Hiyaaa I am Jade, the first ever Northern Ireland girl to be in the prestigious beauty contest MissTeenQueenUK, a fact that I am very proud of. I am a typical girly girl who has many ambitions for her life. I am an academic, I have already achieved 11 GCSE’s (A-C), and 3 Alevels in Art, ICT and Business Studies. My career goal is to become a very successful fashion designer, a dream I have focused on attaining since I started secondary school due to my love for art and clothes. Next year I will attend Northwest Regional College for one year to do a foundation degree in art and design, this then allows me to move on and further my fashion revolved studies hopefully in London College of Fashion. Modelling is also a great ambition of mine, I think deep down every girl has this ambition, I love being pampered and dressing up, and “from no age I have loved the camera” a quote from my mammy earlier this year in a newspaper report, and I am so happy that teen queen has made this dream of mine even more obtainable.My Teen Queen Journey started way back in September on the 24th, I received a phone call from the director of Teen Queen Lina Perrini inviting me over to London for a photo shoot with Fairlight Studios after my entry a few weeks prior, this day had started off very emotional and heartbreaking, Gemma Feeney a local treasure had just been buried she was only 16 having lost a long suffering battle to Cystic Fibrosis she died on the 8th September, after attending her funeral I went home and got back into bed only to be awakened from the very exciting and life changing phone call from Lina.
On the 24th September me and my mammy travelled to London, she is the person who is there for me through everything, being a single parent, she has brought my two sisters and little brother and I up all by herself, she is the one who keeps my head firmly on the ground, standing by my side In everything that I do, everything that I have achieved I owe it all to her, she is my strength. It was a very early rise, I had to leave for Belfast Airport at like half seven in the morning, but I suppose this is a life of a model having early rises.The people in Fairlight Studios were so friendly.I loved everything about it, I love being the centre of attention.lol. We then met with the owner of the studio who talked through each photograph helping me decide the image that would be sent to teen queen that would appear on the website and for press to see, this image was important as it could see me go through to the website or not it also determined peoples votes.
Out of Thousands of entrants each month only 100 girls are photographed and only 50 go through to the website, luckily enough I was one of these 50. =D
Therefore in the month of October I appeared as number 40, penultimate voting heat took place. At the end of this month I came 1st with 1,755 votes, i was over the moon. Being the first ever Northern Ireland Girl opens up so many horizons, young girls who are interested in a modelling life and for more self confidence find it much more obtainable, as I am just a very typical girl from Co. Derry in a very small town Greysteel things like this just don’t happen to girls like me but it has I feel you just have to believe in yourself and everything will turn out just how you want it to. I am so proud that I have raised awareness throughout Northern Ireland regards this high profile competition. Becoming Northern Irelands First and at this moment only representation I am so honoured I would love nothing more than just to win bring the title home for Northern Ireland.
I believe everyone has a dream and I am living mines.
I am very proud to be representing Co. Derry and Northern Ireland in the Finals.
Firstly I would like to thank my mammy Julie and my auntie Elaine, who have been there from day one, whether giving me support and confidence to keep me going and organising press interviews and photo shoots raising support from the public, I would also like to thank all the newspapers that put me into their stories, and all the local shops who put up posters, this helped so much with passerby’s and readers seeing them and showing there support by voting, and importantly my friends and family for just being there and guiding me through the experience.
TeenQueenUk Work alongside The Phillip Green Memorial Trust and to raise money I have came up with a very healthy way of doing this.
Sunday 2nd August – Sponsored Walk From Rising Sun Bar in my hometown Greysteel to Eginton. Going up through the main roads. at 12pm . I would now like to thank the 24 people who took part and the four newspapers that covered the walk which was 10miles, taking 2hours. It was a great day, rasing £510.00 higher than my set target, proving you can always aim higher. For the walk i got tshirts embroidered with the Phillip Green Memorial Trust logo on them making it more personal so passerbys knew what it was for and could look into it, which should help funding in the future.
Please get involved it’s for a great cause you can go to www.pgmt.org for details on this trust. Show your support for The Phillip Green Memorial Trust, TeenQueenUK, and me the first ever Northern Ireland Girl in this beauty Contest.
