A young woman from the UK has just been crowned Miss London 2023 in the first-ever makeup-free Miss England pageant.
Natasha Beresford took home the crown without having to wear a lick of makeup.
The 26-year-old wore a stunning white lace gown from Shikoba Bride, a sustainable wedding dress brand, as she beat 18 other women who were also competing for the title. She is set to compete for the coveted Miss England crown later this year.
“I am thrilled to have been selected as Miss London,” she told the Daily Mail. “All the girls that competed are so beautiful and truly inspirational, so it was an honor to be chosen.”
According to the Miss England website, contestants are not being judged on their dolled-up looks but, rather, their “occupations and studies” as well as their “natural beauty” and “ethical values.”
Beresford is originally from the North of England but moved down to London to start a role at the Royal London Dental Hospital. The young pageant queen has been working in the hospital’s Project Tooth Fairy department, which focuses on caring for young children.
Though, she’s also volunteered her time to worthy causes, having traveled to Uganda to help a charity named Dentaid that provides dental care for people who have survived abuse, refugees, and people experiencing homelessness. Her kind acts helped almost 1,500 people.
As of now, Beresford is committed to her job at a private practice, but has plans to continue her volunteer and charity work. “I find my job really rewarding, over the years I have worked in NHS, Private and Urgent Care dental practices,” she said via the Miss England website.
The Miss England competition is a part of the larger Miss World competition, and is strictly makeup-free.
In 2022 Melisa Raouf became Miss England 2022. In the competition’s 94 years, she was the first contestant to win sans makeup as, even though the barefaced competition was introduced in 2019, Raouf was the first contestant to go makeup-free for the semi-finals.
The 20-year-old Londoner chose to compete without cosmetics because she wanted to prove to younger girls that they don’t need to succumb to societal beauty ideals. “I think people should love and embrace their flaws and blemishes, as we know real beauty lies within simplicity,” she said, via The National News.
“I never felt I met beauty standards. I have recently accepted that I am beautiful in my own skin and that’s why I decided to compete with no makeup,” she added.
This is such an amazing story, and it’s definitely an inspiration! No one should feel pressured to look a certain way… Even if society tells us we need to!
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