The pageant is the brainchild of Linda Koch, who is plus size herself and well respected in the UK BBW community. Linda says "There are so many beautiful plus size women in the world and it is only fair to give them all the opportunity of winning this title".
Miss BBW International is a competition where plus size women can come together to celebrate their beauty in a non judgemental environment. Most importantly it aims to show that many plus size women are comfortable in their own skin, and don’t feel intimidated by pressure from the media to fit into a certain size pigeon hole to be deemed acceptable in society.
Larger women are often rejected by other beauty pageants and the organisers aim is to change the perception that you can only be beautiful if you are slim. They want to let the world know that it is possible to be plus size, intelligent, and beautiful.
Their site states “We at Miss BBW
International do not encourage obesity we purely provide a platform for the
plus size women of the world to showcase their beauty on the catwalk that has
previously been reserved for our slimmer sisters!”
Kirstie Mouncey is an 18-year-old childcare
worker from Hull. She is entering Miss BBW International to send out “out a positive message about feeling
confident with who you are” and recently appeared on ITV’s This Morning alongside
her boyfriend and the organiser of the Miss BBW International contest,
Emma Walker.
She says that in the past she has
tried to lose weight but never been able to. She said “I did it more because
people were telling me to lose weight and there was lots of pressure to look a
certain way. Obviously for health reasons if I needed to lose weight I would,
because health is the most important thing, but then I just think if you love
the way you are and you’re comfortable what’s the problem?”
Presenter Kate Thornton asked Emma Walker
if the contest promoted obesity. Emma replied that it was important to
encourage overweight people to feel confident: “A beauty pageant is a good
place to show off yourself and be positive.”
The Grand Finale will be held in London on Saturday 10th November 2012 and be presented by well known plus size TV personality, Alison Hammond.
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