The grand final of Miss England 22 was held at the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport as a 2 day final on the 16th & 17th of October.
30 finalists were invited to participate, who qualified from a series of regional and virtual heats in a fast moving fashion show style event.
The outgoing queen “Rehema Muthamia’ crowned her successor following an incredible parade through the audience with the African Performing Arts for her final catwalk in front of the hundreds of supporters attending the event.
Miss England 22 was sponsored by Dentakay Dental Clinic , with Jessica Gagen , an aerospace student from Skelmersdale Lancashire being crowned the winner who will now represent England in the 71st Miss World.
Jessica cried when she won and revealed she suffered years of bullying and torment at school for the color of her hair .
The two show hosts were a former Miss & Mr England winners “Natasha Hemmings “ (who has recently been on a nationwide tour with Ronan Keating) and “Jordan Williams” , (a Michael Buble tribute act who appeared on ITVs Starstruck)
The West End Camp Musical theatre performers entertained the audience during the exciting event as Sophie Clarke , a singer from Liverpool sang as the finalists walked the catwalk in their glamorous eveningwear.
In the lead up to the grand final, contestants were invited to participate in various qualifying rounds which fast tracked the winners or runners up to the top 12.
Each of the contestants who made it to the top 12 shortlist were recognised at the event by winning an award or being a top scoring finalist.
Here’s the full results of Miss England 22
The top 3 winners were 2nd Runner up , Emily Cossey a Chemical Engineering graduate from Chelsea, 1st Runner up Milly Everatt a Farmer from North East Lincolnshire and winner Jessica Gagen from Skelmersdale Lancashire
SPORTSROUND
To kick off the Miss England Live contest -a sportsround was held at the Leicester Football Dome and culminated with a Penalty shoot out between the top 10 contestants following an intense workout with Rob Hughes PT.
BEAUTIFUL BROWS & LASHES SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER
Paramedic Alice Jones ( 26) from Walsall was chosen as the Beautiful Brows and Lashes Social media queen after creating her own social media video promoting the brand. All finalists had the option of entering the fast track round with the chance to win a place in the final 12 round. Watch Alice’s video here
BRIGHTEST SMILE AWARD
The founder of Dentakay Dental Clinics “Dr Gulay’ was a judge for the Dentakay Brightest Smile award . Initially contestants were invited to submit images of themselves showing their best smile using the dentists hashtag #wemakeyousmile . Dr Gulay chose Jessica Gagen in the first part of the grand final as their winner.
THE JUDGE’S CHOICE – EMILY COSSEY
The national final judges then all voted for Jessica to win the Miss England crown after she reached the final 12 , Jessica delivered a powerful top 5 speech about how she wants to encourage more women in the STEM.
SOLAAIR SEQUIN WALLS TALENT WINNER
The Top 3 in the Solaair Sequin walls Talent round performed at the event on the first day. Emily Harrison from Birmingham , Georgia Austin (winner ) from Liverpool and Anjali Sinha from Essex took to the stage to try and impress the judges on the first night . The auditions had been held previously between 12 semi finalists to celebrate the launch of the Solar Air Sequin Walls new influencers lounge in Mansfield Nottinghamshire and contestants performed in front of the brands glitzy backdrops who often provide décor for Strictly and top TV shows.
CETUEM BARE FACE
Cetuem Bare Face award the finalists were encouraged to post an image of themselves make up free on social media to promote natural beauty . At the Miss England semi final , Melisa Raouf decided to compete in the whole Miss England contest without make-up attracting worldwide media coverage for herself and the Miss England contest . Continuing with her make up free campaign , Melisa made the top 5 in the Miss England grand final and is now an ambassador for Cetuem Skincare . ITVs “Lorraine” Show filmed Melisa participating in the Miss England contest Live on the morning of the final and Melisa was also presented with the Publicity Queen award at the event.
