A WESTWOOD College student from Leek has reached the national finals of a teen beauty contest.
Olivia Povey, 18, from Ashbourne Road, emphatically won her heat of the Miss Teen Queen UK 2010 competition, beating 25 other hopefuls.
Polling more than 2,000 votes, Miss Povey (pictured) will now travel down to London in August next year for the national beauty pageant.
The media and geography student will take part in swimwear and ball gown parades, as well as facing tough questioning on why she should represent teenagers across the nation.
Miss Povey said she couldn’t believe it when she found she had won her heat.
She said: “I knew I was in with a shot, particularly after I started campaigning and had the publicity. But it still came as a bit of a shock to find I had won with 2,000 votes! “I’m absolutely delighted and can’t wait to get down to London.”
Miss Teen Queen UK was launched in 2006 as the country’s first teen beauty pageant. To get to the heats Miss Povey has already travelled down to the capital to take part in a professional photo shoot after impressing in her initial application.
Despite her modelling success, she still harbours hopes of going behind the lens into media production.
She said: “Loads of people are telling me I should get in front of the camera, but I don’t think that’s for me and I really want to go into media production.
“I think I’ll do fine at the finals, although I’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready. In the meantime I’m going to do some voluntary work.” Miss Povey’s dad, Steve, said the family were amazed with her success.
He said: “I just think it’s amazing, she’s done so well in the voting which shows that lots of people have got behind and supported her.
“I really think she has a chance to win the thing and prove she’s got what it takes to represent teenagers in the UK.”