Talking to Alicia Bess you quickly realise a few things and the first is that she is genuine to the core. There are no false airs about her. She answers questions directly and is engaging to the point that you could forget you’re conducting an interview. The second is that while she wants to win, she is not willing to sacrifice her integrity to do so. The third is that she’s always had a plan and she’s sticking to it.
Alicia recently won the Guyana leg of Miss Global International and will represent this country at the international pageant in Trinidad and Tobago from September 25 to October 3, vying against some 40 to 50 contestants from other countries around the world. She notes that Guyana was in the top ten last year when Onesha Hutson represented at the pageant held in Jamaica. Onesha also won ‘Best Smile’ award and made it into the Top Six in the Talent segment of the pageant.
Alicia would like to improve on that significantly by bringing home the crown, especially since Guyana is booked to host the pageant in 2016 in collaboration with Princess Hotel. That would indeed be the ideal situation. And since this will also be the last pageant Alicia competes in—it’s part of her plan—what better way to retire than with a bang?
The last time we spoke with Alicia was in 2013 after she had won the Miss Guyana Jamzone pageant. She has had a hectic two years since then. She went on to cop the First Runner-up position in the Miss Jamzone International pageant. She then entered the 2013 Miss Guyana Universe pageant and was again adjudged First Runner-up. Before that she was First Runner-up in the Miss Bartica Regatta that same year.
Alicia then hit 2014 running. She flew to St Maarten and made short work of winning the Miss PJD2 crown – a regional pageant in April. Next up was Miss Jaycees in Antigua where she did not place, “for all sorts of reasons,” she says.
But before all this, Alicia had quietly entered and won the 2010 Miss East Bank Supermodel pageant, where she represented Diamond. At the time she was employed at Republic Bank which frowned on such public displays and so she took an involuntary hiatus for the next three years. But being in pageants and representing Guyana this way had been Alicia’s dream since she saw her first Miss Universe pageant on television as a child and she never stopped dreaming. It was after she left Republic Bank that she began to realise those dreams.
Though she was an introvert before she began her excursion into pageantry, unlike many this “country girl” as she calls herself, did not have to be encouraged to walk this path. It was a conscious decision on her part, one she has never regretted and which has seen her gain confidence, grow as a young woman and come into her own.
“I treat every pageant as an exam in which I am trying to get an A,” Alicia said. And with each event she has learned something. “…Learned from my mistakes, learned from others’ mistakes, learned that not everyone is your friend, learned pageant tricks and politics…,” she said. She has learned too that backstabbing can be sugar-coated to look like something else, but she has not allowed these experiences to either faze or change her.
As she talked, we learned a few other things about Alicia. The first is that she is the youngest child in her family and comes from a staunch Christian background. So much so 
that it took quite a bit of persuasion for her parents to give the go ahead for her to enter her first pageant. The second is that she is the only girl for her parents. And it is evident that she is loved. It comes over in her personality, but then she also shared that she and her mother had entered the senior category of the annual Mother and Daughter pageant in 2012, where they emerged as the second runners-up. She also recalled being overcome with emotion when her father showed up at one of her pageants to offer her physical support.
The third thing is that at 6 ft, she is taller than everyone else in her immediate family. She surmises that the height must have been passed on from her grandparents who she described as tall, strong Berbicians. Clearly, she was predestined to strut a catwalk.
When Alicia retires from pageantry on October her next move will be to secure her Masters in Business Administration. That aside, she announced her willingness to mentor and assist contestants who will from here on be representing Guyana in pageants. She has learned that there is a huge difference between local and regional pageants and regional and international pageants. She feels it would be selfish to have had the experience and knowledge and not share it as it would help better prepare whoever that contestant is. Though she said that this would not be on a full-time basis, she has a “passion to help… as women should be helping each other up, not trying to step on each other.”
She continued, “Pageantry is more than winning a crown and competing, it’s also about learning and sharing and giving advice. It’s about growing and helping others to grow. At the end of the day, a crown is just a crown, but when you’re a queen, you’re a queen from within.”
Alicia has made firm and lasting friends in local, regional and international pageants because she has always gone out of her way to help other contestants. Asked hypothetically if she had to choose between helping a contestant and winning which she would do, Alicia said unhesitatingly that she would help that person even if it meant losing to that person in the long run. “I was raised that way,” she explained, “and it would be impossible to do otherwise. Every title I have won, I have won honestly. There was never any rigging involved.”
Asked if once retired she would ever contemplate pageantry again, Alicia noted that some former ‘Miss’ pageant holders have gone into ‘Mrs’ pageants and she would not be averse to this in maybe ten years or so. By this time, she said, she would no doubt have a family and a career. And what if she has a daughter who one day wants to enter a pageant? “I would give her all the support she needs. But I would want to ensure that she is doing it because she wants to do it and not just to follow in my footsteps.”
