Kiwi doctor Deborah Lambie is making history as the first pregnant contestant to compete in the Miss Universe New Zealand 2024 pageant.
Not many beauty queens would choose LinkedIn to announce their return to the stage. But not many people are Dr Deborah Lambie.
For the Auckland resident, a former Miss World New Zealand, not being your stereotypical beauty pageant contestant is all part of the reason she’s competing to be Miss Universe New Zealand 2024.
She is a qualified medical doctor who currently works in finance. She is 33-years-old, and she is also 21 weeks pregnant.
The latter point is why she’s returning to pageantry almost a decade after representing New Zealand in the field.
“To do it as a pregnant person, to show that part of women’s strength is actually in their ability to create new life. I think for me, that is such an awesome message.”
Lambie posted the news on LinkedIn last week. “So here I am, little baby bump & all, saying YES to this amazing opportunity! This is a chance to do something a little different and to show to other people (and in large part to myself) that traditional beauty standards have evolved to embrace a wider definition of real beauty, and pregnant women absolutely belong in Miss Universe.”
In 2015, Lambie, then a 24-year-old student completing her studies at the University of Otago, was crowned Miss World New Zealand, missing her graduation ceremonyto instead represent Aotearoa at the Miss World Competition in Sanya, China. She placed 15th out of 117 contestants and attracted controversy for her performance of a haka during the competition.
“I had thought that all of this stuff was behind me,” Lambie said of beauty pageants.
“I’d kind of shut the door on that because it used to be that when you turned 28 you couldn’t do them anymore. It was like a strict age cut-off. And then, Miss Universe basically got rid of that.”
In September 2023, the Miss Universe Organisation announced it was extending eligibility to include all women aged 18 and over. A year earlier, rules had broadened allowing married women and mothers to compete.
Seeing the news, Lambie believed it would be fun to do another pageant, but she was pregnant. “I think I basically completely ruled myself out because I was pregnant.”
Regardless, Lambie emailed the organisers to congratulate them on their franchise acquisition and was surprised when they replied.
“You actually could do it even though you’re pregnant,” they told her. “As long as your obstetrician says that the dates for this one and the final would be fine.”
Lambie consulted her obstetrician and friends. “Then I realised that literally the only person that was ruling myself out was myself,” she said. “I realised that sure, I might not look exactly the same as everyone else, but actually, it’s kind of cool and no one’s ever done it before.
“Who says that pregnant women aren’t beautiful?”
This weekend Lambie and other Miss Universe New Zealand hopefuls meet in Coatesville forjudging.
Her mindset has pivoted away from what judges want to what she can offer. “When I was younger, when I went to Miss World, I was really focused on thinking that I had to be a certain way,” she said. “Now that I’m a bit older, I actually think [it’s better] if you can be more authentic and you can say this is who I am... that’s what I’m trying to do.”
She hopes to encourage people to go after what they want.
“For me, it’s about showing that it’s okay to have self-limiting beliefs but that shouldn’t stop you from doing something that you think you can or would find empowering,” Lambie said.
If her message resonates with the judges and she’s selected to represent New Zealand, Lambie would travel to Mexico in November to take part in the final alongside delegates from around the world vying to win the “Force for Good” crown.
She would be 30 weeks pregnant on the day of the final. Lambie said her obstetrician told her this was a “perfect” time to travel. “She was like, ‘Go enjoy yourself, there’s absolutely no reason why you couldn’t do that’.”
Lambie hopes it will set a precedent for pregnancy.
“They can still go for something that they think would be fun and empowering.”
Lambie’s experience on the pageant circuit might have been empowering, but it hasn’t all been a fairytale. Competing at Miss World in China in 2015 Lambie drew criticism for performing a haka, with one viewer describing the execution as “disgraceful and offensive”.
At the time Lambie said she’d been working with Kereama Te Ua, a lecturer in Māori performing arts at Whitireia Performance Centre in Wellington, “on the authentic performance together for months” and was “privileged to have learned this piece from an expert, and was proud to perform this to the best of my ability”.
Nine years on, Lambie acknowledges the incident. “Having the experience of learning that haka with a lecturer in Māori performing arts in Wellington for the weeks leading up to it. That for me was one of the things that I found most rewarding about my prep for this world. And that was so far out of my comfort zone... I really enjoyed doing that,” she said.
“It was a little bit controversial. But I think I went through the right channels and I did put a lot of work into it. But that doesn’t mean that it was for everyone or that everyone agreed with the decision that I made with that lecturer in Māori performing arts.”
Lambie isn’t too worried that her participation as a pregnant contestant might draw debate.
“Would I face criticism for doing it as a pregnant person? I think, potentially,yes, because it hasn’t been done before, and it would be a different look to what people are used to,” she said.
“But also in the same vein, who’s to say that a pregnant woman can’t do that and who’s to say that pregnant people aren’t amazing and who’s to say that a pregnant person couldn’t do an amazing job of representing New Zealand on the international stage.”
She accepted there may be “criticism along the way” but believed it would be okay.
Miss Universe has received criticism of its own in recent years.
The former owner of Miss Universe, Donald Trump, sold the organisation in 2015 after two television partners declined to broadcast the Miss USA arm of the competition in response to comments Trump made during his presidential campaign.
A year later former contestants alleged he used to walk backstage to watch while they were undressed.
In 2024, two Miss USA titleholders rescinded their crowns.
Asked about the current role of beauty pageants in culture, Lambie said beauty pageants had traditionally promoted a narrow definition of beauty.
“What has been pretty awesome to me to see is that over time these competitions are changing,” she said. “We talked about last year’s Miss Universe contestants wearing burkinis, so whatever they feel comfortable in, rather than being told they have to wear a particular thing.
“They’re really changing to be more about a platform that can be used to promote important issues that can be used to develop leadership skills and be used to develop people who can do good in their community rather than just being about how you look.”
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