THE Guyana Princess Pageant, now in its fourth year, is billed for August 11 at the National Cultural Centre, and franchise holder, Nelsion Andre Nurse, says it’s going to be more than just about ‘looks’ alone.

The girls, ranging from ages seven to 11, will also be subjected to an intelligence segment, which will require them to interview certain personalities and then do written and oral presentations.

Nurse, who has been into designing since the age of 13, does costumes, fashion and décor.

In a recent interview with Buzz, he recalled how this pageant got started.

The 36-year-old got the idea after being repeatedly asked by schools to help out with their pageants.

“A few years back, in 2015, because I am a designer and work on ‘Mash’, a lot of schools asked me for help to coordinate their pageants for them,” he recalled.

“I realised that when these girls finish at these schools, that’s all; that’s about it. So we thought about taking the queens from all those different schools and putting them together in one pageant. That’s how the whole idea of the Guyana Princess Pageant came around. But then we eventually opened it up to the public,” Nurse added.

This year’s pageant has 11 girls confirmed so far, and Nurse is hoping to get one more from Lethem. The parents have already committed to working with them virtually, but Nurse would prefer to have this girl in Georgetown so that she can benefit from the kind of hands-on training that everyone else is getting.

According to him, it’s not just a beauty pageant that entails only how the girls look, but adequate ground work is required. “We have the girls do an essay and over the years we have been looking at iconic Guyanese women who have contributed to the society and this year we are working with women in the arts,” he shared.

So this year, 12 women in different aspects of the arts were selected; two from creative arts; two artists; two women each in drama, music, fashion and literature.

“So the girls will pull a name and do an interview with the person for their essay. We try to expose them to meeting this person and conducting an interview and then from what they grasp, they compose an essay and hand it over to the judge.”

This essay is what will be used for the intelligence segment. They will then do an oral presentation on that person.

Nurse further said that this year, they will be visiting a charity home, and most of the girls want to go to a children’s orphanage.

Then there are other categories like creative wear where the girls and their families are tasked with making a creative outfit using recycled materials, as opposed to getting a professional one done.

Nurse is hoping that more sponsors will come on board to make the event a success.