I’m a beauty queen and a PhD student

RACHAEL molitor, 29, has run her own events business for five years, while doing a PhD. She is a former miss Birmingham, is married to tim, 29, an anaesthetist, and lives near Warwick. She says:

When I won Miss Birmingham 2013, I was interviewed on the radio. the DJ said: ‘congratulations, tell us about yourself, did you finish school?’ I enjoyed telling him that not only had I finished school, but university with a bachelor’s degree, an MSc with distinction and had worked in the health sector as a project manager. People are often surprised to hear of my qualifications. I entered Miss Birmingham because I wanted to do more charity work, and after winning I worked as an events manager for the lord Mayor’s charity. Being a beauty queen had advantages with opportunities I wouldn’t normally have had. however, in business meetings, I was sometimes introduced as ‘Miss Birmingham’ rather than ‘Rachael’, so before we’d even begun I’d be challenging old-fashioned misconceptions of beauty pageants instead of demonstrating my business acumen. It’s a shame that people can’t see that confidence, beauty and intelligence can go hand in hand.