Meet the editor of Crowns and Sashes Magazine
Hello everyone, my name is Charlotte Lister and I'm the woman behind Crowns and Sashes Magazine as well as the current Ms Diamond South Yorkshire, I will be competing for the title of Ms Diamond UK in August where the winners travel to Regency International in Las Vegas.
My Pageant History
I competed in my first pageant back in 2012 it was my first ever pageant and I had no idea what to expect but I instantly feel in love with them. I didn't win and I didn't even place but I was lucky enough to win best dressed wearing a Kiss Me Kate gown and I even won Miss Congeniality ! Yes I felt like Sandra Bullock ! From there I went on to win Miss British Empire Sheffield and then Face of the Globe North East and I even went to Paris to compete in the International. After that I dipped my pageant heels in and out of pageant land some successful some not successful, I did win Royal UK Miss Ms Role Model which was an amazing achievement. After bit of a pageant break I signed up to the Ms Diamond UK pageant in 2019 and I also competed in Ms Scuba UK with permission from my director as it wasn't contracted and it was lovely to get back on stage and it made me more excited to compete in Ms Diamond UK.
Lockdown
Due to the pandemic my pageant final got postponed so instead of competing in 2020 in now are competing in 2021. Before lockdown I was very busy arranging charity days in my workplace, taking part in fun runs including one getting covered in bubbles and one dress as a Koloa (the things we do for charity), taking part in a bungee jump and volunteering at my local children's hospice but when we went into lockdown that stopped so I decided to create a pageant lockdown blog in lockdown 1. Over 4 weeks I interviewed over 150 from not just the UK, but America and Australia it was amazing reading all these incredible women journeys in pageantry and also how they support there local community and there individual platforms. I also tried to make a continuous effort to support fellow pageant queens with there online campaigns and even my local charities. One of the most memorable things I did in lockdown 1 was to complete 30 in 30 which was a charity event ran virtually by The Sheffields Children's Hospital, for 30 days I had to complete 30 minutes of exercise each day which I completed and it even hit the online news locally and in India. I also too part in podcasts and filmed interviews to allow people not only to get to know me but also more about my platform of cancer awareness and end of life care.
During lockdown 2 I decided to go back to college to become qualified in my pageant platform so I studied a Level 2 course in Cancer Awareness and also a Level 2 course in the Principles of End of Life Care. This then lead to me completing an additional 13 course in a number of subjects, 4 being digital skills and social media which then lead to my Lockdown 3 project.
Crowns and Sashes Magazine
During my regional reign I have been lucky enough to feature in pageant magazines in the USA which gave me an idea to combined my lockdown blog and also the new skills I learnt from my digital skills course while raising money for the Samaritans. This is when I came up with the idea of creating a pageant magazine which is released monthly, allows all pageant finalists and queens to be featured while asking for a donation which goes to charity which when I was researching this there was nothing like it in the UK. I launched the first issue in Jan 2021 with the help of my assistant editor Lyndsay and now we have just launched Issue 3 with a brand new layout and Issue 4 is nearly full already ! Due to the success of the first couple of issues we decided to expand to them team to help with social media (I even did a Reel which I was so nervous about but its had over 1k views) and also to start conducting filmed interviews which get released weekly on the Crowns and Sashes Social Media pages and YouTube channel again for a small donation of £2 which goes directly to the Samaritans.
So far the magazine has raised £671 ex gift aid and £742.50 inc gift aid, which is a huge amount and can help so many people suffering with ill mental health. I am hoping to reach the £700 ex gift aid by the end of April.
Cancer Awareness Platform
As well as being the editor for the magazine I always try and stay true to my pageant platform and raise as much awareness as possible and this is the reason why I put in cancer awareness features in the magazine and also create awareness videos. In October last year I did a Breast Cancer awareness video by taking inspiration from Lorraine Kelly by doing a boomerang and asking other pageant finalists to get involved, in November I asked pageant girls to wear moustaches to help raise awareness of Male Cancers, in January I created a Smear for Smear video as well as a feature in the Magazine, in February I created a World Cancer Awareness video where myself and other pageant finalists and queens all said a different type of cancer and that video got over 1k views. Most recently I did a teal feature in the magazine to help raise awareness of Ovarian Cancer and also created another awareness video and next month I am doing the same for Bowel Cancer as sadly my Grandad passed away from this.
Anyway that's me pageant wise, none pageant wise I am a Mum to a 10 year old mini me who is already pageant obsessed due to the Crowns and pretty dresses ! I am also a college student as I am re training to be a teaching assistant after losing my job due to the pandemic so far I have completed my Level 1 Teaching Assistant Course, Level 2 Children's Mental Health and Level 2 Safeguarding Course.
Much Love
Charlotte