TAYLOR’S GRAND SLAM
A former ballroom dancing champion hasn’t looked back after she was talent-spotted among the crowd at a Gold Coast bar
A DISABILITY support worker, who’ll strut her stuff for Australia at a top international pageant, only started entering beauty contests after being spotting in a Gold Coast bar.
Taylor Marlene Curry was in the Surfers Paradise Beergarden, cheering on a mate in Miss Supercars back in 2015, when the organiser Selina McDonald told her she should enter. Curry, a former Australian ballroom dancing champion who now works for Life Without Barriers as a carer, made the top three.
Since then the 24-year-old has won Miss World Supermodel Australia in 2016, coming first runner-up at the global final in South Africa. She’s also been anointed Miss Townsville and Miss All Nations Australia.
But the crown of Miss Grand Australia this week is her most prestigious, winning a four-week allexpenses paid trip to Venezuela later this year. She will compete against contestants from 90 other countries to become Miss Grand International.
It is one of the world’s top three pageants alongside Miss World and Miss Universe, televised to an audience of 1.5 billion.
McDonald says she still remembers spotting Curry in Surfers. “Whilst walking through the crowd she stood out ... tall, beautiful and her smile. She exudes grace. She’s a hardworking, kind young woman, a perfect role model,” she said.
Curry says she is not sure what “got her over the line” as Miss Grand Australia but has always been “quite competitive” since her ballroom dancing days.
The Runaway Bay stunner, in her second year of nursing studies, says Venezuela will be “intense”. “But I’m really excited and ready for the challenge,” she said.
If she wins, the title will involve ambassadorial work overseas for a year.
‘She exudes grace … a perfect role model’