By Freya Gerrard
A full time university student is hoping her Miss Leicestershire and Miss England appearances will give her a boost in her future ambitions to become a showgirl and sing at weddings.
Grace Richardson, 19, is studying a Level 6 Trinity Diploma in musical theatre at Leicester College of Performing Arts (LCPA).
“I started modelling when I was 16 in the November after GCSEs,” she said, “and I was modelling on runways in different fashion weeks. I walked in Leicester, London, Birmingham.
“One of my friends who I went to college with turned to me and said ‘have you heard of Miss Leicestershire’.
“It’s a beauty pageant and she said she thought it would be really good for me.
“So, I applied and got to know what the whole pageant was about and ended up winning Miss Leicestershire – that gave me a fast-track place to the Miss England final.”
Grace was crowned Miss Leicestershire in February this year and will hold the title until she crowns the next Miss Leicestershire in 2025.
“Becoming Miss Leicestershire was quite chill and exciting,” she said. “There were a lot of different charity events that I attended and I found it fun.
“Preparing for Miss England, obviously that’s a massive step up from a county title so there was a lot more work that I had to do.
“At first I was a little bit overwhelmed with it all and when I managed to start ticking off rounds that I had entered I started to feel more relaxed about it and by the time it was the week of the final I felt so calm and was getting all excited.”
The Miss England finals took place on Thursday, May 16, and Friday 17, in the Grand Station events venue in Wolverhampton.
“I found that juggling doing Miss England finals and also being a full-time student that does dance and singing and doing a show whilst also working two jobs, time was a struggle for me,” she said.
Now that Miss England is over, Grace still wants to continue to educate people and inspire them, as well as raise money for charity.
“I have a few different goals at the moment with musical theatre and my career side of things, I would love to be a showgirl, I would love to do wedding singing and things like that,”she added.
