Becoming a Beauty Queen: Stepping Inside the World of the Miss Great Britain Beauty Pageant
Words: Bea Tate | Photos: Rose Downs
Make it stand out
The sun is starting to set over the Thames, and in the conference room of a four star hotel in west London, two girls stand face to face, their manicured hands intertwined. An adoring audience watches on, utterly entranced by the two figures in sparkling ballgowns at the centre. Whilst to the majority of England, July 2026 was a chance at reclaiming the title of World Cup winners, for a group of 28 young women, there is another competition that takes precedence on the calendar. For one of these girls might soon be crowned Miss Great Britain.
Thinking back to past depictions of beauty pageants —Toddlers and Tiaras, and the mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous — the whole institution of beauty pageants appears outwardly as something of a joke. But there is a whole subculture of girls in the UK who spend their weekends practicing their walks, and how to pose for judges, all in the hopes of becoming the next Miss Great Britain. To them, this is no joke. To them, this is deadly serious.
Looking at the Miss Great Britain girls online — their bouncy blow outs, sky-high heels, and the tears of joy at being crowned with such a title — I knew I wanted to learn more about them, and what the competition meant to them. There was only one way to find out. Before applying, I was hesitant to tell people of my idea, fearing they wouldn’t understand why I was giving this decades old institution — -to many people synonymous with the patriarchy and sexist ideals — the time of day. Yet to engage in any real criticism of the event, I thought, I had to walk the runway myself; Seeing such strong revulsion at the mention of beauty pageants only made me more determined to see what I was missing. ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
First, a written application, then an interview with the regional director, Kirsty, the lady at the centre of it all. With long red hair that reminds me of Lindsay Lohan, Kirsty is certainly the most glamorous 57 year old I have ever met. My interview proved successful, and after apprehensively paying the £300 entry fee, I was officially a finalist. A red sash arrived for me in the post to confirm it.Part of me felt that anyone willing to pay would get chosen, but I pushed the thought aside, choosing to believe that no, Kirsty really had seen something in me.
I needed to write a short bio for my revealon the Miss Great Britain London Instagram page. I was scared; this was going to be the first imp
ression I made in Pageantland. I decided my causewould be a passion for sustainability and animal rights, and decided I would centre the fashion aspects of the competition around a passion for second hand clothing. I was uncertain of what I wanted my thingto be, but felt true to myself voicing my passion for sustainability. I forwarded the photo and paragraph and in an hour’s time it was there on Instagram for all the world to see, soundtracked to the song Golden from K-Pop: Demon Hunters.
I scrolled down, looking at the other finalists. I felt a little overwhelmed by the competition. I was immediately transported back to sixth form, looking over personal statements before sending them off to UCAS. Where was everyone finding the time for all these extracurriculars, these charity bake sales?
The reigning Miss Great Britain titleholder, Alice Cutler, is a qualified lawyer. Not only that, but she is the founder of Time to Grieve, a national campaign fighting for a legal right to paid bereavement leave, a cause close to her heart after losing her dad to cancer, and later, her mum to a drug driver. The reigning Miss London, the title I was fighting for, Chanel, is a law student, grew up as a carer for her elderly father, and volunteers at St Luke’s Hospice. Maybe it felt a little strange that they were giving their best smize to the camera whilst talking about their charity work, but it couldn’t be denied that these girls were doing great things.
Before the event, a masterclass is held to meet with everyone, take some headshots in our gowns and do some catwalk coaching, soundtracked to Sabrina Carpenter, and, of course, the whir of a wind machine blowing our hair. Heels on, we practice strutting down the red carpet, posing before turning with a sultry look over the shoulder. I nearly make it all the way to the other side of the room before I stumble and have to reach out to the wall for support.
Exhausted from such a long day, we finish by gathering in a circle to partake in a visualisation session. Five years prior, aged 52, Kirsty was crowned Ms Great Britain Classic, the category for women over 45. She told us she wanted so badly to take the crown home that she would routinely take a moment to practice the Law of Attraction to visualise herself winning the title: she would close her eyes, picturing herself standing centre-stage as the judges prepared to hand over the crown.
“And the winner is…”, she would imagine them saying into a microphone, and then she would shout her name out loud and react in the same way she would just a few weeks later: gasp, hands on mouth, wipe away a tear, hug the runner up, etc. For her, it worked.
We then heard from Chanel, who, at 5’2, looked like she might topple under the weight of her Miss London crown. She demonstrated to us her Miss London wave: fingers pushed tightly together, with a slight curve, and rotating the wrist ever so slightly. She told us how she practiced her wave in the mirror, morning and night, promising to herself that should she win, this would be her wave. She choked up, and tears began to fall from her huge, kohl-lined eyes.
