A new Miss England was crowned on Friday, and she’s gay.

Grace Richardson, a 20-year-old musical theatre student from Leicester, England, came out as a teen and said she was bullied “horrendously” at the time.

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Now she’s ready to take her inspiring message about overcoming the hate to young people across the UK and beyond.

Richardson competes for the Miss World title in 2026.

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“Knowing that I’m able to share my story and represent a part of our community that hasn’t been represented in this way before is really special,” the winner said.

She said she’s still “in shock” following her pageant triumph.

“I feel so powerful and proud of myself,” she said of her journey from bullied teen to pageant queen.

“My coming out story wasn’t the easiest,” she told the BBC.

Richardson’s heartfelt accounting has impressed judges all the way up her climb on the pageant ladder.

She endured ceaseless bullying while at school after she came out on TikTok following the pandemic, she shared. She was 15 at the time.

“I was getting lots of negative comments, things were being said behind my back and it knocked my confidence a lot,” she told the Leicester Times. “In every class someone would mention it and it became so overwhelming.”

“It’s almost like everything I did was wrong,” she said after her win.

“My very close friends and family were all very supportive. But for some reason those at school, my peers, just weren’t in the same way that my family were. It was a struggle to accept myself while a lot of people weren’t accepting me.”

Richardson didn’t consider coming out to be “a big deal” at the time.

“I wasn’t the first person to be gay in the whole school, but I was the first person to mention it and be open and confident about it,” she said.

Her advice to young people now about coming out is the same as it was when she won her Miss Leicestershire title in 2024.

“If you feel that you could and it’s safe to do so, I would say go for it,” she said then. “In the long run, people will move on and get over it, whether it’s the big news that week or not.”

“Once you’ve said the words ‘I’m gay’, it’s out there,” Richardson said, adding that others may not “understand the adrenaline that someone goes through just saying these words. People just don’t understand that feeling.”

So she’s asking them to be mindful of the courage it takes to come out.

“They might make a funny comment, but to that person it’s not a joke – it’s not funny and it really does affect them. Some of those comments might stick with them for life. And I just want to be able to educate more people on just accepting everyone.”

That includes young people accepting themselves.

“I haven’t seen anyone in pageantry talk about sexuality in the way that I have so it is important to me for them to feel seen,” Richardson said.

“It’s nice being able to stand up now and say, ‘look at what I’ve done,'” the new Miss England added. “I’ve ignored everything negative that they said to me and actually I’ve gone on to achieve my dreams.”

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