Royal Wootton Bassett student Jade Dando, 21 achieved her biggest goal by taking home the national title of Miss Beauty UK 2018/19 in Bridgend on January 13th. The Creative Events Management student has been competing in pageants for 4 years. After coming Runner Up Miss Swindon in 2014, the pageant bug was caught, and she’s been competing ever since.
I entered Miss Beauty UK after taking a year out of the pageant world. In April 2017 I was meant to be heading to Disneyland Paris to represent England in the Face of The Globe international finals. Sadly, the pageant went into liquidation and never went ahead so I took this as a sign to take a break and focus on my degree for a while. I was so upset after Face of the Globe and I lost faith in pageant for a while and it took a while for me to have the confidence to compete again. Miss Beauty UK director Tracey Madwards was extremely supportive in the running up to the finals as she understood how difficult I found it getting back into the swing of things.
I always put my all into pageant prep so after entering I was straight onto designing my eco wear and planning appearances in both Cornwall and Wiltshire. My fellow beauty queen Hannah Golding, Young European International MS 2017 was my rock in helping me arrange outfits and appearances.
I hand made a dress out of bottle tops for my eco wear. I collected over 1,200 bottle tops from my work place Oriental Aroma; RWB where I have been Team Leader for nearly 3 years. My manager James Huynh was extremely supportive with giving me the necessary time off and also planned an amazing celebration for after the finals.
I was so nervous prior to the finals but was gutted when my stage time was over. I love being on stage and knew it wouldn’t be the last time. I was so proud to walk away with the Publicity, Charity and Community Spirit award for all the work I’d done in the run up to the finals. I also won Best in Eco for my bottle top dress and Best in National for my dress donated and hand made by Hannah Golding. My biggest achievement was walking away with the big title of Miss Beauty UK 2018/19. I have a 14-month reign where I have so many different charity events planned and also different platforms I want to raise awareness for. Such as body positivity, mental health and Sexual abuse. I will mainly be based in Wiltshire and Cornwall but will be available for appearances across the country.
If you’d like to book Jade for events please contact her at jademdando@gmail.com