Then, it was our turn. After the drumroll, after we all burst out of her seats, shouting our own names, everyone turning to look at one another. Awkward giggles. For all the compliments paid to one another, all the times we heard “you look so beautiful in that dress, you're bound to win,” “no you are,” there really could only be one winner.
ROUND ONE: LITTLE BLACK DRESS
And so the event begins. It’s not a big space. The audience totals maybe 60 people, but the energy is high. Backstage, we’re a gaggle of girls high on adrenaline, helping zip up dresses, borrowing scissors and safety pins. Much like a real-life version of Dress to Impress, I find myself silently judging the outfits of the girls as they walk on to the stage, eager to ask where the dresses are from of the girls I think look best. I hear the word ‘Shein’ a lot, reminding me who these girls are. Fundamentally, we are working class women who in everyday life haven’t an opportunity to put on a floor length gown and glittering heels. There are certainly no charity galas or debutante balls on the calendar, and yet the girlish desire to step outside your everyday casuals remains strong.
PAGEANT TIP #1 - Spray hairspray on the bottom of your heels to make walking easier
ROUND TWO: SWIMWEAR
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the beauty pageant. Yet, talking backstage, I find it is the round the girls most seem to be looking forward to. I’m in a blue one-piece with a deep v-neck, following the rule of no thongs (“We’re classy here at Miss GB,” Kirsty tells us).
My nerves are exemplified as I watch the girl ahead of me: eyes like laser beams on the judges, shoulders shimmying with every step. Then, a flick of the shawl coverup she had on, before ripping it off completely as she throws it into the audience. It surprises no one when she later wins Best in Swimwear, a round which is judged on “confidence” and “self-love,” as per the score sheet.
PAGEANT TIP #2 - the easiest way to avoid a VPL? Going commando
ROUND THREE: EVENINGWEAR
The last time I wore a dress like this, it was my Year 11 prom. It felt out of character to be so glammed up, and I was shocked by how vain and self-obsessed I had become. I could not stop looking in the mirror, and couldn’t help but imagine myself wearing a dress like this to somewhere like the Oscars.
Researching for this piece, I realised I recognised the girl who now held the title of Miss Plymouth. We used to dance together, and for a few years, we’d spend every Saturday morning in the dance school changing rooms, stretching out our legs and chatting as we tried to ignore the awkwardness of new boobs in a skin-tight leotard. My memories of her were as a relatively shy girl. Both her and I were back-of-the-barre students, never the type to volunteer ourselves up to demonstrate a combination.
And yet, here she was, walking down a runway in a bikini, smiling like she’d never had a bad day in her life. I needed to know how she got to this place, and how I could do it, too. Kirsty had told me a story about how her parents had beamed with pride at seeing their daughter in her evening gown. I asked why. After all, what had she done that was so hard, put on a dress? But there was more to it than that: “When you spend your whole life feeling so insecure, dealing with issues of not feeling beautiful in your own body, when you think that you might not make it to your eighteenth birthday, I think that it is something to be proud of. To stand confidently on a stage, and say that I feel beautiful.”
PAGEANT TIP #3 - Vaseline on your teeth will help keep you smiling
THE RESULTS
With all rounds finished, it was time for the judges to make a decision. I was amused to find that even Pageantland has its version of a Simon Cowell, with multiple of the girls noting how they feared the judge at the end of the panel. We all lined up on stage. It was time to announce the Top 10. Then the Top 5. And then the winner. Even though I had gone into this experience ‘undercover’ and with no expectations, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed I hadn’t placed. But then, I was also not shocked when the winner was announced: the girl I had been secretly betting on the entire time.
Watching Chanel hand over the crown to Talia, Miss London 2026, I felt genuinely moved. Talia closed the evening with a speech to the audience, sharing her story of living with a skin condition, chronic urticaria, which has been a source of struggle for her for years. When asked what becoming Miss London meant to her, she said it’s about “Not just having a title, but using it to make sure that no one living with a skin condition ever has to feel as alone as I did.” Pure elation on her face, there was no doubt that she did look beautiful.
As the rest of the girls ran in for a group hug, I thought back to my initial judgments of the pageant industry. With pageants not being televised since the 80s, the true nature of what happens at one of these events was completely unknown to me. Truthfully, I had gone into this with the expectation of the writeup being far more critical, but stepping out of my gown and heading on to the Central Line, I couldn’t deny that I had had fun. I had also been wrong, because I had learnt that things had in fact changed since the time of ranking women on their measurements. Beauty pageants today, at least this one, was about proudly being the best version of yourself, and viewing beauty in self improvement.
As I sat on the crowded train, dressed down in my jeans and trainers, I wondered if the people around me could tell that just an hour earlier, I had been something of a beauty queen.
