Elle Seline
- 31-year-old Elle Seline says she'll compete in the 2021 Ms Great Britain pageant without makeup.
- She hopes her decision will inspire younger generations to feel more confident in their own skin.
- Speaking with Insider, Seline said she wants this decision to extend past the pageant.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
A British pageant contestant is hoping to inspire younger generations to feel confident in their own skin by ditching makeup during an upcoming competition.
The BBC reported on Sunday that Elle Seline, 31, will participate in the Ms Great Britain pageant finals on Thursday and Friday while makeup-free. She told the publication that her decision was inspired by her struggles as a teenager, when she said she was bullied and wore makeup to conceal her insecurities.
Now, she hopes to "empower young women" with her choice to do the opposite.
Seline began wearing makeup at the age of 13, around the same time that her peers began to bully her regarding her appearance.
"I would wear foundation that was a bit lighter than my skin because I was desperate to fit in," she told the BBC.
She now works in the mental-health field, according to the publication, and even competed in the 2020 Ms Great Britain Pageant. Still, she told the outlet that she doesn't feel her original effort was genuine, saying that she didn't "give them Elle."
"I gave them something I thought they wanted to see," she said.
Elle Seline
In an email sent to Insider, Seline said she wants her current stance on not wearing makeup to serve as a "reminder that all women deserve to have the right to make their own choices for themselves."
"We shouldn't feel like we need validation from anyone else but the person in the mirror," she said. "My stance runs deeper than the Ms Great Britain finals - it is my promise to the next generation that we will do better for them."
She continued to say that the added pressures of social media and filtered photos can be "detrimental" to the mental health of younger viewers, making her mission even more important to her.
"If a person reads my story and feels better about themselves as they are, then my struggles as a teen were not in vain," Seline continued. "A woman should feel good enough with or without makeup, and she shouldn't need to validate the reasons behind her choices to anyone."