candidatas a miss universe great britain 2022. final: 9 july.

harriotte lane

Today’s Miss Universe Great Britain 2022 finalist is Harriotte Lane who launched her own business back in 2019. At the beginning of the pandemic, she took the side hustle that she was passionate about and turned it into a full time career. She is now honoured to be in a position where she can encourage other women to become the best version of themselves every single day through her job. The business has enabled Harriotte to create additional jobs for two members of staff and in 2021, she received a nomination for Business Woman Of The Year. Over the last nine years, Harriotte has also been a dedicated fundraiser for various charities and has managed to raise more than £90,000. In recognition of this achievement, Harriotte was presented with the Princess Diana Legacy award.
Going forward, Harriotte has plans to travel and to continue to empower women along her journey.

olivia maneeroj

Today’s finalist, Olivia Maneeroj, was raised in London by parents who immigrated from Thailand and she feels privileged that being bilingual has enabled her to teach children in Thailand. In the future, she aspires to open a school to help those who struggle gain opportunities and help them follow their dreams. Olivia graduated with a marketing degree and has enjoyed pageantry while modelling and working in her family businesses. She donates every month to Centrepoint which is a UK charity for homelessness which supports young people and provides a safe place to stay. Olivia says “People say that the world needs more positivity, but that can really diminish how hard the world can be for some people. I believe the world needs more acceptance and understanding along with self belief that we are good enough.”

paida

Today we are introducing you to Miss Universe Great Britain finalist Paida - a 23-year-old model and free-lance web designer, who recently graduated from the University of Leicester with a BSc in Computer Science. Paida’s experience of studying a course that consisted of less than 10% female students and completing a year in industry working within a male dominated department inspired her to start a project called ‘Empower Girls In Tech’. The purpose of this project is to support and encourage girls worldwide to pursue technology related education, provide support to women working within the technology industry, and to assist women living within economically disadvantaged communities with the development of their computing skills. Paida’s main source of inspiration is her mother, who has very humble beginnings but worked hard towards completing a doctorate degree and becoming a qualified Psychotherapist. She is the reason why Paida believes that with planning, hard-work and perseverance, any goal is achievable. 

jennifer mcsween

Our finalist, Jennifer McSween, worked in law and has studied criminology. During her research, she learned that being in the criminology field establishing crimes and violence was classed as a man's job discriminating against women until the late 1960s when strong women stood up to change views and make crime careers more gender-neutral. This knowledge makes Jennifer proud to be studying criminology with aspirations to excel as woman in the field. Her work in this area has also heightened her interest in women’s safety and has led her to teach women’s self-defence classes helping women’s confidence if they ever feel in a vulnerable situation.

monika kramer

Our finalist, Monika Kramer, believes that making a difference starts with one's self and with simple acts of showing love, compassion and faith. Monika’s parents have always been a strong motivating force in her life and taught her the importance of kindness, faith and humility. Monika is fluent in four languages, loves dancing, ice skating, hula hoop and is currently learning to play the ukelele. She says that the Miss Universe platform allows her to empower women to be comfortable in their skin. Her message is that you don't have to be perfect - what you have is more than enough. She is using her campaign brain-make-up which raises awareness for mental health as she is a qualified mental health first aider as it is a subject close to her heart after a family member suffered from mental health until her final days, and she experienced the stigma around it first-hand. Monika is currently volunteering as a mentor in a supported housing programme that offers an opportunity to women facing difficult challenges such as addiction, domestic abuse, and probation. This allows them the opportunity to turn their lives around.

cecilia musonda

Today’s finalist is Cecilia Musonda who is studying for a research masters in sports science at Hertfordshire University. Part of her studies involves formulating a vegan protein supplement and comparing its effectiveness to animal-based protein supplements – a topic influenced by her plant-based lifestyle and athletic background. Cecilia pursued a professional basketball career after being offered a scholarship to Tennessee (USA) and soldiered on to play without a knee ligament. Unfortunately, this later put a halt to her sporting career after needing three knee operations. Pageantry has given Cecilia a new sense of purpose and service to matters she cares about including travelling to Zambia to educate and donate sanitary essentials to young girls while raising awareness of period poverty. During the Coronavirus lockdowns, Cecilia found great joy and passion in English tutoring. Today, she is proud to say that she has tutored 1320 hours in English to people across the globe, and in exchange is capable of greeting in 11 languages.

natasha mutebi

Today, we introduce you to Miss Universe Great Britain 2022 finalist, Natasha Mutebi, who works as an impartial social science advisor at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and Is vice chair for Parliament’s Work Equality Network on Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage. Natasha graduated as a master of science (MSc) in global public health and policy with a distinction and is passionate about personal development, wellness, social justice and equitable access to healthcare and education. Natasha grew up with a stutter and was crowned Miss Uganda UK 2015/16, which led to her winning a BEFFTA award as ‘Best Pageant Queen’ in 2016. She also became a charity ambassador for AFFCAD/AFFCAD UK and the Jubilee Campaign. These experiences propelled Natasha to launching her project ‘Manifesting Legacy’ which aims to equip, empower and educate young people with the practical tools to excel in wellbeing, holistic healing, and personal and career development through workshops and collective learning sessions.

