At one stage in her life Niamh Taylor couldn’t even speak to people she was so anxious but that has all changed now
At one stage in her life Niamh Taylor couldn’t even speak to people she was so anxious but that has all changed now
Evelina Black
05:00, 28 Feb 2026
The first autistic winner of a national beauty pageant said getting her diagnosis made a lot of things make sense for her. Niamh Taylor, 28 and from Halewood, was recently crowned as the United Kingdom’s representative for Miss Supranational and will travel to Poland in July to compete in the world final.
She has competed in the same national competition for the past four years, placing 7th, 3rd, and 2nd before claiming the crown this year. Niamh is also the first winner of a UK beauty pageant who is autistic. She didn’t disclose this to the judges during the competition but now she talks openly about her neurodivergence in the hopes it will inspire people like her.
She told the ECHO: “When I was growing up I wanted to be a teacher but I really struggled with intense anxiety so I started searching for confidence building things in my area, which was Chorley at the time.
“I came across pageantry and went forward for Miss Lancashire when I was 18 and it kind of just snowballed from there. I never expected to do well, I just needed something to push me out of my comfort zone and I ended up falling in love with it.”
Niamh used to struggle with anxiety, particularly around food and social situations which would cause her to have panic attacks. She also experienced selective mutism until her mid 20s, a severe anxiety disorder that made speaking in certain social situations extremely difficult
“The thing that used to scare me the most was walking into a room full of people that I didn’t know and having to speak to them. It was my worst nightmare before pageantry. If I was in a group situation I wouldn’t feel confident enough to speak and even if I went to the shops someone would have to go with me because I found it really overwhelming.
“Doing my first pageant was really terrifying but the pageant community is so sweet and understanding. It’s been a very slow process and it’s taken me 10 years to get to a point where I’m going to an international final but I just can’t thank pageantry enough for helping me get to where I am today. “
“The fact that I can speak to people is crazy, never mind do it on stage and be judged for it. I actually won best in interview at the competition which blows my mind because five years ago it was really hard for me to speak at all.
“I always assumed everything I was experiencing was a part of having a generalised anxiety disorder. As I got older and heard more people speaking about autism publicly I started connecting the dots.”
Research led by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that boys are up to four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism in childhood. They found that by the age of 20, diagnosis rates of men and women were almost equal which challenges previous assumptions that autism is more common among men.
Niamh said: “Signs of autism in girls can go unnoticed because girls tend to mask and shut down and go silent instead of having outbursts. For me it manifested as more anxiety-led which impacted things like food and eating.
“I really struggled with an auditory processing disorder and my mum thought I was deaf growing up. I wouldn’t reply to people when they were talking to me but sometimes it just takes a few seconds for me to process and then I hear what they’re saying.
“It’s been a struggle because people thought that I was ignorant or rude growing up and that would just make me even more anxious and overwhelmed which was a vicious cycle.”
Niamh was on the waiting list for autism assessment for two years before getting diagnosed last year and she said she only sought out an official diagnosis to help further her own knowledge and understanding of herself.
She said: “When I got diagnosed with autism it made a lot of things make sense and no one was surprised when I told them about it.
“I’ve had to push myself to get to where I am today but I’ve not had to ‘fix’ anything about myself because autism isn’t something that can or should be fixed. It’s just been about learning more about myself and different coping strategies.
“I think some people think it’s a negative thing and although it’s been a struggle getting to where I am today, being autistic is my superpower, no matter how cliché that sounds.
“I have very intense interests and pageantry was one of those interests for me growing up which really worked in my favour because I would study it and analyse what works well. It’s about looking for the strengths of autism and not always just focusing on the negatives.”
While beauty pageants differ in how they are judged, the Miss Supranational pageant involved multiple rounds and the women were judged on things like dancing, confidence, styling and modelling.
Forty per cent of their overall score was decided from an interview round and the winner was chosen from the final five contestants by an on stage question they all had to answer.
“This year it was why do want to be the next Miss Supranational and we had to say one thing that we’ve learnt from pageantry.
“Winning Miss Supranational was absolutely incredible. I was an absolute wreck on stage, trying to stop myself from crying but it was the best day of my life.
“I’m so excited to go to Poland. I’ve only got five months to prepare so I’ve been trying to keep the momentum going and be in the best mindset possible. I’ve been training and eating well and I’m trying to make sure that everything is set up as perfectly as possible so I can do everything the best I can.
“It’s a very expensive hobby and while pageantry itself isn’t a career it opens up so many opportunities in things like content creation and modelling.”
Niamh has her own social media management company and alongside working and competing in pageants she also volunteers at a charity called Little Lady Locks. The charity helps children who have experienced hair loss due to conditions such as alopecia, cancer, and other medical circumstances.
Niamh also recently found out that she is related to Princess Diana after her mum, Donna, 59, started searching their family history on the online genealogy site, Ancestry. According to the search, they are both related to the Princess of Wales’ 13th great grandmother, as well as 15th great grandfather.
Niamh said: “It was really funny because we were just at home one day and my mum just went ‘oh my goodness we’re a very distant relative to Lady Diana Spencer’.
“It makes me laugh because previously when I was doing pageantry I’d either not place or get very close to placing and people would always come up to me and say ‘you’re the people’s princess’ so it’s ironic to have that connection now.”
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