‘Beauty with a purpose’
Miss Jamaica World
BOASTING THREE contestants who went on to win on the international level, it’s safe to say that Miss Jamaica World is the queen of all Jamaican beauty pageants.
The Miss Jamaica World (MJW) Pageant, with their motto, ‘Beauty with a purpose’, prides itself on being more than just about beauty. They also promote the growth and development of the minds of young women. In existence since 1976, MJW teamed up title sponsor Spartan Health Club to send the winner of the national Miss Jamaica Body-Beautiful and the international Miss Universe Bikini, the lovely Cindy Breakspeare, to represent Jamaica in Miss World in 1976. The rest is history: Breakspeare went on to win the title of Miss World in true tropical fashion.
Spartan staged an official competition in 1978 and has had 32 consecutive pageants since. Carol Crawford won for Jamaica again in 1963, while Lisa Hanna did us proud, winning Miss World in 1993.
MJW finals takes place in August, so they’re currently gearing up to crown their queen for 2017. To qualify, contestants have to be young, but over the age of 16 years old and younger than 27 years old. These women also have to be of Jamaican descent, be single, which means never been married and not have any children, have a ‘squeaky clean’ record, be free of any modelling contract. They must possess characters befitting a beauty queen – poise, elegance, grace, engaging personality, intellect, and that hourglass figure is always a great bonus.
They go through an elimination process, submitting an application with their photograph and a short video to the Spartan Health Club.
From there, 16-25 women are selected, given sponsors and go on to finals, where they are judged on poise, personality, beauty of face, figure, charm, deportment, eloquence, intelligence, along with conduct throughout the competition at the Grand Coronation show.
The crowned winner then moves on to pursue her outreach initiative during the year of her reign, make appearances at charities and special events, sashes as Miss Jamaica World, which all lead up to her representing Jamaica on the world stage in Miss World.