Big Size Queen

Lourdes Segade

Big Size Queen is a non profit contest and organization that supports the collective of overweighted people. They count with numerous sponsors such as a models agency, big sizes clothes companies and shops, hairdressers, hotels and other kind of companies. The contest was first held in 1993. The beginnings were tough but year after year it has consolidated until getting prestige and international acknowledgment as well as attention from the media. The opinion of the participants and normal people’s support have also helped to give a name to the Big Size Queen contest. It is not a place where to defend fatness but where to normalize sizes and support overweighted people. The girls that have taken part as competitors have felt at least queens for one day in their lives. The contest also gives these women the opportunity to get in touch with other girls with similar problems or questions. They get friends, share experiencies and, some of them, start a career as models for big sizes, posing for magazines, advertising or even showing on a catwalk. They feel less discriminated by a minority that yet give more importance to the body than to mind.

• Rehearsing on the catwalk right before the fashion show

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• Blanca Wysocka (right), Big Size Queen 2003, and Nuria Nebleza (left), one of the competitors for 2005 contest

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• One of the assistants sets the jewellery on a table before giving it to the competitors

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• Hangers and shoes at the backstage

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• A former competitor as she talks on the cellullar phone, just arrived to the wardrobe

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• The wardrobe is a mess of clothes and shoes for the 16 competitors

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• Clothes and shoes hang as they wait for the girls to wear them on

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• Yolanda helps Maria Jose get her necklace on

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• Mari Carmen shows proudly the necklace she's wearing in the first show

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• The crown, the sceptre and the sash for the future queen

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• Virginia Blas, who would be announced as 2nd queensmaid later on, gets hairdressed

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• Waiting to get made up

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• Laura Grau, who would later be announced as Big Size Queen 2005, waits for the hairdresser to finish the work

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• Marga Estruch, one of the competitors, wore a dress with the sexiest decollete of the show

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• Getting made up before the show

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• Laura Grau, who would later be announced as nes Big Size Queen, gets ready for the second part of the show

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• The assistant of the show host (presenter) gets ready

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• Eva waits for the show to get started

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• Yamila Calderín, who would later be announced as 1st Queensmaid 2005, as she waits for the show to get started Yamila Calder√≠n, who would later be announced as 1st Queensmaid 2005, as she waits for the show to get started

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• One of the competitors as she's interviewed for a TV station

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• Matilde Anglada, Big Size Queen 2001, as she talks on the phone in the wardrobe. She's now become a wellknown model for big sizes

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• Yamila Calderín (right), who will later be announced as 1st Queensmaid 2005, waits nervous for her turn to appear on the catwalk in the very first show Yamila Calder√≠n (right), who will later be announced as 1st Queensmaid 2005, waits nervous for her turn to appear on the catwalk in the very first show

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• The show goes on and the competitors feel like real models

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• Some of the winners

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• Laura Grau, Big Size Queen 2005

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• Some of the competitors as they wait for the announcement of the new Queen

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• From left to right: Marta Tejada, Queen of sympathy, Yamila Calderín, 1st Queensmaid, Laura Grau, Big Size Queen 2005, Virginia Blas, 2nd Queensmaid and Ana Belén Valencia, Queen of Elegance From left to right: Marta Tejada, Queen of sympathy, Yamila Calder√≠n, 1st Queensmaid, Laura Grau, Big Size Queen 2005, Virginia Blas, 2nd Queensmaid and Ana Bel√©n Valencia, Queen of Elegance

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• At the end of the show, the new Big Size Queen poses for the numerous media covering the event

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• The show is finished and the new Queen poses for media. The backsatge stays in calm

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