Zoiey Smale / Facebook Zoiey Smale / Facebook / Facebook

AFTER WINNING THE title of Miss UK, Zoiey Smale from Nottinghamshire was due to compete in the Miss United Continents pageant in Ecuador.

She hit out at the competition on Facebook:

It shocks me more than anything that there are still pageants out there who only view size 00 girls as role models. Let me tell you something, pageant girls are more than just a number on a clothing tag.

She wrote that after ten years in the industry she was too familiar with ‘pageant directors bullying young girls into believing the only way to be successful is to be thin’. Smale criticised competitions claiming to be pageants:

[They] insist you eat less, parade around in a bikini for a few days and sit at the arm of a man over dinner whilst pushing an olive around a plate… Honey let me tell you, this is NOT a pageant.

Zoiey had left retirement to go back and enter one last ‘Miss’ competition after winning the UK’s national title, hoping that she’d have one last positive experience because she knows that pageants have come a long way in the last decade.

Zoiey Smale / Facebook Zoiey Smale / Facebook / Facebook

However, she was proven wrong.

After being asked to lose weight and go on a diet plan for an international competition, I have withdrawn. Some of you may think this is cowardly, however I don’t think it is right to have my face representing a pageant ethos I do not believe in. I will be handing back my crown and wish the new title holder the very best of luck.

If a pageant doesn’t want to utilise my capabilities because I am a size 10, then it’s there loss [...] It’s a case of right girl, wrong pageant.

Since publicly distancing herself from the Miss United Continents competition, Zoiey shared on Facebook that she woke up to the support of thousands of people supporting her decision and sharing their own stories. She now plans to retire permanently from pageants.

According to Mashable, Smale isn’t the only pageant queen to pull out after facing pressure to lose weight.

Miss Iceland quit an international beauty pageant after staff told her to lose weight for the finals. The Icelandic pageant queen,  Arna Ýr Jónsdótti, took to Instagram to share a handwritten ‘Goodbye’ letter.

I am a very strong woman, but sometimes my strength isn’t enough. Your staff told me that I had to lose weight for the finals because I have too much fat on me and also too big shoulders. They told me to eat less and then you would like me more. I decided to leave.

A step in the right direction from both of them. Every time a woman walks away from an employer needlessly trying to dictate her weight, these industries get a step closer to realising that those requests have never been acceptable or healthy and they never will be.

DailyEdge is on Snapchat! Tap the button below to add!