Miss Derry Amy Doherty: A proud mammy who plans to raise awareness of autism

The new Miss Derry has told how she wants to use her platform to raise awareness of autism in honour of her two young sons.

Amy Doherty was recently given the first-ever Miss Derry crown for the Miss Great Britain pageant and will represent the city in the finals in Leicester in October.

The mother of two boys, Mason (6) and Nathan (4) had never competed in a beauty pageant before she was encouraged to enter by the current Miss Great Britain Eden McAllister, who is from Belfast.

She told the Journal how she dismissed the idea at first, but a seed was planted in her mind.

“I have never done anything like this before and it all happened by chance.

“I work for an empowerment platform and we do events where we have speakers talking about things like resilience and self belief. Eden McAllister was one of the speakers and she came up to me and told me I should apply. I said: ‘Definitely not,’ but it planted a seed. I decided to apply, but didn’t tell a single soul. I never expected to get this far.”

Following a selection process, Amy was ‘delighted and shocked’ to be chosen as Miss Derry and wants to use her platform to raise awareness of autism.

“My two boys are one of the main reasons I did this.

“Mason and Nathan are autistic and I want to raise awareness of and empathy for autism, as well as use this platform to talk about it. I did a Tedtalk on autism and I received messages from so many parents afterwards. I realised that it really needs to be spoken about more. I think a lot of people believe that Miss Great Britain is just make up and dresses, but you can do a lot of charity work and awareness.

“I also think that a lot of people don’t know much about autism. I could be in the supermarket and maybe one of them would have a meltdown and you’d get dirty looks or comments from people saying you should control your child. I’d like to advocate for people to have a bit of empathy.”

As someone who has never competed in pageants before, Amy admits she is a ‘bit nervous’ about what’s ahead but had decided she is ‘just going to go with the flow.’

“This is the first time there has been a Miss Derry for Miss Great Britain- we just had Miss Belfast before- and I’m excited to represent the city. I really liked Miss Great Britain as it’s women of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.”

Amy will also use her year ahead to raise funds for the two supported charities Cancer Research and Alex’s Wish, alongside her work in autism awareness.