Melisa Raouf, a 20-year-old girl from London, is ruling the news headlines. The young girl made the impossible possible and broke the stereotype that has been followed for the past 94 years. As many of us are aware that beauty pageant programmes are all about makeup, fitness, style, and confidence among other things. But, for the very first time, someone took the beauty standard another meaning. First time in the history of beauty pageants, the world saw a girl with very minimal or no makeup as a brave contender. She competed for the final round of ‘Miss England’ without wearing any makeup.
Melisa is a college student who belongs to South London and reached the advanced level of the beauty pageant. Now she will be going to compete further in October. She was born on November 28, 2001, in Hastings, London. Currently, she is a student at King’s College London and studying politics. She presented her thoughts loud and clear as she claimed that wearing cosmetics, mascara, or lipstick for an occasion or an outing is not compulsorily required for women. She walked the ramp with a lot of confidence and also encouraged other women to be happy in their skin and love their features as they are.
She won many hearts and also earned the position in the finals. She has been getting a lot of praise from all over the world. People are appreciating her efforts as it helped them to boost their self-esteem.
According to her statement in the UK Independent newspaper, “It is crucial to me because I believe that females of all ages wear makeup out of social pressure. There is no need to wear makeup if someone is content with their skin or colour. Instead, it is our shortcomings that characterize and distinguish us." She further said that she started wearing makeup at a young age, but “never felt comfortable," in her skin.
“Even if I’m completely hidden by cosmetics, I still have confidence in myself. I don’t hesitate to share who I am because this is who I am. I wanted to present Melisa as she is,” she said.
The show organiser and director of Miss England Angie Beasley told CNN, “Since the majority of contestants submitted heavily manipulated photos of themselves wearing a lot of makeup, we decided to add the Bare Face Top Model round in 2019. Melissa Raouf intends to perform bare-faced once more at the national final in October, according to the organisers.”
