A teenager who tried to change the way she looked after being cruelly bullied at school is now a finalist in a beauty pageant.
Alisha Fariyike, 19, dreamed of being part of beauty contests since being a little girl, but said the journey to being on the stage wasn’t the easiest.
The former Chesterfield High School pupil said she struggled with her confidence after being taunted in school.
She said: "People would make fun of my appearance being so different in school and it just stuck with me.
"People thought I was weird.
"thought I had to look like like everyone else and never really accepted or appreciated my unique features.
"It affected me socially in such as trusting people and not wanting many friends and being very selective and wary of the company I have around me.
"I used to hate wearing my hair down curly, I used to straighten it all the time and wanted to cut it all off!"
Alisha, from Seaforth, said the bullying left her in "an uncomfortable place" and she isolated herself after becoming so lacking in self-confidence.
The teenager said she felt like she couldn't trust anyone and the bullies made her try to "change her features" to fit in to the ‘social norm’.
But in 2016, Alisha started studying at LIPA Sixth Form College, and her love for performing arts kick started her journey to finding herself again.
And as she performed on stage and started to see herself in front of the camera, she said she knew this was what she wanted to do.
Alisha told the ECHO: “I thought to myself, ’why am I not good enough?’ I should just go out and embrace me!
“I learned to love my curly hair and how it makes me, me! It’s just so bouncy and curly it's hard to miss me!”
When she applied for her first pageant, Alisha said she kept it hidden from her parents, scared they would not allow her to follow her dreams.
But when the phone call came through telling her she had been accepted, she said her parents were "over the moon".
And last month, Alisha faced her first pageant, Miss Sovereign GB - a pageant that aims to find representatives of kindness and confidence.
Yet despite following her passion Alisha admits the self doubt which had been instilled in her by her school bullies returned.
She said: "I remember just before I was going on stage in rehearsals I was having an anxiety attack, and I just thought to myself ‘I can't do this.’
“But there was a lovely pageant girl who was so supportive, and she told me ‘Alisha you've got this, you've already come so far.’
“So I took a few deep breaths and remembered why I was doing it, and I went on stage with so much determination to fight any negative thoughts and confidence.
“Behind the pictures you really wouldn't think I struggle with so much anxiety and even to this day when I tell people, they are so shocked and say I come across very confident and well spoken.”
In her first pageant, Alisha was very successful and next will be representing Liverpool in the Miss Sovereign GB National Final, which will take place in August 2020, in Crewe.
She is also helping to raise money for Caudwell Children Leading Disabled Children's Charity and in the future hopes to go into pageants such as Miss World and Miss Universe.
She said: "It has been a tough journey learning to accept myself but I'm getting there and learning everyday I try to focus on the inside rather than out.
“My message would be to love yourself, not just how you look, but for simply being you.
“You don't need to be like dress like or act like anybody else but yourself. It's okay to be authentic!”
