BOLD, BEAUTIFUL, CONFIDENT, and determined. That’s how you may describe the reigning Miss Big & Beautiful Gale Ann Williams. She told EASY she had longed to enter the pageant but had never got the chance before.
“Miss Big & Beautiful is a pageant that I always wanted to enter, but it was just the timing. My sponsor, Figure Eight: The Store, this was their third year and I wanted to give them a win. The owner Tonya Trotman is also my boss at SOL Warrens, and with me entering I knew I would have had a sponsor.
“The two went hand in hand,” she said.
Gale Ann recalled that she wasn’t nervous when she went to the auditions, adding that she had always had “a little boldness in me”.
“There were nine women at the auditions. I’ve always had the mentality that I would win . . . and even if I wasn’t saying it out loud I was saying it in my mind. I always had that self-confidence and my family and friends were behind me. So I had motivation.
“I wanted to enter the show because everything about it details me. I like nice things, I like to dress up, I like to look nice. I am big but I am beautiful, and when I’m dressed I look hot. I don’t play when it comes to dressing. My sisters are not full-figured but they will tell their friends, ‘My sister got the size, but when she’s dressed, you don’t want nothing with her’.
“I was always like this growing up. In my teens, I loved to dress up and look nice and you know how people carry this stigma about big people. They think that we are people who just walk about the place looking sloppy; but I always told myself that when they see me, they are not supposed to get that image at all. So, I always had that in me from school.”
Growing up as a plus-size teen was hard, and she was picked on.
“I was always tidy, neat; and I made sure my hair was always well presented, and also my appearance,” said the former student of St Ambrose Primary and Parkinson Memorial Secondary School.
Gale Ann recalled that on her second day at Parkinson, there was a girl who “fret me the whole day about my size”.
Those of you who attended the pageant in October last year would have heard about some of her trials during the dramatic skit titled Champion Girl which she performed in the talent segment.
“It was written by Ishiaka McNeil and it was a true presentation. It was about me being picked on at school because I was a big girl, and then into my adult life as a woman. It was hard.
“You always got picked on. You felt there were certain places you didn’t want to go because people would be pointing and laughing, but I built that confidence in me from about third form because I knew me and I knew the things people would say about me weren’t true.
“I wasn’t different from anyone else because people were smaller than I was. I was a girl. I was human and I still looked presentable like anyone else. So, from third form I got stronger and didn’t care what people said about me.
“I would walk and keep away from negative people; and, knowing myself, I knew that I was beautiful. And my mum would always make sure that I knew that”.
She said she would be forever grateful to her sister Barbara Williams, her make-up artist and motivator, for everything she had done.
Preparing for the pageant was tough; and Gale Ann said that while director of Miss Big & Beautiful, Tonia Husbands, pushed the contestants to make sure they did their best, it didn’t faze her because she was already motivated.
“When entering this show you must believe in yourself, because if you have low self-esteem you would drop out because of the pressure that Tonia puts on you sometimes. Tonia doesn’t play. You’ve got to come and you’ve got to work. At a certain time, you should be at a certain stage; and if you’re not, she is going to let you know.
“You have to be able to take constructive criticism and move on. Take it for what it is . . . . Sit and analyse it; then run with it. If you don’t, and take it the wrong way, you wouldn’t believe in yourself. You have to be strong to be in Miss Big & Beautiful because it’s not only about the glitz and the glamour but you have to come and dominate and show that what is being taught you’re learning.”
On the night of the show, Gale Ann faced a small setback after hearing her sponsor was unable to attend. Tonya had been there for her and she wanted to make sure she was in the audience when she won. Her workmates were there to cheer her on, but she really wanted her sponsor and boss.
“I almost cried, but my sister, who was my hairdresser Charmaine Ifill, and my best friend Mechelle Peters, who was my best friend since Parkinson, were there to build me back up. My sister said, ‘This is more reason for you to bring it home’.
“Miss Trotman had my back from day one. Figure Eight: The Store sponsored me in every segment. There was no photoshoot, no outings that I was supposed to attend that she didn’t make sure my attire was there. She would come with six dresses and make sure I chose the one that looked the best. She was there for me no matter if all I needed was a pin. She had my back 100 per cent!”
“We have a great relationship at work and outside of work, and what I love about my boss is that she can divide the two. When it comes to work and I do anything wrong, she’s going to put me straight; and I love that she can separate the two,” said the pageant queen.
While on stage Gale Ann said she felt the love from her mother, sisters, niece and “everyone who came out” to support me.
Her favourite categories were Lingerie and Talent and she was passionate about telling her story. She rehearsed it often to make sure she nailed it.
Since winning, the 35-year-old was promoted to supervisor in training after four years with the company. Her life is continuing on a positive path and she loves it.
Not only is Gale Ann determined to make everyone in her life proud of her achievements; she also wants to give back to others, whether that’s at St Ambrose Anglican Church which she attended while growing up, her old City neighbourhood, to teenagers facing the same challenges she did, her alma mater, or the pageant which provided the platform for her to declare loudly that she was big, beautiful, and would always be a winner. (GBM)
