Tuesday 27 November 2012

Miss BBW 2012

Earlier this month I was invited to be a blog reporter for a plus size beauty event called Miss BBW 2012. The event was the final of a plus sized International beauty pageant, and celebrated the notion that big can be beautiful too. I was excited to be invited and jumped at the chance to celebrate curvy women and share it with all my lovely blog readers. :-)




The organisers say:


"Miss BBW International is a groundbreaking plus size beauty pageant open to big, beautiful women throughout the world.



Miss BBW International is a competition where plus size women and their admirers can come together to celebrate the beauty of size in a non judgemental environment and show that some of us do actually appreciate our curves! Most importantly, we show that we are comfortable in our own skin and not intimidated by the continuous pressure from the media to fit into a certain size label to be deemed acceptable in society. We proudly recognise that a great many plus size women do hold down high powered jobs and lead perfectly normal and happy lives. Not everyone wants to be a size zero and we are here to prove that there is life after a size 18!



Larger women are often rejected by other beauty pageants and we are here to change the perception of the world; which is that you can only be beautiful if you are slim. We need to let the world know that it is possible to be plus size, intelligent, and beautiful.



We at Miss BBW International do not encourage obesity, we purely provide a platform for the plus size women of the world to showcase their beauty on the catwalk that has previously been reserved for our slimmer sisters!"



Being a plus size lady myself I think its vital that we understand that just because you're a bigger lady, it doesn't mean that you can't be 'beautiful', or don't deserve to be beautiful. I have worn size 20, 18 and after my more recent slimming a size 16, and have battled a long time with body issues, food and eating disorders, and have travelled a lengthy journey to achieve a healthier body image. So it was refreshing to be a present at such a ground-breaking event.

I truly applaud all of the contestants for being confident enough to show off their curves with pride, and it was lovely to see how well most of the women dressed. The pageant showcased casual clothing, swimwear, and finally the beautiful dresses pageant-stylie! The girls were asked why they wanted to be crowned Miss BBW 2012, and talked about their own journeys of self-acceptance and confidence in their own skins. 


The Finalists in their swimwear. Image from 'The Sun' newspaper.  

The audience were treated to performances from the awesome plus-size Diva Dolls, four beautiful singers from Ireland who had bags of talent as well as bags of style! There was also a funny comedian called Junior Simpson, who coincidentally was from Bedfordshire (my neck of the woods), and gave us in the audience a lot of laughs! The whole event was hosted by the lovely Alison Hammond, (from Big Brother and presenter on ITV's This Morning). Alison is known for being honest, upfront and celebratory of her plus size figure, so she was the perfect woman for the job! Her lively and bubbly personality shone through and she really put the girls nerves at ease when interviewing them on stage. 


Alison Hammond - Copyright BECCABARRMANAGEMENT

The pageant judges had a tough job on their hands, but they eventually crowned the lovely Gemma Cruickshank as Miss BBW 2012, and a worthy winner she was. She was elegant throughout the pageant, she showed her body-confidence and spoke earnestly about her own struggles with her body-image over the years. I'm sure she'll be a fantastic ambassador for Miss BBW, and hope she helps to encourage more plus-size women to embrace their curves and celebrate their beauty, no matter what clothes size you wear. 


Gemma Cruickshank, Miss BBW 2012

The 19 finalists! 

My only criticism of the pageant, would be that as a plus-sized woman myself, I would have liked to have come away from the event feeling truly inspired by the outfits the women wore, and with a nice list of shops, stockists, designers or online stores who provide beautiful plus size fashion. This didn't happen. 

I did think some of the women didn't dress in an overly inspiring way, and some of the outfits did not encourage me to flaunt my curves, but instead made we wince a little! I must say that some of the contestants were dressed beautifully but I felt like the organisers didn't concentrate as much on what the contestants wore as perhaps they should have done. Maybe this was down to budget? Or maybe they need in future to secure some big clothing sponsors so we, the audience can see where the clothes are from and where we can buy the items for ourselves. 

I did however meet an inspiring plus-size clothing designer in the audience at the event called Syreeta Badu. She had designed and made a dress worn by one of the organisers of Miss BBW which I absolutely adored. Emma Walker who wore the dress is a plus size lady herself and looked absolutely breathtaking in the dress. I believe it should be designers and clothing lines like this one who should be on board with Miss BBW, and provide future outfits for these plus size beauties. 

C for Chickah dress by Syreeta Badu, very flattering dress, this picture doesn't do it justice! 

It is time to break down boundaries and promote plus size women as beautiful too, and I'm well and truly on this band wagon! Size 16 is the UK's average clothes size, and we need to 'get real' in the media and promote healthier images for young people to aspire to. Yes, being obese isn't 'healthy', but neither is being an underweight size '0'. We need to find some middle-ground, and personally I'd like to see the media full of curvy size  12, 14, 16, 18 women, instead of being inundated with unrealistic body images. Miss BBW is leading the way, and with some ironed out creases will continue to be a wonderful platform for plus size women around the world. 

And please watch the documentary filmed at Miss BBW 2012 'PLUS SIZE BEAUTY PAGEANT' - on TOMORROW Wednesday 28th November on BBC3 at 9pm.