She was once a Wiggle, now Emma Watkins is ready for an older audience

Emma Watkins knows a thing or two about setting financial goals. “I remember saving up pocket money to try and have a pet goat, I had a piggy bank that I would put money in,” says Watkins. “Anyway, I never ended up getting a goat – until I was an adult.”

She’s now helping Gen Z achieve their fiscal dreams a little earlier as the new host of Teenage Boss, taking over from mathematics teacher Eddie Woo. The new season is subtitled Next Level as it supersizes its ambitions with an older set of teens aged 15 to 17 years old, who take over the family finances for a month in the hope of tightening the purse strings enough to save for their goals, such as a pair of swish sneakers or an 18th birthday bash.

Emma Watkins, host of Teenage Boss: Next Level, with Jack, who must manage his family’s budget.

The series is more pertinent than ever, as the cost-of-living crisis forces families to look more closely at their budgets. “I was interested to see how this show would frame the ways that families could look at options under financial stresses,” says Watkins. “This show is interesting particularly in the economic situation that we are all in at the moment. It’s very tense times for everybody with market rates changing and jobs.”

Since hanging up her famous yellow skivvy as Emma Wiggle and leaving preschool superstars the Wiggles in 2021, Watkins has had a very busy few years. She launched her children’s character Emma Memma with a focus on sign language and visual communication in 2022, was one of the winners of The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition in 2023 and this year completed her PhD on artistic integrations of sign language, dance and film editing for children’s screen media.

Now with Teenage Boss, she steps out from behind any characters to host completely as herself, while also communicating with an older audience than her usual under-five fan base.

“I’m just excited because it does feel that people have really jumped on board to want to see more facets of Emma,” says Watkins of her post-Wiggles career. “It is a strange situation to have a career unlike any other, where you are only photographed in one outfit for a long time. Even actors or presenters or performers, that doesn’t happen.

Emma Watkins in her former life as the Yellow Wiggle.

“It’s not normal to be photographed like a 1D type of person. I think now people are learning I am a person like everybody else with other interests and hobbies. Even though I’ve had them the whole time, people now are like, ‘Oh yeah, she does do other things.’ Honestly, it’s just been the loveliest couple of years being part of these opportunities that I never could have dreamed of.”

Watkins, who learnt sign language as a child and has researched it for almost a decade, is particularly proud of the fifth episode of Teenage Boss, as it follows footy-loving 15-year-old Lucas.

“Teenage Boss took a big leap as a traditional production company to film an episode with a deaf family that uses sign language as their primary language,” says Watkins. “So one of the episodes is entirely in Auslan, and not with myself having an interpreter, with me being able to sign directly to the family and the team. I’m really excited for people to see that.”

And while audiences have seen her in yellow as a Wiggle and in orange as Emma Memma, for Teenage Boss: Next Level, Watkins is entering her power suit era with a selection of spiffy blazers, albeit with a very Emma twist.

“The wardrobe changed throughout the series,” says Watkins. “It started in a more power suit situation, but then as it went on I realised that, of course, I would wear a headband and a flower in my hair and cute little bee earrings that I had at home. I got to wear a pink suit for one of the episodes and then this really nice orange velvet, I was like, ‘I want this. This is like Emma Memma nighttime.’”

Teenage Boss: Next Level returns on Saturday, October 12, at 7.30pm on ABC Family.

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