Barriers for plus-sized women in the beauty pageant industry have been smashed down thanks to the crowning of Swindon beauty queen.
Hannah Golding, 33, is a mum to her daughter Penelope and has been a proud ambassador for LGBTQ+ and plus-sized people and has used her position as a beauty queen to advocate for them.
She fought off competition from women all over Great Britain to take home the prestigious UK’s National Ms crown after falling short at the same pageant last year.
She is now very excited for the year ahead, with plans to relaunch the yearly ‘Project Code Red collection’ project that she spearheads in collecting items like bedding, sanitary and shower items for Swindon’s homeless. It will be the 6th year doing this for the local charity Threshold.
Hannah and Penelope celebrating the victory
She also wants to show that times have changed and plus-size women, as well as mothers, can win pageants.
“I’m looking forward to representing the whole of the UK, not just Wiltshire, and getting involved in as many local projects as I can,” Hannah said.
I’m excited to continue my talk shows with my pageant platform ‘Use your Pageant Voice’, called ‘The Platform Talks’ as well as ‘Queen Chats’, which is a mental health podcast, as well as ‘The Pageant Mumma Club’, interviewing mums who also compete in pageants”
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UK’s National Miss is one of the newest competitions in the UK and the two-day competition was held at The Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel, in Manchester starting on Friday July 1.
Holly Pirrie, director of UK’s National Miss, said: “I am ecstatic for Hannah she worked so hard to win the crown. Hannah is a beautiful girl, inside and out. We know she will be a fantastic ambassador of the Pageant Girl UK organisation and she’ll have an exciting year in store as our new UK’s National Ms!”
Along with the crown and national title, Hannah also won a variety of other prizes including a hotel stay, dress vouchers and a floral bouquet
Hannah added: “I will always remember the words from my first finalist pack in 2010 saying about the sash, ‘you can either leave the sash on the shelf and let it gather dust, or you can get out there and make a difference.’
“The crown is nothing without the queen who is holding it, and this crown will be my megaphone to use my pageant voice!”