ARTERO BEAUTIFUL HAIR & PUBLIC VOTE WINNER
The winner of the Artero Beautiful Hair round was Neha Dhull , a social worker from Surrey . Neha also won the Peoples Choice vote in the contest and she reached the final 5 interview stage .
BEAUTY WITH A PURPOSE TOP FUNDRAISER
As always. the Miss England finalists came up with innovative ways to raise funds for charity in the lead up to the Miss England grand final. An array of fundraising activities included Climbing the O2 , Sky Dives , a Wing Walk , bake sales and sponsored walks were just some of the activities the contestants themselves arranged . Between the finalists , contestants managed to raise over £32,000 split between the Miss World Beauty with a Purpose charity and Papyrus , the Prevention of Young Suicide charity . Over £7,400 was raised by Corel-Jo , a fine art student from Newcastle ! Corel-Jo was then fast tracked through to the Miss England Grand final . Corel-Jo was the highest scoring contestant in the contest from the region which she lives , and has now been awarded the title Miss Newcastle & a diamond necklace from Diamond Dealer Direct for all of her fundraising efforts as she intends to enter Miss England again!
WASUP QUEEN OF THE DECADES – (World Against Single Use Plastic)
For the first time, Professor Rashid Gatrad (OBE) founder of WASUP sponsored the Miss England Ethical fashion round to promote recycling and the World Against Single use Plastic campaign The Eco round was renamed the WASUP QUEEN & contestants were encouraged to get involved with his campaign in the lead up to the contest & get involved with litter picks and promote recycling as well as creating an elegant recycled outfit to wear on the catwalk at the final from recycled materials or something that has been recycled.
Following her immense work with WASUP since 2021 , there could be no other contestant more deserving of the crown than Jennifer Carless , who continues to work tirelessly to promote the campaign despite suffering a crippling illness and numerous hospital visits during the last year .Jennifer continues to spread the WASUP message across the world having already visited Pakistan with the organisation and has given numerous speeches at conferences across England to promote the cause.
BEACH BEAUTY
Milly Everatt who finished 1st Runner up in the Miss England contest won the Beach Beauty award . Judged by Michael Dayo from My Paradise Shoot , the swimwear round was held at Lighthouse Fashion studios in Leicester between a shortlisted group of finalists .
FLAWLESS MISS PHOTOGENIC
Finally, the Miss England finalists were all invited to have a make over and photoshoot at Flawless Photography & Make over studios to enter this photographic round in the lead up to the final. Following the shoot the contestants images were shown on the Miss England website and Flawless voted for a Miss Photogenic which was award to Alice giving her TWO national awards in the contest Alice finished 6th overall in Miss England 22.
Three finalists who didn’t win an award but reached the top 12 after impressing the judges were Alanta Richards from Surrey (16) Briana Smith (16 ) from Cumbria and Emily Cossey (24) from Chelsea who finished 3rd overall in the contest !
PRIZES
The winner of Miss England Jessica won an array of prizes including a trip to the Maldives for a charity calendar shoot with My Paradise shoot , a wardrobe of eveningwear from To The Nines , a Humanitarian trip to India with BOPA a trip to Antalya Turkey from Dentakay Dental Clinic , and skincare from Cetuem and make up from Beautiful Brows & Lashes .
The contest was choreographed by Lisa Powell who this year celebrated her 20th year of working together with Angie Beasley , the Director of Miss England.
Angie Beasley said “ Lisa did a great job as always & all the girls did so well. I have seem many of the finalists congratulating Jessica and wishing her well, I think she’s going to be a great role model for England ! Jessica’s determination to win and beat the bullies is admirable and I wish her all the very best with her reign as the new Miss England “
5 former Miss England winners attended the event 3 were judges including (Pictured with Angie )
Miss England 2014 Dr Carina Tyrrell , Dr Bhasha Mukherjee , Singer songwriter & host Natasha Hemmings & Laura Coleman Model and new mum all pictured with Dr Gulay from Dentakay & Angie Beasley
4 former Miss England winners with Angie & Dr Gulay (centre both in Red )
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