lauren parkinson

Today’s finalist is Lauren Parkinson who is a 26-year-old estate agent from north Wales. Lauren grew up in a small village and often felt that she needed to fit into a mould, and not deviate from what is ‘acceptable’ in the community and in society at large. That desire to break the mould has brought her to Miss Universe Great Britain as 70 per cent of the LGBTQIA+ community actively hide their sexuality in fear of a negative reaction. For a long time, Lauren says she was part of that seventy per cent. Through the Miss Universe Great Britain platform, Lauren’s aim is to continue to amplify the voices of those who are a part of this community, and to show that being confidently beautiful is not something that can be defined by who we choose to love, what or whom we identify as, but by our actions in making our society a more diverse, inclusive and accepting place

india payling

Our finalist, India, has always aspired to use her life to help other people. After suffering from chronic anxiety for over two years and fully overcoming it, she is now able to live a full and abundant life and has a strong desire to help others who are suffering with their mental health. India has spent a number of years developing strength and resilience by completely changing her lifestyle, learning to break out of a fear-based mindset, and putting herself through various challenging situations and overcoming them. She also undertook a psychology degree, achieving first-class honours, to equip herself with knowledge as well as personal experience to help others effectively. Her aim is to inspire others with the hope that it is possible to achieve and maintain good mental health, to encourage them that struggling with mental health does not have to be permanent, and to show that it is possible to overcome all things. 

lois rayner

Today’s finalist, Lois Rayner, works in health and social care, visiting different services, sharing and speaking about her experience of having an eating disorder. Through her work, she is able to bring another perspective that comes from her own lived experience, to help raise awareness, provide support and talk to others about her recovery journey. Lois is passionate about helping others, empowering woman and showing recovery is possible through the understanding that people can live a meaningful life beyond diagnosis without necessarily being symptom free. She believes that through peer support and the sharing of lived experience, people can achieve their goals and dreams in life.

victoria rudolph

Our finalist, Victoria, is passionate about art. Not only is she a board member of a charity-funded theatre company but also an artist, business owner and host of a community radio station through which she brings attention to many local important causes. Victoria says she always strives to be the best she can, and, after receiving the highest grades in her school, went on to be the first member of her family to go to university. She is a qualified accountant and now works as an assistant vice-president in an investment bank. In addition to her day job at the bank, she makes time to run CV workshops for underprivileged school children applying for university and is a mentor to vulnerable girls to help them become working women.

keflyn sachar

Today we are introducing you to Keflyn Sachar - an international commercial finance analyst working at Hilton Worldwide headquarters in Watford. Graduating with first class honours in business and finance underpinned Keflyn’s ambition to qualify as a charted global management accountant and work in the male-dominated industry of finance. Her strong academic achievements encouraged Keflyn to share her experience, become the face of my university career services and deliver career talks, with more in the pipeline this year. Growing up with immense compassion towards disadvantaged children inspired Keflyn to become a cyber-bullying mentor at the age of 16 and feature in a BBC Panorama documentary, raising awareness on the topic. This led her to implement “The Mental Health Check-Up” initiative to mentor all individuals free of charge throughout Covid-19, while also completing more than 20 charity projects during the pandemic. As an advocate for teenage girls, Keflyn aims to create a program that illuminates their full potential, providing them with the tools and guidance to strive in the direction which will fulfil their dreams.

dilani selvanathan.

Miss Universe Great Britain 2022 finalist, Dilani, describes herself as an adventurous workaholic who loves learning and experiencing new things. She is currently working as a research and development engineer at a robotics company. Her goal is to develop inexpensive high-quality technology to improve people’s lives but her long-time ambition is to become a space robotics engineer, developing technologies to explore the unknown and help humans to become an interplanetary species. Dilani’s biggest passion is promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to people nationwide from all levels, experiences and backgrounds. She does this in various ways, doing fun experiments with younger people, organising engineering events and doing presentations nationwide. She has won awards for her dedication to promoting STEM including the IET Young Women Engineer Mary George’s Memorial Prize for Apprentices 2021, the IET Paul Fletcher Award 2020, the STEM Inspiring STEM Technician Award 2021 and the Engineering Technician (EngTech) status awarded by the IET and Engineering Council. Dilani says there is very little female representation and it’s a shame that many talented women are discouraged to have a profession in STEM. Using the Miss Universe GB platform Dilani wishes to continue her work on a larger scale, encourage women to pursue a career in STEM, change the misconceptions of the industry and break stereotypes.

noky simbani

In 2020, Miss Universe Great Britain finalist, Noky graduated from the University of Birmingham with a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and briefly worked as an engineer. She is now a Chartered Commercial Banker, driving enterprise growth initiatives to support businesses across the country. She also loves to bake and previously ran her own celebration cake business. Outside of her regular work, Noky is a diversity and inclusion ambassador and a careers ambassador, sharing her career journey with young people across the country and supporting them to develop the skills they need to succeed in their future careers. She is also a BAME ambassador for SmartWorks, a charity who provide personal styling, clothing and coaching for unemployed women looking to reenter the workplace. Recently, she hosted a charity event to support the organisation.