By Victoria Stone-Meadows
A HAMPTON Park woman has been crowned Ms Universal, but is facing an uphill battle to muster support for her charity work because beauty pageants in Australia are not taken seriously.
Nathalie Nicole travelled to the United States in July where she competed in the Ms Universal pageant – one of the few beauty pageants for divorced women and/or single mothers.
Ms Nicole had never competed in a beauty pageant before she became Ms Australia Universal because they weren’t usually open to divorced women or single mothers, and was surprised to place highly in the contest.
Ms Nicole was first runner-up at the pageant, but as the winner from Russia soon had her title stripped for not meeting her obligations, Ms Nicole was crowned Ms Universal, by default.
She was awarded first runner-up with a very small margin between her and the original winner though she was awarded best interview, Miss Congeniality and best charity platform.
A survivor of abuse, violence, and suicide attempts, Ms Nicole’s charity work sees her working with other women who may be survivors of or currently in similar situations surrounding family violence.
“I spend my time speaking to women who have survived this as well because I want to be a role model and someone to look up to and someone who understands,” she said.
“That’s been my whole tag line; not a victim but a survivor.”
However, in attempting to continue her charitable work and create a network for women who are survivors of abuse, she has found the negative take on beauty pageants in Australia has been a hindrance.
“Beauty pageants are not well known in Australia, and where they are known, they don’t have a great reputation,” she said.
“I have contacted councils and community organisations to speak at events, but people assume the lifestyle is all about beautiful dresses and heels and assume I’m stupid.”
“More and more I’m finding an uphill battle against the reputation of being a beauty queen, but I am community focused and want to work with women who have been through a hard time who don’t have a support network.”
Ms Nicole said she would like to see more opportunities extended to women who didn’t fit traditional female societal roles, both in the beauty pageant world and everyday life.
“There are not many pageants that allow single mums or divorced women or women over 26, and there are not many opportunities for us overall,” she said.
“We are an untapped market and want to have the same opportunities as other women.
Ms Nicole said through her time at the Ms Universal pageant she had met amazing women who weren’t afforded the benefit of the doubt as other women received.
“I have met really intelligent women with histories like myself who are looked down upon because they are single mums,” she said.
“I am a single mum and people assume I’m needy or don’t have anything to offer, and it is a constant battle of stigmas I have accrued through my life experiences.”
Ms Nicole wants to use her position to fight the stigmas surrounding women who take on non-traditional roles within society.
“I know a lot of other single mums that can’t get dates or don’t get hired for jobs because people assume we need to take time off to look after our kids and so on.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is we have thought about all that before, and we are more than capable of managing the same as anyone else.”
