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Jul 27 - YGTV Speaks To Mrs Gibraltar 2017 Megan Danino

After being asked to stay behind for extra lessons in walking and posing after her first rehearsal, mum-of-two Megan Danino never expected to be crowned as the next Mrs Gibraltar.

Signing up and proceeding to become Mrs Gibraltar has been a promising experience for Megan, who said she will be using this year to help the community and the various charities across Gibraltar.

With the aim of finding that spark again in her life, Megan said she signed up after drawing inspiration from Mrs Gibraltar 2015 Serika Garcia. Megan wanted a bit of that girl time once again, and signing up for the pageant has opened up a whole new world for the 26-year-old, from meeting new people, to photo shoots on the beach, and meeting many new people in the community.

YGTV speaks to Megan, as she looks forward to embarking on a new experience as this year’s Mrs Gibraltar, apart from her career as an estate agent and a mum to Owen, 9, and one-year-old Zoe, and a wife to Dyron.

How has your time been since you were crowned Mrs Gibraltar?

It’s been a little bit hectic and I think it’s quieting down a bit now. We were under the impression that once you are crowned there’s a bit of a slow down but it’s not been like that at all. We’ve had interviews, charity events and flag days.

It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of new experiences and mostly, my frame of mind at the moment is preparing for my Mrs Universe event in South Africa.

A lot of people have been coming up to me to congratulate me as well, and I’m very grateful for their support.

How did you feel when they called out your name at the end of the night?

I couldn’t believe it. I think if you go back to the video you see me shaking my head saying no. I mean, the odds were against me.

The standard for beauty pageants is always the tallest person and that kind of prototype so I didn’t expect it at all.

I was happy, and excited and I realised all of this wasn’t going to end. In the run up to the event, I thought after the show it’s back to reality but it’s not been the case.

How did your friends and family react?

They were more over the moon than I was, because I didn’t process it immediately. They were all very happy and my son was crying and in fact when I had the interview part, I looked at his face and mentioned his name and he was beaming.

How was the Mrs Gibraltar experience been for you overall? How have you managed to be a mum, your job, and cope with rehearsals and events?

It’s taken a lot of co-ordination and a lot of planning and help. They gave us quite a lot of notice before events, but the last month in particular was very hard.

Rehearsals at that point were from 6pm to late in the night in the last week, especially, but it paid off. It needed a lot of dedication and the rehearsals themselves were very necessary because until the night of the dress rehearsals we were still getting mixed up with the steps.

The day that we got there, and through to the actual show, we managed to see each other dressed and doing the show, it was completely worthwhile. The best rehearsal was the night of the show, because we knew the pressure was on and we gave it our all.

My husband Dyron has been a great support for me, understanding that some nights I’ve had to feed the kids a takeaway.

 

Tell me about your dress. 

My dress was very me. I went into the shop with something else in mind after searching pageants online so I thought that’s what I wanted but when I saw this dress it matched my personality completely. It was very simple, a few shiny bits, and it was very vintage-looking, and I fell in love with it. After a few alterations to suit me, it was the perfect dress for me.

How did you feel when you woke up on Sunday morning?

I was still overwhelmed but what I did was go through and answer some messages, but then I switched off my phone and I went for a family lunch with my husband and my children to celebrate our four-year anniversary. I put my family in the spotlight and we had a brilliant day.

With the Mrs Universe competition coming up soon, what are you doing to prepare for your trip?

It’s not just a question of preparing myself mentally, but I also have to find sponsors for the event. I have to be there on the 25th of August. I’ve had a look at the itinerary and it’s a lot more than what I was expecting, which is amazing. From the few things that I can remember, we’re going to be visiting an orphanage to cook for them, we are going to have a midnight dinner on a boat, a gala event, safari, water parks visits. It’s pretty amazing.

The thing is once you’re a mum, you don’t think you’ve got an opportunity to do these things anymore, so I am over the moon. I can’t even describe how excited I am, I have to buy a new wardrobe. I will also have to learn to do my own makeup because you're not assigned a make-up artist at the competition, so I'll have to start watching YouTube beauty tutorials to learn how to do a proper smokey eye. 

Are you looking forward to your trip? 

I am. I haven’t travelled since I was 10 or 11 years old, I’ve literally had to go and get myself a passport. I never thought this was a place where I’d ever go, ever since I had my son we’ve always gone on family holidays.

But definitely, if I have the chance to go without kids, then this is definitely one of my top destinations.

How was your experience with the other contestants?

It was fabulous, I’m happy to say. It wasn’t what I expected either, but from the beginning most of us didn’t go with the mentality that this was a competition. The majority of us are mothers and for us this was more like, “Okay, I get some me time”.

Throughout the process, and as I got to know the girls, I started feeling like the person I was before I had kids. I felt like I got my spark back, and we would get excited calling each other up to find out what the others were wearing and I missed it so much, but I managed to gain that during the Mrs Gibraltar experience.

What will you take away from this experience?

I think I’m going to take away that spark again, and a lot more knowledge with what happens behind the scenes with charities, because I know a lot of people dedicate a lot of their time to charities but I wasn’t aware about how much dedication goes into it.

They do it voluntarily, whereas we were working with them as part of the pageant, but I’m looking forward to continuing working with them.

Would you recommend the Mrs Gibraltar experience to other women?

If they think they can cope with the rehearsals and they have the right support around them, then yes, they should definitely sign up, because you feel like a princess.

I had to be very organised and make sure everything was in place, and there are ways around it, like one of the contestants brought her baby to rehearsals and she became our pageant mascot.

But the experience itself was amazing, we got to do lots of fun things including a photoshoot at Sandy Bay where we were all dressed in long red dresses. We had to get in the water and it was absolutely freezing, so we ran and jumped around and played in the sand to fight the cold, and it was great fun for all of us. 

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