Now, contests claim to reward personality, intelligence, body positivity, social causes and charity work, alongside rounds in which competitors model swimsuits, national dress or evening gowns. They are run by separate bodies and have different rounds and rules, but what all have in common is that they claim to advocate more than beauty. While thousands of beauty pageants take place around the world every year, international competitors aim to make the finals for the prestigious “Big Four”: Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. When we arrived, everyone turned to look at this group of young, beautiful women and they had no idea what we were actually going through. “It was so ironic because at the hotel before, girls were crying and we spent hours putting on makeup, trying to mask our insecurities. On a trip to Barcelona, she and her fellow contestants went to a restaurant. Eventually, she found herself in tears, but not knowing why the more “beautiful” she became, the less happy she felt. It ruins your self worth.” As she approached the final, she exercised excessively, leaving her constantly tired, hungry and angry. “It doesn’t matter if you think you’re beautiful you are there to be judged. “You give so much power and control to somebody else,” she tells me. Schenirer, now a writer based in New York, recalls standing in heels and a bikini, in front of a panel full of strangers – an experience that left her feeling broken and insecure and “like a piece of meat”. The Miss Israel competition, which crowned Hollywood star Gal Gadot as a winner in 2004, was once one of hundreds of contests that take place annually around the globe, where women parade on stage in varying outfits, winning points for talent, personality, charity work and other criteria. Her national service had just finished, and she had some spare time before starting university – so, she thought, why not? Raz Schenirer was 20 when her mum entered her into the Miss Israel beauty pageant.

It ruins your self worth’ (Peter Lomas/Shutterstock)

‘It doesn’t matter if you think you’re beautiful you are there to be judged.

Completely naked junior miss pageant