A 71-year-old \u201cGlamour Gran\u201d has said \u201cthis is only the beginning\u201d after having an \u201camazing\u201d experience despite missing out on the top spot at a Miss Great Britain beauty pageant.<\/p>\n
Ann Marie Harper, from Ayrshire, Scotland, made history as the oldest contender to reach the national final through a regional heat in the pageant\u2019s 81-year history.<\/p>\n
Best known by her alias Glamour Gran Ann, the septuagenarian competed in the Ms Great Britain Classic category at the competition on Friday night and was given the \u201cimpact over image\u201d award.<\/p>\n
The Classic is open to women aged 45 and over, meaning she was pitted against rivals up to 26 years her junior.<\/p>\n
Ann Marie Harper did not finish in the top five in her category Credit: Ryan McDougall\/PA<\/p>\n
Ally Sussex, from Surrey, took the crown after three previous attempts.<\/p>\n
The other categories on the night were Miss Great Britain and Ms Great Britain, won by Yazmin McClean of Belfast and Holly Pirrie of Warrington respectively.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Press Association on Saturday, Ms Harper said: \u201cI\u2019m still on a high, I can\u2019t come down, it\u2019s been absolutely wonderful.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything about it was absolutely\u2026 it was just amazing, and walking on that stage was just something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing 71 years of age and being there, it was phenomenal, and more older people are coming forward and saying \u2018I\u2019m going to do that\u2019. That makes me so happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is only the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe beautiful girl that won it, she deserved it, she deserved every bit of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all just love each other, whoever won, it didn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s not about the winning it\u2019s about the taking part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Harper has used her participation to champion age positivity, confidence and greater visibility for older women while raising awareness of causes close to her heart, including her chosen charity Clasp \u2013 an Ayrshire-based organisation which supports older people and works to tackle loneliness and social isolation.<\/p>\n
Ms Harper grew up with learning difficulties and said she was told she would \u201camount to nothing\u201d. She now speaks openly about her struggles with confidence and mental health to help others.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI\u2019ve gone from being someone who struggled enormously with confidence to representing Scotland on a national stage, making history and receiving an award I am incredibly proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
After receiving her prize, she said: \u201cThis award means so much to me because it represents everything I\u2019ve been trying to achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about having a voice, making a difference and showing women that no matter their age or what they\u2019ve been through, they still have so much to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Harper launched her own cosmetics brand, which sells a make-up palette called the Glam Goddess Collection, at the age of 66.<\/p>\n
She is active on social media and her Instagram and TikTok pages have thousands of followers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 71-year-old \u201cGlamour Gran\u201d has said \u201cthis is only the beginning\u201d after having an \u201camazing\u201d experience despite missing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-806218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}