Nadia Sayers is going to represent Ireland at Miss Universe 2020 and through her platform, she aspires to spread the message of positive mental health amongst the youth of the country. The diva explained that her journey towards the crown was not easy or comfortable but a dark road filled with depression and suicidal thoughts. But she wants to make the best use of the platform given to her to help and spread the message of mental health.
The beauty queen hailing from Tyrone has opened about her struggle and her journey towards the crown. She explained that she has dealt with Mental Health to clinch one of the most prestigious titles in the beauty pageant world and she hopes to inspire the youth of the country who battle with mental health issues.
In a recent interview, Nadia explained, “When I was about 19/20ish, that’s when it kind of hit its peak. It was a difficult time, there were thoughts of taking my own life. Looking back, when you are in the middle of it, you never see it. But my family saw it. I always had body image issues and struggled with the relationship with my body and would have been quite restrictive in what I was eating as well, because I was just not happy with it.”
Nadia further explained that when she moved to University to further study, she developed depression and anxiety disorder but now she has felt that she needed to go through all of that to be here and experience everything. The diva states that with all that she has been through, she has learned about herself and about the people who deal with such issues daily.
After studying at both Queen’s and Ulster University to achieve a Bachelors’ and master's in psychology, the diva began working with the charity, ‘Hope4Life’. The diva now teaches and trains young people in schools and youth settings on how to cope up with mental health through the organization’s ‘Uber Heroes’ project as she wants to be a role model for the people.
Nadia strongly feels that people who are not aware of how deeply mental health should educate themselves about it and the ones who deal with it shouldn’t worry about justifying the fact that they don’t feel well. The trained psychologist added, “Young people very often don’t think they should be heard, they don’t think anyone will listen or their voice will make an impact. We all get caught up in our stresses now and again. Parents aren’t taught – you don’t learn to be a parent and get a guidebook. You just wade your way through it. Try to realize how to have those conversations with your kids and try to understand that they may be super-stressed even though they are five, or nine or 15, the stress is still there, it’s just different stress of different areas of life.”
The diva stated that she decided to join pageantry because she saw and realized that the pageant community includes people that support you and motivate you no matter what. The team, organization, and everyone tends to promote an individual authentically and that’s what drew Nadia towards Miss Universe Ireland 2019 pageant where even though she didn’t win but grew so much as a person and embraced herself. She wants to use the platform to advocate about the same cause that helped her to participate in the first place.