READ Behindthe sashLast year Miss Universe’s judges were all female. Miss World has done away with the swimsuit round. But has anything else really changed in the world of beauty pageants? SALMA HAIDRANI entered to find out › Photographs BEN RIGGOTT COSMOPOLITAN · 99 READ y ankles feel close to buckling. They’re strapped into five- inch, diamante-encrusted heels, and are barely visible underneath my floor-length sequin dress. I’m hovering at the top of a set of stairs, leading to a stage. I feel as though I’m surrounded by butterflies; a cluster of women resplendent in coordinating, shimmering jewel tones, their delicate bodies quivering as they await their turn. One of them wrings her hands and cricks her neck to the left, and then to the right. But they must keep waiting. Until I’ve had my turn. A microphone is thrust into my hand. I place my other on my hip, take a shaky step out into the spotlight. I am here to win Miss World. Three months previously, my parents competitions haven’t been televised competitor in a wheelchair. But is were staring at me, goggle-eyed over on the main channels since 2001. this just a hastily applied plaster, a Sunday roast, their forks suspended Yet, recently, there’s been a bit of shoved on in order to remain relevant in mid-air. “But, but… you have a buzz around pageants again. Last in modern times? There was only a degree,” spluttered my mum. I’d year, 20,000 women signed up to one way to find out. just broken the news to them that enter Miss England – the highest I have been accepted to compete in the number of applications received since Miss London heats, the first step (on the ’80s. Why? Well, the contests, have, THE EASY ROUTE? a long road) to becoming Miss World they say, changed. They’re trying to If you want to add “beauty queen” (prize money: $100,000). It could be, appeal to smart, forward-thinking to your CV there are several ways to I tell them, life-changing. But they women, like you and I. Organisers go about it. The ultimate goal for any remain unconvinced. I can’t blame say the “empowered” women who circuit pro is to compete in a top-tier them. Becoming a beauty queen is no compete should see pageants as a pageant, such as Miss World (where longer the lofty, aspirational career platform to advance their careers or over 100 countries choose just one choice it was in the ’60s. Back then highlight philanthropic causes close woman to represent them in battle). pageants were televised to millions and to their hearts. Take Carina Tyrrell, Before reaching that point, however, made instant celebrities Miss England 2014, a doctor, there are many more titles to be won out of the women who who used her reign to raise – at both local and mid-tier levels, entered them, offering awareness of the prevention with most wannabe beauty queens many a chance to escape “There’s a of infectious diseases. Or law repeatedly entering a mix of them. their quiet hometowns. student Sara Iftekhar, who last The biggest crown up for grabs in the Then, slowly, they slipped buzz around year became the first Muslim UK is, arguably, Miss England, which out of fashion. There were, pageants woman to compete for Miss leads to the month-long Miss World of course, the protests (at England wearing a hijab. competition. Before attempting to Miss World 1970, held in again” Even Miss World has ditched win it, you must first compete in the Royal Albert Hall, the infamous bikini round regional qualifying heats (women can the Women’s Liberation (which included reading enter any, regardless of whether or Movement chucked flour out each contestant’s “vital not they’re from that particular area). bombs at those entering), but also, statistics” on stage). “Beauty comes Next up: the semi-finals. Conquer as is the way of many things that from within,” says Angie Beasley, Miss those and you’re off to the Miss grip the nation, we simply got a bit England’s national director, who I’ve England final. Complicated, right? bored. Unlike in China and South chased down for an interview. “We I’ve nabbed myself a spot at the Miss America (where they’re still huge look for an all-rounder and we don’t London heat, where there are three Salma Haidrani events), ask any twentysomething have a size requirement.” She also catwalk-led rounds: Little Black Dress practises her best in the UK and they’d struggle to confirms less able-bodied participants (self-explanatory), Eco (something “ecstatic winner” face FLOWERBX.COM. ROSES, NEW LOOK. EARRINGS AND NECKLACE, TOPSHOP. PREVIOUS SPREAD: DRESS, OWN STYLIST’S NICHOLS. TIARA, HARVEY AT MATTOX AIDAN THIS SPREAD: DRESS, name a single beauty queen. The are welcome and references one old, borrowed or recycled – I choose › COSMOPOLITAN · 101 READ a pink mermaid dress of my mum’s – one did a bungee jump, skydive and a fashion-PR assistant, explains she’s eco round, with its Plastic Ocean from the ’80s), and Evening Dress three half-marathons, raising almost here because she wants to challenge theme. Most have designed their (I have one shipped from Dubai). £20,000, another struggled, scraping stereotypes. “The public perception of own outfits – one is fashioned from There’s not much guidance in the together £600 by running raffles), or Asian women is that we’re submissive bin liners and plastic straws. email I receive two weeks after I could try my luck at Miss Popularity. and don’t speak out. I’d like to No matter how much effort you applying, telling me I’ve made it This is where “fans” – read: friends encourage others to step out of their put into your outfit for the judges, through to the heat, but I commit and family – vote for me via text or comfort zone,” she says, strapping on though, Amelia Perrin – Miss GB to a thorough grooming regime on social media. I give it a go, but a shimmering heel. Chloe Shannon South East 2015 – believes it’s the including false nails, eyelashes and with a smaller Instagram following Brookes, 20, an hourglass redhead sponsors you really need to impress. a full-body wax. My bank balance than most, I can’t muster the votes. who has already been crowned She fell into pageants accidentally feels the hit of a couple of hundred Off to the heats I go. Miss Grantham, says, “I hate my when an organiser, also a friend, had pounds, but Zoiey Smale, 29, a appearance and wanted to prove to a late drop-out. After winning her former Miss England competitor and myself that I can look as good as the heat, sponsored by a weight-loss Miss Oxfordshire winner, says I’ve SHOW TIME other girls, who are often smaller brand, Amelia was interviewed got off lightly. “During my decade The spring sunlight glitters as I stroll sizes. I’m a size 14.” Some of the Miss and asked, “What did you eat in of competing, I regularly met women briskly from the Tube station to a London competitors are curvy, but preparation for this?” “I answered who spent thousands – one told nightclub in east London, where the no one is notably plus size. honestly, not aware of the unwritten me her competition evening dress heats are being held. Below ground, As I watch from the darkness off- subtexts, and said, ‘I had a kebab for cost more than her wedding dress.” my eyes struggle to adjust to the stage, the message “All bodies are dinner.’ They cut the interview.” Many wannabe beauty queens are gloom. The hum of Red Bull beautiful” doesn’t appear to have It’s a sentiment that Zoiey increasingly opting for “tweakments” penetrates my nostrils. Weaving my reached the judges. When one echoes. “During international too, such as fillers, permanent way through rogue stilettos strewn competitor, who’s slightly curvier competitions, we’d have incredible make-up and teeth whitening, haphazardly across the floor, I join than the others, parades down the three-course dinners, all of which alongside extreme dieting. “Some my fellow competitors “backstage”: catwalk in a figure-hugging dress, the rich older businessmen who’d survived on meal-replacement a cramped room, where everyone the room falls silent. This could just sponsored the pageant also attended. shakes,” says Zoiey. The cost of is chatting between racks of be my imagination – Angie Beasley We were basically all treated like entering depends on the scale of sparkly dresses. The vibe is one of insists sizes don’t come into play, and escorts,” she explains. “I never the pageant, too. There’s no fee for camaraderie, united over grumbles that they’ve previously had a size-16 experienced sexual harassment Miss England, but for top-tier that there are no mirrors provided. contestant finish second – but Zoiey myself, but it’d be naive to think competitions, like Miss Universe, One particularly distressed contestant tells me that in her experience of it doesn’t happen.” Sadly, Jaime each hopeful is expected to calls her parents, who then international pageants, she’d often see Yvonne VandenBerg, Miss Earth shell out $3,000 (or find a drive over with a full-length the curvier contestants positioned at Canada 2018, does have first-hand sponsor to do so for her). one. I make do with the back of the stage. A size 10 herself, experience. She tells me she left During the underarm “Smile… plastering on my make-up Zoiey says she was once instructed to the month-long Miss Earth finals wax, I grit my teeth and tell in a grotty toilet with lose weight by the organisers of an in the Philippines when one of the myself it’s worth it.