After Miss Cork I was accused of ‘playing the black card’ ..but I’m Zoe proud I won
Beauty refuses to let the bullies win
A MISS Ireland contestant accused of playing the “black card” when she won Miss Cork said she refuses to let the bullies win.
Zoe Hendrick has fought racism all her life but reaching the final of Miss Ireland has boosted her confidence.
The 25-year-old told the Irish Mirror: “When I won Miss Cork, there was a day when my confidence dropped.
“I got a lot of hate under one article on Facebook, but I just thought, ‘No I’ve achieved something in the last five years’.
“I’m so proud to have won, but that one day all I could see was the negativity, they were saying I was playing the black card in my bikini photos.
“They said, ‘She’s only giving a sob story’, I was like, ‘This is not what I’m doing, not once did I say that’.
“I was first bullied when I went to an all Irish secondary school, Colaiste Daibheid, I was considered a nerdy girl.
“Even looking back at photos, the girls were learning about putting on make-up and I was playing Sims.
“My social skills were non-existent, I had buck teeth, I was like an outsider.”
Moving school, Zoe found solace taking up basketball and hockey.
She added: “I kept doing sport until 6th year, but when I started college, girls had played for Munster and I felt I wouldn’t be good enough.”
Zoe explained how her mum was constantly questioned as a single mum.
She added: “She mum is fully Irish with blonde hair, my biological dad who I have no contact with is Jamaican.
“I love my skin but growing up, people didn’t like it, I was getting bullied for it.
“When I won Miss Cork, I really wanted people of colour to know you can still do everything you want.
“At Christmas when I’d look through the Smyths catalogues, I used to point to the white child and say ‘Mum that’s me’.
“Because my father left when I was four, she was this blonde-haired woman, strolling around with a baby.
“People would come up to her and be like, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ A lot of the questions were like, ‘Where did you get her from’.
“My mum was like, ‘No gave birth to her’.”
The teen years were tough too, as Zoe explained: “When we were crushing on boys, I was told nobody’s going to like your hair colour.
“When I started modelling, people said there aren’t that many black models, people prefer blonde girls.
“But my friends and I go by a few phrases that keep me feeling strong.
“We say, ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’.”
I