Leah is one of the funniest little girls I’ve come across. From a shy little girl, to someone so sassy and confident – Leah never fails to put a smile on my face!
What is your favourite colour? Pink! It’s sparkly.
Who is your favourite Disney Princess? Belle and Ariel. They’ve got glittery dresses.
What’s your favourite song by JoJo? Boomerang and Kid in a Candy Store.
What is your favourite animal? Horses and unicorns.
What do you want to be when you’re older? A pageant queen!
What have you been doing throughout your year as Mini Miss Diamond Dorset? Raising money for charity. I did a charity pageant. And I done a tombola! Theprizes were all on the living room floor. We filled the living room floor up! We couldn’t even walk anywhere.
What is your favourite thing about pageants? That every time I go to a pageant I get to play with my friends.
What has been your favourite appearance? The IJM Finals where I got to watch Macey. We also got McDonalds after!
What is your favourite round to compete in? Fashion. I get to wear my purple outfit. I can also swish my train.
What advice do you have for someone that wants to do pageants but might be a bit scared? Do it because it’s lots of fun!
Ellie-Mae is an incredible girl, with so much potential in the pageant world. She is hard working and passionate! I had so much fun talking to her.
How did your pageant journey begin? So my sister originally started them, and I kind of went along with them to kind of see how they worked. I was immediately hooked! I wanted to be part of the action!
Was your first pageant a charity pageant? My first pageant was a glitz pageant.
What have pageants taught you? They’ve taught me that your confidence isn’t defined by other people, and you have to define it by yourself.
What have you been doing throughout your year as Miss Teen Diamond Dorset? I have been trying to raise awareness for invisible disabilities. My worst thing is when people say you don’t look like a pageant girl, but it’s so broad. No two pageant girls are the same. What even is a pageant girl that you’ve based your opinion on to then say I don’t look like that? Something similar is when people say I don’t look like I have a disability, just because you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
So tell me a little bit more about your disability and why you raise awareness for invisible disabilities? I have cerebral palsy which means that the signals from the nerves to the brain are delayed. It takes me longer to do something than the average person. It causes muscle pains, stiffness, but to look at me you can’t see it, unless I’m having a severely bad day.
Who is your pageant inspiration? I’m inspired by everyone I meet through pageants because everyone has their own individual story that inspires you in some way. If I had to pick someone, it would be Lucy Rayner who is the current Teen queen, I just like how she, like where she goes you can’t help but smile when she’s in the room. She’s amazing that her personality can light up a room.
What is your platform, or do you support a certain charity? I like to support Scope which is the official charity for cerebra palsy, as well as PrematureBabies because that helps my sister to boost her campaign, I think that again, she isn’t fitting the stereotype. You wouldn’t think she was born premature, so we are both campaigning in the same way.
What has been your favourite appearance? I think.. I love all appearances for different reasons, but I think my favourite would be the one I did at my school where I did a cake sale, it was for the Diamond charities.I got to show the other side of me at school, and it was like bringing pageantry to school and raising awareness for amazing charities whilst doing my GCSEs and managing everything else. People ask3 how I manage to do it, and it’s just about finding a balance between your hobby and your education.
What is your favourite round to compete in? I think my favourite round is interview. I can tell my story and explain that I have fought for my platform and I have worked hard to build what I believe in. It also gives me a chance to talk about how important invisible disabilities are and how they are shown in society. People no longer have to say they have an invisible disability, it’s just part of society, we are here.
Have you got any advice for somebody that wants to do a pageant but is too scared? I would say don’t listen to the haters. If it’s something you really want to do you will find the motivation in yourself to persevere and push through all your fears. If you’d of told me two years ago I just wouldn’t believe that this is where I would be, in this position.
Today I am talking to a Hollie Rose! Hollie is an inspirational pageant queen to me, and you will get to learn more about her in this blog post!
What is your title?Hello! My names Hollie Rose and I am the current Miss Diamond Curve Hampshire.
How did you begin your pageant journey? It was not long after I turned 18, I was looking back at all my photos from my first night out and I felt so ashamed of my body and how I looked! I wanted to know how it felt to truly be comfortable in who you are and how you look. I had suffered for so long with how I looked and I constantly felt that I wasn’t good enough. I sat and had breakfast with my mum and she was telling me how she always said how she wished, when I was younger, she had got me into more after school clubs and dance so that maybe I would have more confidence in myself. To which I then said find me a pageant that’s good for plus size women, she did and I entered and I had 6 weeks to prepare! I didn’t know what an appearance was, or what the heck to do but I went on stage in 2017 in my first pageant and I haven’t looked back since!
What have pageants taught you? Pageants have taught me my worth and how powerful it is to be a woman. They’ve also taught me to be a better person, I’ve changed so much from the person I was to the person I am now, and it’s so refreshing to know that each and every day I am growing in the best way possible. Pageants have also taught me sisterhood, I always struggled making friends being a bigger girl, but I now have people in my life that I wouldn’t even know how to cope without and for that I am truly grateful!
What have you been doing throughout your time as Miss Diamond Curve Hampshire? I have been apart of the Diamond system since September 2019 and I’ve been working mainly on my social media. For me I think social media is so important in helping raise awareness! At the same time of competing, I have also been working in my career which has unfortunately limited how much I have been able to get out and about, but this is why I invest as much time as I can into making sure I’m taking part and supporting as many people as I can! But all the while I have been working on my career I can now say that I will be qualified as a medical professional working with the NHS as a 111 call handler and on call nurse!
