A Guide To Pageant Questions

Hi, I'm Liz Fuller, I'm the new boss at Miss Great Britain, and a previous winner from 1997. And for the last 13 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.

Beauty pageant questions, this is probably the area that a beauty queen dreads most. This is when you feel that you're going to be grilled by the judges. And in a sense you are.

When you come to a regional heat you'll probably face a judging panel of around about 3 to 5 judges. And with Miss Great Britain you will have 5 minutes at our heat where you are pre-interviewed. Now, these will tend to be quite basic questions to start off with.

So, for instance, why you entered this regional heat, what you've done previously, what you currently do for a living, and what you like to do in your past time. Because we like to build up that picture of you and we will always ask why you want to be Miss Great Britain. Now, the judges will go on to slightly harder questions like; what makes you a good role model? We always like that one.

We also will choose; if you were a judge, what qualities would you be looking for in a contestant? Quite a tricky one, right? So have that one prepared. Don't rehearse your answers too much. We get girls that come and it sounds like you've said exactly the same thing to another heat in another competition.

And we don't like that. So, we want you to laugh and be natural. Other questions I personally like to ask, I like to ask things that get you thinking outside the box.

So I'll ask things, variations, things like: If you were an animal, what would you be and why? If you were a chocolate bar, what would you be and why? If you were a superhero, or a comic hero, who would you be and why? So, let's take the first one, the animal one, what we need to do with that, if you say dog and cat; very boring. If you say dog, I'm going to think; she's very loyal, but she's the everyday norm, which is what a dog is. If you say cat, I'm going to think; she doesn't like working as a team member and she's a bit too independent, and does what she pleases, maybe a bit selfish.

That's what I think of. What I would like you to do with that question is come up with something a little bit different. So we have answers like an alligator, or an iguana where you just think; what? And it will make me sit up on my seat and go explain that to me.

So, I know you have a brain because you've thought about it and you've come out with some elaborate answer. Chocolate bar exactly the same, superhero a bit the same. One girl did say to us this year was superhero she would like to be dressed up in a furry outfit.

And we kind of didn't get, she was talking about going to a party dressed up as one. That's not what I asked in the question. So really do listen to the question and only answer the question.

Not what you think is there, because lots of you do that. Other questions, if you do politics, we may ask you: Who's the prime minister? Who's the Chancellor of Exchequer? Do have a good general knowledge please. Because lots of you turn up and don't have knowledge of what's going on in the newspapers.

So there's lots of questions to throw you, but if you read the newspapers, you know who you are, you're quite funny, you're engaging, and intelligent we will get that out of you. So just listen and answer what we ask you only. Okay? Good Luck. .