A Wrexham-born woman has credited the city for setting her up for success as she prepares for a national pageant.
Olivia Vale will be representing West London in the Miss Galaxy 2024 pageant but says that growing up in Wrexham set her up for a successful career.
The 24-year-old was born and bred in Wrexham before moving away to London at 18 to attend University College London (UCL).
She has close ties with the community, with her parents owning Caroline’s Viennese Patisserie and had worked there for her first ever job.
She said: “Growing up and working in Wrexham really exposed me to a lot of genuine and hardworking people and growing up in that environment in my mum and dad’s shop really inspired a work ethic in me and I met a lot of interesting people from the town. It was brilliant really.”
Olivia got into modelling whilst in Wrexham initially. She was a part of a local dance group and at around the age of 17 was approached by a photographer who worked with the group to do some further work with them.
She also grew in confidence while attending Ysgol Clywedog, crediting the staff at the school for giving her a good start in life. The school held productions, which “did wonders” for her confidence and developed her as a young person.
Now, she works in communications and engagement but is also doing pageantry, and was chosen to represent West London in the national Miss Galaxy pageant.
She said: “That was something I’d always wanted to do when I was younger but was always a bit too scared but there’s been a lot of changes in my life over the past year, and I was like ‘well if not now, when’ and I thought I’d just go ahead and do it and I was lucky enough to be chosen to compete.”
The Galaxy system has had strong links to Wrexham according to Olivia, with the Miss Galaxy Wales title previously held by Lauren Parkinson in 2017 who then later went on to become Miss Grand Wales.
The final will be held in March in Warrington, and Olivia has plans to develop her charity work as part of the competition.
“The main reason I wanted to compete in the competition is to use my voice as somebody competing in a national competition to empower women and inspire other young women to be more active in their community because a big part of working in the pageant ‘world’ is centred around charity work and being involved in the community.
“A strong sense of community is something that I developed in Wrexham really, because Wrexham is such a tight-knit community and people do support one another.”
Olivia is hoping to work with young adults whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer, or other loved ones who have been diagnosed with cancer.
She added: “My mission really is to get that platform launched and to be able to support other young people who may have been through similar experiences to myself.”
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Oliva encourages anyone who wants to get into the modelling industry and pageantry to look for opportunities and take them, safely and sometimes with caution, because she says they are out there.
She said: “Go for it if that’s what you want to be, I did and I was lucky enough to be able to make something of it.”
Olivia would also want to connect with any aspiring models and pageant girls from Wrexham and be able to give them my support and advice. They can reach her on Instagram: @misswestlondongalaxy24
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