Queen Saturday is back after the Christmas Break (and a couple more after that!) but we are bringing interviews from all different pageant queens and finalists! The first interview of 2020 comes from Lyndsay, who is currently a finalist in the Miss Voluptuous Pageants finals that will be happening this October! Read all about her story and platform!
Welcome Lyndsay! Tell us about your pageant journey so far?
I placed Top 10 in Miss Voluptuous UK 2017, which was my first ever pageant and I hope to be successful in my next bid for the title of Miss Voluptuous UK this year. In the lead up to finals, I’ve been working hard on my self-made mental health initiative at my workplace, which is growing across all of our sites in the UK. I hope that this will become an international standard for all countries in my company. I’ve also completed a Firewalk in aid of Children’s Hospice South West and will be completing the Big Bath Sleep Out in March in aid of Julian House. I’m planning many more exciting events and also to help out my sisters with any events that they are completing.
It must be so amazing to return to the system and now see the growth, and the many titles up for grabs! If you were lucky to win the title of Miss Voluptuous England, what would you do with the title?
I plan to do more in my community to improve funding and provision for mental health. Funding for mental health diagnosis and treatment in my county has been cut by 85%, meaning vulnerable people are at risk of serious consequences as they’re not able to get diagnosed, treated and counselled properly. Waiting times are at an all time high, meaning that people are struggling while they wait for even a diagnosis and that needs to change.
We love the future planning! So with Miss V, you introduce a fact about your platform as your introduction. Could you tell us more about your personal platform?
My platform is mental health awareness, so I’m supporting Mind, but I’m also raising more specific awareness for personality disorders as there is still a lot to educate people on in this area of mental health conditions. Personality disorders are a section of mental health disorders that are very difficult to treat. This is because they’re intricately linked to who you are as a person and as such informs your fundamental behaviours, rather than affecting moods, or causing physical symptoms.
I live with Borderline Personality Disorder. This is a condition that affects how intensely I feel emotion, amongst many other things. I feel things much more than other people. Sadness is crushing, happiness is euphoric, anger is devastating. It also affects how my relationships with other people work. For example, Borderlines suffer very badly with abandonment issues, so these feelings can (if not treated) lead to us displaying certain behaviours to either ‘test’ our loved ones to see if they’ll stay (playing up, creating arguments etc) or being far too clingy.
Personality disorders are very hard to treat because there is no medication that can sort out our condition. Of course, medication can help with certain symptoms (a lot of people with personality disorders have other mental health conditions too - I have several). We have to ‘unlearn’ unhealthy behaviours and relearn good behaviours to try and improve our lives. There is no cure for personality disorders, but we can go into ‘symptom remission’ which means that we are no longer displaying unhealthy behaviours and can function well in our daily lives.
This is why I love pageantry as you can learn something new every day! Why did you enter this sparkling world of pageants?
I wanted to enter pageants to gain some self-confidence. The ability to get on a stage and show my personality was something that I really wanted to do for myself. When I started on my journey, I then realised that I could really make a difference in my community and across the country by using the pageant as a platform to raise awareness for projects and areas of life that I’m passionate about. This has now become my main reason for entering pageants as they allow me to champion my platforms on a national stage.
Finally, could you give readers some advice for those looking to compete?
My best piece of advice I could give is to just be yourself. If you are, then your personality will shine through and that’s what people will see. You being unapologetically you. Folks will be able to see if you’re not being yourself and that will not only spoil your engagement and enjoyment of the whole process, but will block you from realising your full potential.
Thank you for speaking to us and a massive good luck for October!
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