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In this page will cover how to win a beauty pageant, the pro’s and cons of beauty competition/pageant modeling for female models and male models. Hot news on how to get into the industry and how to enter!

Beauty Competitions

Beauty pageants have been running for probably longer than fashion modeling and come in many forms. There are teen beauty pageants, baby beauty pageants, online beauty pageants and at the highest level, the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Beauty competitions started as small beauty competitions for garden fates and local community events. However, they have grown to a regional, national and now international scale. There are literally hundreds of beauty competitions some more prestigious than others. The main ones in the UK include Miss England and Miss Great Britain which are run by separate organizations. These can lead to international pageants including Miss World and Miss Universe. In the US Miss USA and Miss America are the top beauty competitions. In the US the prizes are the most generous and cash prizes can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It must be noted that there is still some criticism of beauty competitions from some quarters. Feminists groups have complained that they are sexist and promote an image of a woman as a commodity that is solely rewarded for her beauty. Others feel that the common ’swim wear’ section is outdated and unnecessary. With regard to both of these arguments I can see their points - parading around in a bikini isn’t much fun at the best of times! However, increasingly there are men’s beauty competitions, which depending on your position could show that the balance between the sexes is evening or that men are becoming an increasingly marketable commodity as women have for years!

Beauty pageant tips & secrets

Anyway, once you have got over deciding if you can get over any moral obligations to enter a beauty competition you can get on with it and read beauty pageant tips & secrets. Many people see beauty competitions as a way to springboard their careers…

and there are many examples of where it has worked. At the top of the pile Sharon Stone, Jodie Foster and many others began their careers with model competitions. On a different level but still an impressive one are Liliani and Jackie Turner, both UK glamour models are former Miss Great Britain and Miss England respectively. There are countless other examples of models, actresses, TV presenters or general celebrities that were once beauty queen’s or wannabe beauty queens. Being in beauty competitions can give a young model exposure and confidence. Also, the label of ‘Miss .. whatever’ can create an interest that a new face alone cannot get. At the very least an entrant can most probably get local newspaper coverage. This can hence lead to regional including local tv news which can be good press. If the competition is national then the newspapers including the tabloids may do a feature and there are also female magazines. All of this can be fantastic experience and can help to build up your book and contacts within the industry.

However, no matter how much interest from aspiring beauty queens, not forgetting the keen eye of ‘Jo Public’, the ‘fashion’ industry are often keen to keep their distance. Even beautiful girls that have been hugely successful on what has developed into a circuit of competitions will struggle to be taken seriously by a fashion model agency. In fact, I would say a title could go so far as to damage a young models potential. Hence the likelihood of a beauty competition entrant ending up in the ‘glamour modeling’ section of the industry - see our page on this for more details. Often, it is the only area of modeling that will have an interest in such a girl which some may consider to be odd?

Beauty pageant tips

Nevertheless, beauty pageants can have enormous benefits. Many girls use it as a way of meeting new people, traveling across the country or even the world and the potential to receive great prizes. Some entrants constantly enter for different titles which can keep them busy across the year - almost like a job?!

Beauty pageants do not ‘pay’ specifically but many require your presence for a number of days and some even for weeks. Therefore, most will provide accommodation (often to a high level) and cover all of your costs. Due diligence is of course a high priority as I have heard of some mild horror stories especially with regard to overseas competitions whereby girls are kept for weeks for endless rehearsals and unpaid PR for competition sponsors. Obviously, it is your job to do all the specific research before you get involved with anything! Sometimes dodgy competitions are organized as a means to just get free models so make sure you get out what you want to and don’t get taken advantage of.

It is difficult to say there if there is one best way to perform in a beauty pageant if you want to win as they are all so different and therefore look for different things. Above all though some traits seem to be highly regarded. Confidence is essential, and a keen interest in meeting other people from all types of backgrounds. Big smiles and a happy disposition are also vital. The level of looks that is required differs enormously, some preferring more ‘girl next door’ looks than ‘model types’. Also, the judging can consider so called ‘intelligence’ however, in my experience this is more to pacify opponents rather than actually to raise the IQ rating of entrants. In the Miss England competition they claim that this is a huge part of their judging. However, it is more than a rumor that one year they were so busy teaching odd routines for the girls ‘Exercise Section’ (a thinly veiled replacement for the swim wear section of yesteryear) that they ‘forgot’ to do the interview with the judges! It is also interesting that in a line up including those with Doctorates, Phd’s and those that were successful young business women, a fitness instructor won the competition? No disrespect to fitness instructors but it was an interesting choice which can give us valuable insight into what is valued by beauty competition judges!