'People assume toddlers in tiaras' - Derry mother-daughter pageant winners break the mould

A Derry mother daughter pageant duo who recently won the titles of Pure International Preteen Ireland Queen and Pure International Majestic Ms Ireland Queen respectively have spoken to the Derry News about their success.

On the 12th of October 2025, Sarah-Jane Scully and her 12-year-old daughter competed in the Pure Ireland Pageant held in Eglinton and are delighted to share that they have each won.

Sarah-Jane is 32-years-old and is also studying to be a primary school teacher at Ulster University, and is doing a PGCE course.

The mother from Derry said that she started doing pageants back in 2018 when she saw an ad for the Shining Light pageant.

"The Shining Light's whole kind of ethos is surrounding mental health so I signed Alicia up for it because mental health was very important to me. Alicia was five years old at the time."

Sarah-Jane said that her daughter Alicia asked her was she going to do it as well.

"I said 'no' and at five years old, Alicia said, why should I do it if you won't do it? So, then I had to prove a point.

"So, I'd done the Shining Light pageant with Alicia, and once I'd done the first one, I was hooked."

Sarah-Jane said that the experience was amazing, especially the level of support she received from other contestants.

"Everybody was very, very supportive of each other, and the whole experience was just unbelievable."

Sarah-Jane said that she was at one of the lowest points in her life during the time she started her first pageant with her daughter.

"It gave me the confidence to start believing in myself again," Sarah-Jane said.

The mother-daughter duo then competed again in the Shining Light pageant and were awarded titles for Senior Mental Health Queen and Junior Mental Health Queen for their community involvement promoting mental health awareness in Derry.

So, both myself and Alicia were both awarded those titles for all the community work we'd done in order to promote positive mental health.

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For Sarah-Jane, working to help people's mental health is really important to her.

"Mental health, for me personally, I struggle with my own anxiety. I have anxiety. I used to be embarrassed about that.

"I didn't really understand what it was. But as I've grown, I've kind of got to know how it affects me, what it does to me, and I'm no longer embarrassed about it. I'm no longer embarrassed to say that I am on medication for it.

"The way I look at it now is, well, if I had tonsillitis or an infection, I would take medication for that. So, why would I not take medication to help me with my mental health?"

Sarah-Jane's daughter is also an advocate for children's mental health.

"There's quite a lot of children suffering with their mental health, especially post-COVID. One of the main things for Alicia was one of her friends during COVID, watching the news and all that there, her friend felt that if she didn't wash her hands every hour, she would get sick and she would give it to her mum and dad, and her mum and dad were going to die.

"So that child ended up washing her hands so much that her hands ended up almost raw. It was through the fear that she was going to kill her mum and dad, that she ended up being referred to her children's mental health team, which at the time, even myself, I didn't realise there was a children's mental health team set up in the healthcare system."

Alicia does a gift appeal every Christmas and has been doing so for the past seven years, that involves sending gifts to children in hospital during Christmas time.

"She would collect gifts for children from birth right up to 16 years old every year at Christmas. Then she dresses up as an elf and she goes over to the hospital and delivers gifts, gives them out to children that are spending Christmas in hospital," Sarah Jane said.

Alicia started doing this because she used to be in and out of hospital quite a bit as a child due to her asthma.

"There was one year she was in the hospital on Boxing Night. Derry City Football Club came over with presents so she wanted to make other children feel good going forward when they're in hospital not feeling well."

Sarah-Jane also has a project called Minding Me Matters which involves her collecting self-care products and make up self-care packs and donating them to different businesses, organisations and even individuals within the community that may be struggling with their mental health and just need a little pick-me-up.

"The Pure Internationals has always been a pageant that we have strived to get to...this was the first year it ever happened in Ireland, but our friend Rebecca Keyes has been competing in Pure for years.

"She's been quite a big inspiration to both myself and Alicia. So once we heard that Rebecca was bringing it to Ireland we were like right, we have to do this...it was completely different to any other pageant I'd ever been at.

"It was very chilled out, there was no pressure on anybody. Everybody got along, it was as cringey as it sounds, it was like a family...and I just thought to myself, I need to be part of this as well."

Sarah-Jane said that her and her daughter were both delighted to win in the latest pageant competition.

"For me it was a shock for myself to win...as biased as I may be, Alicia is amazing at doing the pageant. She's so confident, her walks on stage are unbelievable in my opinion. Whereas I know I have grown in confidence through pageants, but I still wouldn't be as confident. I wouldn't be confident enough to go, oh I'm definitely going to win this. So when I
did win, I was absolutely over the moon.

"It was a bit overwhelming for me. I was like, oh my god, this has actually happened. But I am delighted to have the title that I have at the moment.

"Both of us are very, very excited for June next year to represent Ireland on the stage in Orlando.

"We have also raised money for different charities. We actually run our own pageant at the moment as well. It is a charity pageant.

"This year we raised just under £1,000 for Air Ambulance NI and under £1,000 for Women's Aid. We have raised money for different charities as well through doing all our pageants. We have raised money for the likes of the Inner City Assistance Team.

"We have raised money for Foreign Search and Rescue, Me For Mental. So it is not just about raising awareness.

"There is a lot of fundraising that we do as well for different charities. I think in total, I could be wrong, but in total we have been, we have shone a light anyway. I now that we have been part of, we don't do it all ourselves, but we have been part of raising over £30,000 for charities. 

"So, people when they hear pageants, they automatically assume toddlers in tiaras and it is not about that. I want to really break that stigma because it is not just about showing up on the day and putting on a bit of make-up and a pretty dress. But while that is a part of it, there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes as well."