With all the tragedy that’s been going on in the world lately, it feels like it’s high time for a nice, uplifting story, right?
And drop dead gorgeous beauty queen Zoiey Smale has just the thing!
That’s Zoiey. She’s really, really beautiful — and she’s also a size 10.
A size 10 in her native United Kingdom, that is. In U.S. sizes, she’s about a 6.
But why are we even talking about her dress size? Because, after winning a UK beauty pageant called Miss United Continents, she was informed that she needed to lose weight.
No, really. Someone actually looked at her and then told her that.
Not that that sort of body-shaming is OK anyway, but for real, look at this girl. In what universe does she need to lose weight?
As Zoiey explained in an interview with the Daily Mail, she won the UK title, but was expected to go on to compete for the international Miss United Continents title in Ecuador this month.
In July, the national pageant director called her up and told her that she had some “feedback” for her from the international director.
“She said to me ‘They want you to go on a diet plan and they want you to lose as much weight as possible for the finals.’ I was like, ‘Pardon?"”
“It was one of those things, in the 21st century you don’t actually expect people to be that blunt,” she added.
“I’m not big at all, I’m just bang on average. I just think to be told to lose as much weight as possible for a competition, why would people say that?” she continued.
“It’s horrible and it made me feel so rubbish about myself for a long, long time.”
Which is terribly sad, because obviously she’s not the one with the problem in this story.
She said that she hung up with the director and took time to consider how exactly to respond, because “I was so angry I didn’t just want to throw out insults.”
Eventually, “I said to my director, who was really supportive, that I don’t think someone should say that to girls, it’s awful and it’s horrible and it’s wrong.”
“I don’t think to be a good role model you have to be stick thin and I explained my reasoning that way.”
Finally, “I handed my title back because I’m not going to support a competition that can do that to people, I just think it’s so, so wrong.”
“People wonder why there’s a stigma behind beauty pageants and this is not really helping the matter.”
When she did the first part of the competition, the part for the UK title, she said that there was an emphasis on charity work, but things changed.
“This one took completely away from promoting giving,” she said. “It’s more you’ve got to be as stick thin as possible because that’s what the guys want to see.”
“So I just handed my title back and I just shut that door.”
Absolutely amazing.
Zoiey may no longer be the queen of this particular pageant, but we’re going to go ahead and say it …
She may have just landed a new title as the queen of our hearts.
