Lorraine Kelly: It’s time women stood up to outmoded ideas that ‘thin is in’ – it’s not…

ANOTHER week, another asinine decision about how young women are supposed to look.

A slender size 10 beauty queen was told to go on a diet by the organisers after she won the chance to represent the UK at the Miss United Continents competition (no, I’ve never heard of it either).

Zoiey Smale, from Nottinghamshire, claimed she was told to lose as much weight as possible to stand any chance of winning the competition, being held later this month in South America.

Zoiey, a 28-year-old mum of one, was extremely hurt by the suggestion that she was in any way “fat”.

Her confidence was affected and she was crushed to be told to go on a diet.

She decided to give up her crown and announced her decision on social media.

Since then she has received a lot of support, which has made her feel much better. Zoiey is a veteran of pageants and has been taking part in these contests since she was 18.

To be honest, I thought beauty contests had gone the way of Betamax, Sony Walkmans and VHS tapes, and were simply no longer relevant in the modern world.

While I am bemused that women still enter competitions to be judged on their “vital statistics” and dress sense, it is of course their choice to do so.

They shouldn’t, however, then be pressurised into looking even tinier in order to conform to a skewed sense of beauty.

Thankfully Zoiey was mature and sensible enough not to starve herself and chose to walk away instead.

Looking at her photos, I cannot for the life of me imagine how she could actually lose any poundage without looking ill and gaunt.

I also hope she decides to permanently stay away from the world of pageants in the future and concentrates on a brand new career where her weight and body shape don’t actually define her.

Also any young woman out there who finds herself in the same position should blow the whistle, otherwise this sort of behaviour will never end.