Who is your pageant inspiration? Who do you look up to? This is a bit of a different one for me, because I chose my younger self as my inspiration to be the role model I always wanted growing up. I never had anyone that I related to, and I think if I had, then maybe I wouldn’t have suffered so badly with my mental health. As a 14 year oldI hated who I was and how I looked, which makes me so incredibly sad! And to think there may be girls that feel that way, pushes me to make sure I am that role model and I can be that inspiration to those girls and say that, if I can change who I was and become a strong minded and powerful plus size woman, then they can too. I think it’s really important to be that inspiration you would have wanted as a child.
What is your platform, or do you have a charity that you support? Throughout my whole pageant journey I have supported 2 charities throughout which is my local charity Rowan’s Hospice and the Dog’s Trust. I support many other charities by donation every month as I think all charities deserve donations, but I like to support local with Rowan’s Hospice as they care for and look after so many people in my area including friends families, so it means a lot that if I can support them in any way, then I will.
What has been your favourite appearance?My favourite appearance, although it hasn’t happened within the time I have had my current title, was being able to share my journey with my mum on BBC One’s Inside Out. They followed our journey in 2018 about how it feels to be plus size and competing in pageants! Not only that but they got to film over a years worth of our lives and I got to share that with the one person who means the world, my mum, who made it all the more special.
What is your favourite round to compete in? Interview is my favourite round a thousand percent. I love wearing amazing outfits and giving 100% sass, who doesn’t? But sitting down and being able to share a part of me to the judges to me is the best. It gives them a chance to get to know you before seeing you on stage and I think that’s so important. So many people fear interviews, but for me I have so much in my life I am proud of and it’s amazing to share and show how far I’ve come!
What advice would you give to someone that wants to enter a pageant, but is too scared to? My advice would be to send in your application. Regardless of how you feel just send it because it could be the best thing you ever did. If you had asked me that in 4 years time I would have walked on a stage 3 times in swimwear, learn how to walk in heels properly and actually wear dresses I would have laughed. But here I am, the little sasspot that I’ve learned to love and cherish (although typing this in a dressing gown) I have learned to love the balance of being a tomboy and also loving pretty dresses and heels. They’ve changed my life and who I am for the better and it scares me now to think of what my life would be like without it.
Sasha Star is our Junior Miss Diamond UK 2019 and it brings me great pleasure to interview Sasha, talking all things Diamond, her pageant journey and what she got up to in Las Vegas at the Regency International Pageant!
How did you begin your pageant journey?Well, my sister entered me in pageants when I was 10 years old, I was very confident, to be fair I was really bad on stage, very nervous. Since that first pageant I just fell in love with pageants from the start.
How many pageants have you competed in?Oh my god, ermmmm, I’ve competed in two title pageants.
What have pageants taught you? You’re obviously still quite young so what have you learnt from competing?Pageants have taught me friendshipand confidence. It’s like a whole new world. It’s like when you say you’re quitting and then you’re like omg I’m addicted to pageants now. You just goaround in circles like wanting to enter them.
Obviously we have spoken about your title, what have you been doing as Junior Miss Diamond UK?I’ve been doing lots of appearances, going to charity events, supporting people. It’s just been super amazing talking to everyone.
The winners of Miss Diamond UK go to Las Vegas to compete at the Regency International Pageant. How was it? What did you get up to?It was super amazing! I loved Vegas, it was super hot there, it feels like your skins super burning, wewent to a lot of food places like Denny’s, we went to so many I can’t even name them all! I went out with Alysha, my mums friend, we went to visit Vegas, I’ve forgot what the places are called but there was the ocean and stuff, it was super nice and the Red Rocks we visited, and it was so nice that the Diamond family went on a helicopter that was super amazing, at first you’re really nervous and you feel like you have those butterflies in your tummy, but like it was phenomenal.
Who is your pageant inspiration?Well, there’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, I look up to RuPaul because all the outfits and stuff and how he’s built up his platform within his Drag Race is just super amazing and just so inspirational with how he looks and what he does on his actual show. I’m obsessed with it!
What has been your favourite appearance?My favourite appearance… oh my god is have so many I have to go through my head! My favourite appearance was Galaxy because all the girls were super nice there and you could talk to anyone, you could just approach them and you could to talk everyone. Like youcould have a 10 minute chat and you could go on for hours.
What is your platform, or is there a certain charity that you fundraise for?I have #Embrace campaign which is an anti bullying campaign. It supports girls that are going through bullying, which I have been going through in the past. It’s to help them build their confidence and to say don’t listen to them, you are better than them and they are just jealous.
What’s your favourite round to compete in?Fashion! You get to show your whole outfit that you’ve made, and the style, and you get to have lots of sass in it. I love my fashion and my style and I have a certain style so I put a certain sass to it because it has to have a certain sass in each fashion.
And finally… Do you have any advice for people who are wanting to start up pageants but may be too scared?I’d start in a charity pageant because the first ever pageant you go for is so much nerves there. Sometimes you don’t understand pageants and the fashion, like my first ever pageant I wore clothing that I would wear if I was going to another child’s party, I didn’t wear an actual hi-lo or anything! When you go for a title you can design it and pick an outfit and find what is your style. Have so much sass on stage and be confident, and have fun! The main thing is be yourself on stage. Be yourself, make friends. It’s all about sisterhood in pageants.
Pageant Diaries with Georgia 