Friends who are best of rivals
TWO best friends from Derbyshire have been selected to represent the city of Derby and the county in two of the country’s leading beauty pageant competitions.
Deyonne Best, 24, and Lolly Pain, 26, have been selected to represent their area in upcoming pageants.
Deyonne, an estate agent at Belvoir Derby East, was elected as Miss Derbyshire in the Miss Grand UK pageant. Best friend Lauren, better known as Lolly, who works as a voiceover artist, was selected to represent the City of Derby in the Miss Galaxy UK pageant.
The winners from both pageants, due to take place later this year, will go on to represent the United Kingdom on the international stage.
Deyonne and Lolly first met during a pageant in 2018, when they were competing against one another. Initially they saw each other as rivals before warming to each other.
Lolly said: “We both independently thought how much we liked each other. In a normal setting this would be the start of a beautiful friendship but in a competition based on being a good role model, this was ironically the last thing we wanted.
“Its natural in any competitive setting, you want to make friends but at the same time you have to remember you are in competition with these other girls.
“Incredibly, we both ended up landing places and at that stage, we actually started working together.
“We put our differences to one side and decided that the most important thing was not in fact winning, but making a difference in the communities that we both lived in and represented.
“We came to the conclusion that the best way to do this was actually to work together, despite technically being pitted against each other.”
Both women started entering pageants to increase their own selfconfidence and to widen their social circle.
Deyonne said: “For a very long time I had struggled with confidence and. to tackle that, I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone. I have followed a lot of different pageant circuits for years – but competing in one was never something I had ever considered.
“As I have a performing arts background, being on stage isn’t uncommon for me, however the setting of a pageant is very different to anything I had done before.
“Since competing in my first pageant age 20, I discovered that I loved everything about competing in pageants and everything they stand for.”
Lolly added: “I started pageants when I was 21. I had just moved to a new area and was struggling to meet anyone outside my work.
“I was scouted on the street and whilst I initially turned them down out of lack of confidence, eventually I realised that it’ll simply be a great way to broaden my social circle in the area and get involved with my new community.
“I didn’t do well in that first pageant but I absolutely loved it. Alongside the obvious feel good factor of helping others and meeting like minded people, my biggest drive for pageants is how much it improves my social interaction skills which growing up, I struggled with.”
Since the initial stages of their respective pageants, both women have worked hard in their communities by getting involved with local projects and charities.
During the pandemic, Lolly became a voluntary Covid-19 tester during lockdown, after being sponsored by LPS Medical, which supplies PPE. She said: “I am really happy I’m working with LPS Medical as they share the same beliefs about keeping people safe. A familyrun business that has historically donated PPE to other deserving organisations,”
Deyonne has also recently started her own project entitled Safe Space, which allows people with wellbeing issues to come together and voice their concerns.
She said: “I wanted to provide a platform for anyone who needs to, to have the place to voice any wellbeing issues they are facing.
“Hardships people face aren’t just black and white, sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint. I wanted to create a support group that covers not just one thing, and it’s not just one thing I care about.”
Both women will compete in their pageants later this year before potentially competing on an international scale.