Winning Miss Bristol 2010 is undeniably my proudest and happiest moment! However I have widely involved myself in the media world since the age of 15, initially through modelling -allowing me to fall in love with a burgeoning industry that contains the fast paced challenging nature which I hunger for in a career. I have pursued my passion through gaining experience in commercial, editorial, fashion, runway, and promotional modelling. As well as hosting events and working as a brand ambassador. However after coming 2nd in Bristol’s Next Top Supermodel competition due to being too curvy for high fashion modelling, I decided to embrace my figure and take my experience within the industry in order help expand ideas about beauty in women and celebrate womanly figures. I delivered a presentation about how advertising creates unrealistic images about women to my college. And annually continue to celebrate femininity by running the race for life every year in aid of Breast Cancer Research and have done since 2001. Despite the fact this decision meant that not so many modelling jobs were available to me I have no regrets. And have been fortunate enough that my modelling career has continued to grow. I am to this day signed by 3 agencies, work part time as a model for Abercrombie & Fitch and continue to help organise and model in charity fashion shows as often as possible and hope that young girls watching can relate to myself and see that it doesn’t take a size 0 figure to strut the catwalk! One thing I particularly try to encourage is eco-friendly ethics whilst working within the fashion industry, I supported and took part in The Sustainability Fashion Show in Bristol this year and completed an interview for a local radio station about the how easy and fun eco-friendly fashion is prior to this. I then appeared in a spread in DV8 Magazine modelling Recycled clothing from a local designer Wombat. Conclusively I am a massive fan of this year’s eco – friendly round! Academically I achieved 13 GCSE’s , 5 AS levels, and am currently pending the results of my A2’s which I am course hoping to be all A’s!! Since winning the Miss Bristol title I have deferred my place at university for this coming September so that I can focus myself solely on living out my title to the full. I still and always have however keep my school life close to heart, going through being bullied myself through school up until fairly recently, I feel I am in a position to empathise with young people, and have done all I can to deliver a voice that I found difficult to reach when I was in their position. I set up an anti-bullying scheme that involved making older students within my school available to talk with younger students anonymously about any issues or problems they were going through. After completing my GCSE’s I began to do volunteer mentoring with new students joining the school and still to do this maintain a close relationship with many of them which has made the experience even more rewarding. Finally within school I became involved in the ‘We are what we do’ campaign, promoting the idea of small changes x lots of people = big changes! We created a sketch show to show that small everyday changes can make a massive difference to the world.

I have been involved in much drama work from a young age, achieving honours in numerous LAMDA examinations. Academically I attended a specialist performing arts college and through that achieved a GCSE in Drama and soon an A level in Performing Arts. I attended Drama Youth Theatre for many years, and after completing the available courses I continued to attend as an assistant. Sports wise, I love to get outside through surfing, cycling, and running – and have completed the race for life for the last six years whilst raising money for Breast Cancer Research. I am also a keen skier and I plan on my gap year to hopefully do a ski season in the Alps and turn my basic French into fluency! From a young age I have always loved extreme sports, and have been blessed that in the past I have the opportunity to do parasailing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, kayaking, kite surfing, rock climbing, mountain climbing and windsurfing in the past. And will be completing a skydive for charity later this year! Those close to me however will argue that most definitive talent is debate! I have been part of various debating clubs, a member of the school council, and was on a gifted and talented list for persuasive speech and writing. And to this day continue to have an interest in politics and current affairs.

More than anything I wish to live a life that’s buzzing full of things I can be proud of. I have always aimed high and hope that I will forever continue to do so! I would love to achieve all A’s at A level, and make the most of the opportunities I will have presented to me at University where I will be studying Media Production and Culture. Modelling developed my initial passion to be part of the media, as well as strengthening my character, determination and blessing me with a huge sense of reality within life – that you get exactly what you put into life. And I really do hope that one day I can achieve success through a media related career. An ambition dearest to my heart is to raise the support of disabled adults and children who are so often brushed aside in today’s society due to often having no voice of their own. My younger brother suffers from severe disabilities and inspires me every day to grab every opportunity, never judge anyone based on their outside, and to take absolutely nothing for granted. I have learnt these things through being lucky enough to have a fantastic family unit who have supported me constantly. Therefore I am honoured that I can use the Miss Bristol to promote this and other incredibly important causes. Finally I will do all I can to make Bristol proud of its representative at this year’s Miss England final!

Amy won Miss Bristol on Sunday 21st March 2010 at the Grand Hotel Bristol. The event was organised and sponsored by Stages Hair Design. www.stageshairdesign.co.uk