What makes a woman 50 over want to be a beauty queen?
Your idea of hell? Shelley, 53, and 67-year-old Carolyne beg to differ
SMILE fixed, she swishes her hair and struts across the stage for all she’s worth. The music blares as she poses, clad only in a tiny bikini and heels. A panel of judges looks on intently, examining every curve of her body.
The physical exposure and cast-iron confidence required to appear in a beauty pageant surely makes them suitable only for the very young and lovely, one might think.
Not so. Because this particular contestant, beaming into the bright stage lights, is Shelley Reice, a 53-year-old mother of one and managing director of her own successful care company.
She’s just one of a growing number of older women who — lumps, bumps and all — choose to participate in what many would say are dated physical spectacles, humiliating to any woman who competes in them.
But extraordinarily, like Shelley, today’s wannabe beauty queens are increasingly likely to be the wrong side of 30, managing marriages, children, divorces and careers — with some even participating in their late 60s.
Indeed, a whole rash of pageants have sprung up to cater to the desire of these women to be publicly judged and graded on their appearance.
So why on earth would they voluntarily participate in such an event? And what does it say that they still place such value on their looks when you might imagine their families and other higher-minded pursuits would take precedence?
Shelley, a slim blonde with a nippedin waist, says that, rather than feeling horror at baring so much flesh in public, she felt invigorated. More than that, she says her belated love of beauty pageants has filled her only with confidence, not shame.
‘Five years ago if someone had told me I’d be competing in beauty pageants, I’d have laughed and said never,’ she admits. ‘But standing on the same stage as women much younger than me — most were half my age — has proved to be inspirational.
‘It has completely changed my life. While I feel valued in my job, this was different. I was doing something just for me — and I realised that despite being divorced and in my 50s, I was still attractive.’
In the period before Shelley’s beauty pageant appearance, she had hit something akin to rock bottom. Her unhappy marriage to her husband of nine years ended when she left him in June 2013.
She felt drained from managing her own business and helping care for her mother who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as meeting the demands of her teenage son.
Many women would have chosen to lick their wounds privately with friends, or simply conserve their energy for the demands of a busy everyday life. Not Shelley. In the autumn of 2015, on a whim, she entered a nationwide Ms Galaxy beauty pageant — a specialist event for unmarried women over 30.
Why subject herself to such a public performance when she was at her lowest ebb? Her answer is common among older beauty pageant competitors: she desperately desired to feel beautiful, fiftysomething or not.
‘I’d completely lost my confidence. Stress had taken its toll,’ she recalls. ‘I looked gaunt and felt ill.’
Feeling desperate, she took on more employees to help her run her business. It was, she decided, time to devote some attention to herself. She joined a gym, employed a personal trainer and then — at her trainer’s suggestion — applied for Ms Galaxy.
BuT imagine her surprise when she received a letter saying judges had picked her as Ms Galaxy North Bristol on the strength of her photo application. She had won a sash and was through to the Ms Galaxy uK finals, first prize: an all expenses two-week holiday to the States.
She admits her new title was an instant ego-boost: ‘Yes, I was flattered. Although people have complimented my looks in the past, it was the first time in my life I believed I was attractive, particularly since my marriage ended. It gave me a feeling of self-worth. I felt I could date again with confidence.’
Many fiftysomethings express delight that they don’t have to worry about their appearance as they did in their youth. Freed from the tyranny of gruelling exercise regimes and strict diets, they claim to be relieved, liberated even. Not Shelley.
Newly attentive to her looks, and enduring hours of special preparation for waxing, fake tanning and make-up lessons beforehand, she made her bikini debut in the Ms Galaxy finals in February this year.
‘I admit I was slightly mortified when I discovered I had to wear a bikini,’ she says, ‘But then I thought: “To hell with it. Why not give it a go?” I had no one to answer to. This was something just for me.
‘But, goodness, I was nervous about showing off my body. While I didn’t get an award, I was glad I did it — even though my bikini photos made me cringe. I thought I looked heavy.’
And so she was hooked. She admits that being lauded publicly for her looks was addictive — so much so that she sought out more pageants to enter.
‘I found them empowering. I know many of my competitors are much younger than me, but I honestly don’t feel envious. Rather, I’m proud to be competing with them.
‘I even find the younger girls look up to me. They say they hope they look like me when they get to my age! Anyway, I feel I’m better looking now than I was at 23.’
ANd since her first pageant, she has upped the ante. ‘Seeing photos of myself in a bikini encouraged me to change my fitness routine and I’ve also cut out sugar. But I don’t think taking part has made me more vain — just more aware of how I look.’
