An inspirational Derry woman who said she was bullied at school for being an "outsider" has been selected to compete in the final of Miss Great Britain.
Amy Doherty, 26, who is from the Kilfennan area of Derry, was selected to be Miss Derry 2022 and will compete for the precious GB crown in Leicester later this year.
Amy also raises awareness for autism after her two boys Mason, six, and four-year-old Noah were diagnosed with the disorder.
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Amy said: “I can’t describe the hell I went through. I just felt like I was the loner at school and was seen as an outsider, and I would get bullied for it. It was horrible."
The Derry native said she would never have believed her 15-year-old self would be entering a beauty contest a decade later.
She told MyDerry : "I was the sort of person that if I was asked a question in class, I would literally want to die on the spot. I would be so awkward.
"I was so shy. I would have been a bit of a loner and I was bullied because of this it left me with really bad anxiety and depression.
"My mental health was in a really bad place and I didn't fit in at school and because I was quiet, I was easy to pick on and I didn't have the courage to step up to my bullies'.
"And to sit here now and say that I'm in the Miss GB final is mindblowing. It's a total transformation of my life. I did a TEDTalk last year as well on autism and if I would tell my younger self all of this, I think I would just laugh.
"But I want it to be a message to teenagers out there who are going through what I went through, that they can overcome this and there will be better days ahead."
As a single mum of two autistic children, Amy said she hopes her new platform will help her raise more awareness about autism.
"This is something that is so close to my heart," she said. "I've experienced both sides of the coin and I know what it's like to live with and without autism in your life."
"I totally understand now as a parent the fear that surrounds the word autism in itself. Whenever I was told that my oldest son had it, I was definitely frightened by it.
"I was terrified because I had never encountered it before and I hadn't really heard about it and, in turn, I didn't know much about it at all.
"Whenever you have a child you don't think things like this will happen but after living with my two boys, I understand it better and that's why I want to spread awareness about it and especially about inclusion."
Amy told MyDerry how when Mason was in nursey supervisors told her that he could only stay for one hour because he was "disruptive".
"I was really upset by it," Amy said. "And they're the sort of things that we as a society need to be better at.
"Mason couldn't understand any of this because he was only three years old and he was so upset and felt really excluded and it had a big impact on his life. It would stop from him sleeping properly at night.
"That was one of the reasons why I decided to go to TED and share my message through their platform because that was the first time I had ever experienced the exclusion of an autistic person."
The Miss Derry winner will also be taking part in charity events for Cancer Research UK in May and is in the process of establishing a fundraising event to help raise money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy charity, Alex's Wish.
Amy will take part in Miss Great Britain when it takes place in LeicesterMiss GB in October.
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