A pair of friends from Wirral with no experience in beauty pageants have now both won a place in the finals of Mrs and Ms Galaxy UK.

Veterinary colleagues, Katie Mountford from Upton and Ella Pearson from Hoylake, have won the titles of Mrs Galaxy Wirral and Ms Galaxy Wirral after entering the competition during lockdown.

Now the pair will go on to compete in the grand finals in November with women and girls from all over the country.  

Katie, who won the title of Mrs Galaxy Wirral said: “We had never done anything like this before, so we decided to do it together and enter in different categories.

“Typically, pageants are quite specific where there is usually an age limit, you can’t be married or have kids and you have to look a certain way.

Wirral Globe:

“Whereas with the Galaxy pageants there are no restrictions, and we liked the ethos that all women are beautiful regardless of if they’ve had kids or are married.”

Ella, who was titled Ms Galaxy Wirral, added: “We’ve worked so hard during lockdown and we haven’t felt very glamorous so we thought it would be a way to motivate ourselves and give ourselves a little bit of excitement.

“We’re both completely new to it so we’re just learning as we go at the moment.”

With social media dominating how a lot of young people view themselves, Katie tells the Globe how her and Ella hope by entering the pageant they can become role models for young girls.

Katie said: “When I was a teenager there wasn’t much social media but now when I look at what young people see online, and the pressure put on them to look a certain way when half of it isn’t even real is shocking.

“Both me and Ella look very different compared to each other, but we are beautiful in our own way so for me entering the competition was about embracing that.

Wirral Globe:

“What you see as beautiful is subjective. We all have different ideas of what beauty is, but I think what we can agree on is beauty is someone who we think is a beautiful person, a happy confident role model.

“So we thought wouldn’t it be nice for a couple of women who work hard and are happy in their own skin to hopefully show that to young girls.”

The final is being held in November 2021 at Park Hall Hotel in Lancashire and is set to be glamorous event for those involved.

The winners of Mrs and Ms Galaxy UK will travel to the USA with contestants from all over the world to compete in the Mrs/Ms Galaxy International final which will take place in summer 2020.

Ella said: “When the email came through to say we’d gotten through I just did not expect it at all. I was nervous at first thinking should I even be doing this?

“But we thought we should do it together because it would be a lovely experience for us both.

Wirral Globe:

“We’re representing Wirral together and because we’re in different categories it means we aren’t competing against each other so it’s really nice that we can support each other through it.”

Both Katie and Ella are looking to support local businesses and charities through fundraising events in the run up to the grand finals.

If you are a local business or charity who is interested in fundraising or sponsorship you can contact Katie and Ella on Instagram via @msgalaxywirral.