Shelley insists most of her family, friends and colleagues are proud. But she has come across critics. ‘Recently, a friend’s hairdresser asked her if there was something wrong with me because she thought pageants were just for children and young women. But I just ignore comments like that.’
As for her son Matthew, 17, he has been kind to his mother, even coming to support her at the Ms Galaxy finals — although she admits: ‘I think he was quite embarrassed. He did say he wouldn’t want to come again. And recently he came home from school horrified that friends had found pictures of me in a bikini online.
‘But I also think he is secretly proud to have an attractive mum.’
And she adds: ‘After going through such a low period, pageants have shown me how to enjoy life again. And my new found confidence seems to be attracting nicer men, too.’
Industry experts believe the rise in women over 30 taking part in beauty pageants can in part be explained by societal changes — particularly the rise of older women using social media accounts, and thus being affected by the tide of selfies and image-obsessed online profiles.
Beauty contest organiser Pam Boon, who owns a pageant company and has worked for Miss England, says: ‘We’ve definitely seen an increase in entries from older women. Social media websites like Instagram have made it fashionable for women to show off their looks. Ordinary women want that glamorous lifestyle they see online.’
She adds: ‘Beauty pageants are a way of having an independent person who is not your husband or friend say: “You are attractive.” What can be more of a boost than that — especially if you’re hitting middle age and are worried you don’t look as good as you did?’ One
might retort that a fiftysomething should be more sensible than to be so concerned by what total strangers think about her looks.
Some cite the rise in older beauty pageant contestants is thanks to the increase in women divorcing, or being single, in their later years — making them more likely to be concerned with their bodies, as well as happy to show them off.
Shelley, who remains single, has now competed in four pageants and has seven titles to her name: Classic Lady Charity Heart 2016, where she also won best personality; Supreme Queen at Glitz pageant, where she was also voted most beautiful and the contestant with the best smile; and first runner-up in Miss Inspiration, where she also won the Natural Beauty category.
Her most recent pageant was the National Elite Miss in Blackpool, which, like all the others she’s entered, had no age limit.
Once again she posed in a bikini and a £600 evening dress that her 76-year old mother had bought her and came second overall. She again won the category for best smile.
Pam Boon estimates the average competitor can spend around £2,000 a year on entering pageants.
‘It isn’t cheap,’ she says, ‘There’s travelling to the pageants, staying in a hotel overnight — plus having spray tans, manicures and other beauty treatments. Then there are clothes such as dresses, shoes and swimwear to consider.’
As well as all this, Shelley pays just to enter the competition — fees range from £60 to £125 per pageant. ‘It’s worth it,’ she says. ‘So much of the money raised goes to charity. And as well as confidence, becoming a beauty queen has given the “me time” I craved.’
The need for escapism has also tempted mother-of-three Carolyne Martin, 67, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, to compete in beauty pageants, despite the fact many women her age are content to enjoy a quiet retirement. Carolyne, who still works as a sales consultant and has three grandchildren, was devastated when, in August 2011, her husband Colin died, aged 62, from a brain tumour.
‘Colin and I were so close. We ran our own cleaning business together. We were together for 40 years. When he died I felt such a huge loss.’
WOrSE, Carolyne was forced to close their business and move from their lovely fourbedroom detached home to a smaller property. She recalls: ‘I felt everything I cherished had come to an end. I desperately needed something to fill the huge void.’
However, rather than seek refuge in family, charity work or travel, Carolyne chose the imageobsessed world of beauty pageants, after a friend suggested they could prove a welcome distraction. ‘It sounds dramatic but pageants saved me. They have taken me away from my grief and given me a new lease of life.’
Carolyne first took the plunge at the Mrs Galaxy United Kingdom 2012 pageant: ‘I wasn’t sure if I would be out of my depth. However, there was another contestant a year older than me.’
She defends herself against accusations of vanity, saying: ‘Many pageants give prizes for best personality, so you need to be able to talk, have a sense of humour and appear elegant in front of the judges. While I didn’t get a prize in Mrs Galaxy, I enjoyed every minute.’
So addictive was the buzz of appearing on stage that, shortly after in 2013, Carolyne entered the Mrs World National UK and won the Inspirational Women award. She’s most recently won the Crown And Glory pageant, held in Wrexham, North Wales. ‘Winning is the best feeling,’ she says. ‘Many people think I look much younger than 67.’
Indeed, it’s given Carolyne, who is 5ft 5in tall and weighs 9st 13lb, a new concern for her appearance.
‘I eat healthily and do yoga and Pilates three times a week. Joan Collins is my inspiration. Just before the big day I have a spray tan, shape my eyebrows and manicure my nails.’
After all, for some women, nothing’s too much in the quest to feel beautiful — no matter how old they are.