WANNABE celeb Chris Bailey is hoping for his big break — as a Joey Essex lookalike.

The 18-year-old part-time model said he got the idea after being repeatedly mobbed by fans of the reality TV personality on nights out.

And Chris, from Little Lever, will be able to see for himself how much he actually looks like Joey when the pair come face-to-face on Thursday.

The meeting has been arranged by Chris’s photographer Harry Moore, who has previously worked with the star of The Only Way Is Essex.

Chris, who works at the Card Factory store in Bolton town centre, said: “I’m really looking forward to meeting Joey, it’s all very exciting.”

He added: “When I go out, people crowd around and start jumping all over me thinking I’m Joey Essex, and I have to keep telling them I’m not. That’s what gave me the idea to send a photo to my photographer and see what he thought. He agreed there was a resemblance there.

“I would get a fair bit of attention when I was at work too, people saying I look like I should be a model. I love it really, it’s all good publicity.

“I do see myself as lucky. It’s not like there’s a massive demand for this sort of thing, but there aren’t many people who can do it – it’s just a lottery of what you’re born with.”

Chris is pencilled in to appear at an event at the Tiger Tiger bar in Manchester alongside the casts of Coronation Street and Geordie Shore, where he could catch the eye of modelling scouts.

Photographer Harry reckons he resembles both Joey and fellow TOWIE star Mark Wright.

He said: “He’s a natural – he could easily go on to be a catalogue model or even go into acting as a soap star. We worked with Nicki Minaj in Manchester last year and she had a double posing for her who the fans went crazy for, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Chris ends up doing something similar.”

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