weeks pregnant, after sleeping with boyfriend Tom Cunningham (Ellis Hollins) for the first time.

Ruby told Digital Spy: “Some of the scenes have been hard to tackle because I am still quite young and I’ve had to do a lot of research for them. I am younger than Peri, as she is just turning 15 and I’m only 14 myself. So I’ve done the research to help with my performances and to find out how teenagers actually do react in these situations.”

She added: “When I was first told about the story, I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect, but then I had a lot of meetings about it with the show’s executive producer Bryan Kirkwood, the storyliners and the other producers. They explained it to me and made me feel a lot more comfortable about it. Now I’ve got into it, I’m very excited about the storyline and I’m really enjoying doing it.”

Hollyoaks is promoting safe sex throughout its 20th anniversary year, and Ruby admitted it is a big responsibility to be given such an important storyline.

She said: “Obviously Peri is very shocked about it and very emotional. She only slept with Tom once, so it’s not something that she ever expected to happen, even though once is all it takes!

“It’s a big responsibility to have been given this storyline, because obviously a lot of girls at Peri’s age are doing the kinds of things that Peri and Tom have done together. We’re producing some online content to support the storyline, which will help to raise awareness of the issues we’re dealing with. The storyline hopefully shows girls out there that other people go through this, they’re not alone and there are people who will support them.”