Meet the Sunderland women hoping to become Miss England

Christina Mock, 23, and Amber Peters, 22, are competing in this year’s virtual Miss England, and are campaigning for votes on the Miss England app in the hopes of winning the national title.

Amber, from Silksworth, says entering the contest has helped to boost her confidence.

She said: “I was quite insecure growing up and in the last few years I’ve faced challenges which have knocked my confidence.

"I saw the Miss England contest on social media so I decided to give it a try.”

Amber, who plans to return to university to study journalism, modelled in the SAFC catalogue when she was younger and she says it gave her a taster of modelling.

She said: “My dad used to work at the Stadium of Light and they needed some children for the catalogue. Me and my brothers were the age they wanted so we all ended up modelling for it. I used to love going into school with the catalogue for show and tell.”

As part of their entry into the competition each woman submitted three videos, doing an at home catwalk as well as performing a talent, and were chosen as two of 12 finalists from the North East.

People can vote for them on the Miss England app.

Christina, who is studying a PGCE in Primary Education at Sunderland University said she decided to enter the contest to keep busy during lockdown when she wasn’t on placements.

She said: “I have competed in other things such as figure skating and cheerleading, so performing and making the videos were fairly easy for me to do.”

Speaking about potentially winning the title, she said: “Winning Miss England would be amazing. I would continue to be a positive role model and hopefully influence children and others to push themselves to try new things and use my image to promote body positivity and show people that you don’t need to alter your body and face on apps because then it’s just not you anymore and you are beautiful no matter what.”

She added: “I’d also like to do some fundraising for dementia and Alzheimer’s organisations in tribute to my late grandma, Edith, who passed away in January 2020 who had both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s.”

All the contestants taking part in the virtual contest are being invited to have a makeover and photo shoot at Flawless Photography Studios in Middlesbrough once Lockdown is lifted.

Voting continues until the end of March which will then produce a Top 6 who will then be interviewed by NHS Doctor Bhasha Mukherjee, the reigning Miss England.

Bhasha became the first British Asian to win the title has been the longest serving Miss England due to the pandemic cancelling last years event. She won Miss England back in August 2019 when it was hosed by the Gainford Group in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

For more information on the North East finalists visit https://www.missengland.info/qualifiers/north-east/

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