Ealing girl may be face of the future

Nov 24 2011

francesca marago

THIS schoolgirl may soon be in the ad break of your favourite television show after winning a beauty competition she was inspired to enter by her late aunt.

Francesca Marago, of Horsenden Lane South, Perivale, is now on the books of agency Majestic Model Management for a year after becoming Miss Model Search UK 2011.

The 15-year-old, also scooped a photoshoot and £250 worth of make-up after impressing the judges when she took a turn on the catwalk as Miss Ealing.

This week she has sent her pictures off to her modelling agency with the hope of being cast in a major campaign, something she could have barely dreamed of before she won the grand final of the national competition on October 23.

Especially as her main motive for entering the contest was to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, a charity close to her heart after her aunt, Angela Picak, died of the disease aged 68 last year.

She said: "I was very close to her, and very upset when she died. I thought if there's a competition allowing me to raise some money for breast cancer research that would be a good thing."

She got the necessary sponsorship from her father Franco, who runs Gino's restaurant in Ealing Broadway, and soon found herself facing 30 girls in the final in Manchester.

She added: "I didn't expect to win at all, there were lots of pretty girls there. When they called my name I was in shock."

The youngster is hoping to become an actress but for now is concentrating on her GCSE studies at Cardinal Wiseman School in Greenford.