BARING IT ALL

Elle Seline, 31, is a beauty queen with a difference

- FIONA KINLOCH

Standing in front of the judging panel at the Ms Great Britain 2021 final at a Leicester venue, I felt wholly empowered. While my satin burgundy dress was on a par with the outfits worn by the other competitors, there was something very different about how I’d presented myself.

Without so much as a flick of powder, my bare-faced look of choice made me the first-ever woman to take part in the event without make-up. And, while having worn make-up every day for the past two decades made the prospect somewhat daunting, I hoped my move towards promoting beauty positivity would make the experience worthwhile.

Issues with my self-esteem first began when I was a teenager. At school, my thick eyebrows and the dark hair on my arms from my part-Mediterranean heritage saw me teased. The bullying took a devastating toll on my confidence and, more than anything, I just wanted to blend in with my peers.