Miss Teen Northumberland from Alnwick uses her title to work with autistic young people

The 17-year-old was previously awarded the title ‘Miss Teen Northumberland’ in 2023 and has since competed in multiple pageants.

Recently, Betty was awarded the prestigious Ellie Cartwright Award at the Miss Crown UK pageant, which was named after a pageant girl who passed away from a rare genetic disorder.

The award was created for someone to carry on her legacy as the most inspirational beauty queen and Betty is the first person to receive this. She hopes to use the title to continue her work with other autistic young people.

Soon she will be competing for Miss Teen Ocean in the Miss Ocean World pageant, which aims for a pollution free ocean.

Betty said: "I contracted Covid-19 and because of my autism I had it very badly. I ended up being a wheelchair for about six months so it took me a long time to learn to walk.

“I started swimming in the sea to strengthen my legs and then, once I was able to walk, I wanted to be able to be proud of the achievements so I wondered about catwalks.

“Then I stumbled across a woman on Instagram who was a national and international beauty queen but her whole thing is that she's a plus-sized queer woman competing, and I found that really inspirational.

"A couple of months later I sent in my application for Galaxy and since then I've just used it as a way to gain confidence, make new friends and continue my work around autism.”

To be accepted for the regional title, Betty needs to send photos then talk about herself, her achievements and why she thinks she would be a good fit for the title.

“I'm looking forward to doing the swimwear round on stage,” Betty continued. “I'm also going to be taking part in the talent round, which is an additional sash and title so that would be amazing to win.

“I'll be doing a piece of dance, something I've been doing since I was younger. I started doing yoga and aerial dance to help with strengthening after Covid.”

EB bridal, Alnwick, is sponsoring Betty with a dress but she is still looking for more sponsors. You can contact Betty via [email protected].