I work on spreadsheets by day and transform to beauty queen by night
Meet the unlikely beauty queen from Blackpool who spends her days tackling spreadsheets...and says she was once scared to talk to people.
In a short video, Jodie Rose Smith, 20, shares her incredible journey of being scouted to compete in a beauty pageant - and being crowned Ms Philippines Great Britain 2024.
Jodie had never seriously thought she could be a beauty queen - until she was approached while out shopping last year. She said: “I was flattered. There were so many stunning girls around, and I couldn’t believe they were asking me out of everyone.”
The accounting and finance student says she’s the kind of girl who likes to lounge around in joggers, and doesn’t always do her make up. She added: “My friends say you’d never have guessed. From getting all my spreadsheets out and writing all these numbers in, to at the weekend putting on a ballgown and having my hair in an up-do. The pageant world is an escape.”
Jodie, whose mum is originally from the Philippines, thinks that pageants are a good confidence boost - and that her journey has taught her valuable life skills.
The shy student recalls how she ‘couldn’t speak to people’ before she took up her new glamorous hobby. But, during the Ms Philippines GB competition, she was ‘thrown in the deep end’ - being given a microphone, and asked a random question which she had to answer on the spot. She added: “I was so nervous. But I feel like because I did it, and did it well, it’s given me a reason to say why am I not just speaking when I want to speak? I’ve got a voice, why can’t I use it?”
Watch the video above.