Best friends vying to be Ultimate Beauty

Amanda Mitchell, 21, and Aisling Hillen, 20, are both finalists in the contest, run by Taylor-Rae Hamilton, after deciding to enter it together.

“Basically I saw Taylor-Rae had put on her Facebook page she was opening applications and I was debating if I should apply or not,” Amanda said. “My boyfriend was the one who convinced me to and a couple of weeks later I got an email to say I was a finalist.

“I couldn’t believe it and I was so excited to be taking part. I told Aisling I was doing it and I badgered her to apply as well because I knew she would love the experience.

“Aisling and I met when we were both studying for our A-Level Drama in 2011 at New-Bridge Integrated College and we’ve been inseparable ever since.

“We do literally everything together and we thought that a beauty pageant should be no different as we are both so girly and we love having our hair and make up done.”

Amanda is representing Zimbabwe while Aishling is representing County Down.

Amanda said: “I’m representing Zimbabwe because that’s where all my family are from and I was born there, I moved here whenever I was 5. Aisling is representing County Down as she has lived in Banbridge her whole life.”

The Ultimate Beauty of the World is an international natural beauty pageant for all ages, five and upwards, which focuses on all aspects of beauty such as personality and your attributes rather than just your appearance.

The girls will be helping to raise money for charity.

“Part of being in the pageant is to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation, so in the next few weeks Aisling and I will hopefully be out in town trying to fundraise,” Amanda said.

“It’s such a worthwhile charity as they help sick children to make their dreams come true.”