A Guide To Beauty Pageant Secrets

Hi, I'm Liz Fuller. I'm the new boss at Miss Great Britain and a previous winner from 1997, and for the last thirteen years, I've been working as a TV presenter and producer at ITV and Channel 5. Today though, I'm going to be giving you advice on the beauty pageant world.

So, beauty pageant secrets – well, it's quite a lot that I can help you with here. When you come to a regional heat and you meet the judges for the first time, think about this. Lots of you would never shake hands with the judges to say hello and I don't understand why.

If you met anybody, in real life, you'd offer your hand, right? And shake it. I think lots of you don't do this because you maybe a little bit insecure or a bit nervous so you don't know what's expected of you. Be strong, be confident, be secure and be yourself and say, “Hi, I'm Liz.

It's really nice to meet you.” If your name's Liz, doesn't matter. And so, that's one little secret I would give you.

Another secret is really don't lie on your form. Don't say you're studying politics of you speak Welsh when you don't because the judges may know that information and they're going to go with what you've written in your form. Other little secret is do make sure you know what the questions are that you're going to be asked.

You can always take a pageant organizer's side and say, “Hey, can you just give me some sort of guidelines on what the judges are going to ask?” Just take the time to know so there's always going to be those questions, why do you want to win? What qualities do you think we're looking for? What's a good role model? What would you do for charity if you win Miss Great Britain? There are certain questions you know are going to be asked. Make sure you're prepared. Other little secret, of course, is to be nice backstage.

A lot of you have diva moments. A lot of you starts liking other girls off and I will tell you every time on the judging panel, we don't know which girl we like after prejudging. Maybe there are two or three girls that stood out.

I will always go to my chaperone or my pageant coach backstage and I will ask for her opinion. So, please be nice to everybody. Now, another little secret I can let you in on, I am always impressed by the girl that takes the microphone off the presenter, holds it herself, answers the question, looks at every single judge in the eye while she does and then hands the microphone back.

It makes me think you're media-ready, you know how to answer a question, you're calm and collected onstage, so that's always a very good one. Other things when you're onstage is if you're in the line-up but it's another girl walking down to the front of the stage, me personally, I will watch the girls standing at the back of the stage because I want to see if you're fidgeting, I want to see if you put another girl off, I want to see if you're talking to other girls, I want to see if you're a bit of a troublemaker and I'll work that out very fast about you. So, the secret is whenever you're around the judge, they could be looking at you and taking everything on board.

There are lots of secrets to give you. In America, they use things like Vaseline on the teeth, hairspray on the legs and there are loads of little things that you can google and search, but just be yourself. Be natural, be honest, be very smiley, you have to walk down the stage like you own it but make sure you smile, girls, because lots of you don't and that's what shows the beautiful character inside as well as – well, you should already be beautiful on the outside because you've prepared for that already and you naturally are.

So, girls, lots of secrets but good luck anyway and I'm sure you'll do well if you're just yourself. .