Children's Express gains an audience with Miss Northern Ireland, but doesn't get at all what it expects.
| If you look enough you’ll find something beautiful about everybody. |
Miss Northern Ireland Gayle Williamson today justified why she and the other contestants in the Miss World competition travelled to Nigeria for an ill-fated competition last year.
The Co Armagh beauty found herself in the media limelight after trouble in the strife-torn African country led to the competition being abandoned and later re-staged in London.
“Northern Ireland is known as sort of a country in trouble and fighting, you know, bombs and war, and as you know yourself I’s nothing like what you see on the news,” she said.
“It only makes headline news in July when the trouble goes on in Portadown which is eight miles from where I live. So I thought it was fair to give Nigeria a chance. I wanted to go out and visit it.”
“I’ve learnt so much from visiting a third world country…it really makes you think about what you’ve got and appreciate everything.”
It was easy to be nervous about interviewing a beauty queen, but meeting shatters all preconceptions. Gayle Williamson is polite and charming as well as beautiful, with both feet planted firmly on the ground.
She was born and raised in Dollingstown, near Lurgan, where most of her friends and family still live.
“I had a good childhood,” she said. “I was well looked after as I’m an only child and I got that wee bit extra from my family.”
So does she think that being an only child effected her growing up?
“I don’t think so... the other kids in my class, they had three sisters or two brothers and sometimes I would have liked a brother or sister. But now, the way it’s worked out, I’m happy enough.”
Her relationship with her mother is very close: “She’s like a best friend rather than a mum. She along with my dad, are the biggest part of my life.”
Their shared support has continued despite their own separation.
“I was quite young when my parents separated so, I was brought up not to know any different… I think it would be a lot harder if it were to happen now or when I was 18 or 19.”
So what about her career in modelling - does she intend to take it further?
“Well now that I’ve got a taste for it I’m really enjoying it, … you get to meet a lot of new people, new faces and I would like to take it further if possible.”
The beauty industry is not without its critics. But Gayle Williamson believes beauty is far more than skin deep.
“Everyone has something beautiful, if you look enough you’ll find something beautiful about everybody, but I think it’s about the person you are inside rather than what you look like.”
About the team
Gayle Williamson was interviewed by Drew Mikheal, 18. An abbreviated version of this article was published in the Belfast Telegraph.
