FOUR Gwent girl are preparing to enter the Miss Wales competition next month. Today, Helen Roberts talks to the contestants about their preparations for the big event - and why they want to be a beauty queen.

Emma Shadbolt, 20, entered the Miss Wales contest last year and says she will keep on trying to win.

She says: "The experience is great and I will keep trying until the deadline. If I don't get through this year, then I will try again next year.

"It is a brilliant day and the atmosphere is fantastic. The girls are friendly and everyone gets on with each other.

"I would do it more often if I could find the right competitions to go in for."

"If I won Miss Wales and went to represent Wales in Miss World it would be a dream, one in a million."

Hayley Jones, a part-time care assistant, is hoping that Miss Wales will promote her as a model and promote her home town of Pontypool. She says: "I want to promote myself and hope that it may further my career.

"I also want to make my family proud of me and want to do as well in this as I can."

For Hayley, whose dad, Mike, has leukaemia, this contest is very important to her to make her parents proud.

She says: "My family are as proud as punch for me and are keeping their fingers crossed, but I hope that I do well for them, as well as me, and it will be good for them to see me up on stage competing."

Hayley, 20, has helped her family cope with her father's illness, and come through bullying that knocked her confidence.

Hairdresser Lehanne Wells has just one chance of achieving her dream - and walking off with the Miss Wales crown.

Lehanne, 24, from Pontypool, knows this year is her first and last opportunity before she becomes too old to be eligible to apply. Lehanne says: "If I don't do it this year, then I just won't get another chance. I have got to at least have a go.

"I dance twice a week, but I am just trying to keep my hand in over the summer break to make sure I am fit for the competition.

"I have got to pick outfits and decide on make-up yet."

Lehanne says everyone she knows is supporting her in the contest, and felt she stood a good chance.

This year will be the second time Rachel Rice from Cwmbran has entered the Miss Wales competition.

Rachel is a student at the University of the West of England in Bristol reading English Literature and Drama - and she is hoping that this will be her year.

She says: "It is an enjoyable day and the contest is more about personality than just looks.

"All the girls who get through are gorgeous, but everyone is friendly and you can just enjoy the day."

Rachel, 19, says her favourite section of the contest is having a conversation with the judges where they have the chance to get to know the girls.