On Thursday the 7th of July I had the honour of attending the Crowing of Miss Universe Australia at Melbourne’s Sofitel on Collins as a special guest of international styling giant Toni & Guy.

Aaron, Ben and Charli at the 2011 Miss Universe Pageant.

The celebs were in abundance upon entry; the red carpet and trigger happy photographers both got a good work out.

It was tough to observe the field of 30 hopefuls without staking a friendly claim between new found friends on who would take home the crown.  I’d love to say I tipped the winner Scherri-Lee Biggs; the 20 year old model and communications student from Perth who was clearly the crowd favourite but I was unable to go any further than establishing my own top 30.

I’ve always admired people who can talk confidently under pressure and Scherri-Lee was certainly a deserved winner after being pitched a double edged sword question asking her to discuss the controversy of children’s beauty pageants and if children should have rights to be involved in such events. The winning line from the later crowned Miss Australia was put simply “I think children should be children”.

The competition consisted of three categories, swim wear, evening wear and a q&a session run by the panel of seven judges including Naomi Robson, Vince Colosimo and Marie Clare editor Jackie Frank.