5 reasons why you should enter Miss Hampshire 2015, as told by Miss Southampton 2014 and 1st RU Miss Hampshire 2014.

1. Confidence
Gaining confidence is one of the biggest rewards of entering a Miss England regional competition. Whether it’s confidence in public speaking, walking on stage, during an interview or just mixing with new people, a pageant can really assist in building self-belief in yourself. I’ve entered Miss Hampshire three times, and each year I participated, I grew as a person and gained more confidence, and therefore enthusiasm, for the competition. And as confidence grows, you’ll progress further in competitions, so it’s worth getting involved.

2. Friendship
This is my favourite takeaway from participating in Miss England and Miss Hampshire. I’ve qualified twice and stayed in touch with a number of incredible girls from all over the country, and we try and meet up as much as possible. It really is a unique journey that you share together, and a once (or twice) in a lifetime experience that you’ll treasure, so it is vital to be surrounded by great pageant sisters.

Pageants are not bitchy. Everyone is in the same boat, and I’ll let you in on a little secret; if, and it’s a big if, there are girls that are competing for the wrong reasons, or don’t have that ‘pageant sisterhood’ in mind, the judges can spot it quite easily.

3. Opportunities
The Miss Hampshire competition can open a number of doors not just for winners but for all entrants. And with so many rounds, you can show off so many aspects of who you are, not just beauty!

I didn’t even win Hampshire, yet as a tightly scored runner up, I was given the opportunity to compete in the Miss England semi-finals; which is held a month or so before the grand final. The semi-finals is where a number of runner ups, award winners and smaller heat winners compete for a small number of grand final spots. I was lucky enough out of 80 other young women to make the top 10 and gain a finals spot, which was incredible.

Since then I’ve worked on a number of modelling assignments and performed bellydancing in front a live audience.

Also, think about all the skills you could gain from competing, including confidence. This really transfers into your everyday life; for example, I’m so much more confident in job interviews now. If I can stand on stage and talk about myself, I sure can do it in a closed office space!

4. Charity & community work
This is another big opportunity, and a massive part of Miss Hampshire and Miss England. Each year the competition raises funds for the official Miss World charitable organisation, ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ (BWAP), and they want to hear about all the amazing ways contestants can raise funds. It’s not just about how much you raise, but the effort and energy you put in. My proudest moment to date was not getting into the finals of Miss England, but it was actually running a ten mile road race with only a matter of weeks of training for BWAP. This is because it was something I thought I could never ever do, and I am so proud of finishing the race and raising lots of money for charity.

There’s also a number of ways you can raise awareness of local charities, events and organisations. Having a title as a competitor of Miss Hampshire is a big deal and people are going to want you to appear to help their cause. Get involved and into the spirit; the more people you help, the more people will know about how great Miss Hampshire and Miss England is!

5. Fun
Okay, I’ll be honest, there’s also a selfish reason to get involved; pageants are fun. You get to make new friends while looking a million bucks, wear fabulous dresses and prance around like a catwalk queen. You might even get to meet Miss England, and Mr England as well ;) so there’s tons of reasons to enter. It’s basically like a really intense and rewarding girls night out. The best bit is all getting ready together and having a drama over false eyelashes or blisters.  Although for me I did really enjoy sharing the stage with the Mr World finalists in Torquay this year (Mr World was held at the same venue as Miss England in 2014 a night before).

Are you convinced? My next post will focus on the newly introduced intelligence test, and how smart some of this year’s Miss England contestants were, as well as featuring some of Hampshire’s brainiest beauties so far.