A MISS England semi finalist from Carlisle has launched a new body confidence campaign.

Claire Bell, from Denton Holme, who secured a place at the Miss England semi finals last month, will represent the city during the nationwide competition when it takes place in Burnley, Lancashire in June.

The 25-year-old, who won the coveted title of Miss Cumbria in 2016, created the 'Beneath the Skin' campaign earlier this year after teaming up with Miss Cumbria 2019 finalist, Lucy Salter.

Lucy was invited to Greenhead School in Brampton to hold a self confidence workshop on International Women's Day with a group of year six pupils.

Claire said: "Some of the girls had been struggling with confidence issues so the school thought it would be good for Lucy to go in, with her having campaigned about body positivity as part of her work for the Miss Cumbria final.

"Lucy asked if we could work on it together so I jumped at the chance.

"I had always wanted to go into a school to do something like this when I was Miss Cumbria but never had the opportunity to.

"We came up with a workshop using the help of some of my work colleagues who are post adoption social workers and often work with children to improve their confidence.

"We aimed to teach the girls that's it is what's inside that counts and beautiful minds make beautiful people, not looks."

Claire and Lucy wanted to teach the teenagers that the national media airbrushes pictures and videos of celebrities and that they, as young women, shouldn't compare themselves to the images.

"Having carried out the session with the girls, Lucy and I were saddened by how critical some of the young girls were about themselves," Claire added.

"However, we found it really rewarding seeing how they gradually spoke more positively about themselves towards the end of the workshop."

The session started off by the girls drawing around their hands and writing their name on a piece of paper.

The paper was then passed around the class and the other pupils wrote something they liked about their class mate.

The paper eventually made its way back to original girl with a lot of positive comments on it from their peers.

When Claire was shortlisted as a Miss England Semi Finalist, she decided to turn the one off workshop into a full campaign.

The aim of the campaign is to teach as many children as possible that it's what is 'Beneath The Skin' that counts.

She added: "We want to get involved with children around the ages of nine to 11 years to educate them that beautiful minds make beautiful people, not looks.

"We chose this age group because research shows that children are suffering with self esteem issues from a younger age, which we think is largely down to images in media and social media.

"We hope by educating them at this vulnerable age, we may be able to help prevent self esteem issues which may effect them in the coming years.

"Again, it also teaches them that being a nice person is much more important than being 'pretty'.

Claire is inviting any schools or youth clubs who would like her to drop in to do a workshop to visit her 'Claire Bell Miss England Semi Finalist 2019' Facebook page and send her a message.