In an exclusive conversation ahead of the Miss World opening ceremony in Hyderabad, Morley spoke about instinct, dignity and how women, when given time and space, come into their own
HYDERABAD: Beauty, for Julia Morley, isn’t a fixed idea. As Chairperson and CEO of the Miss World Organisation, she has spent over two decades trying to move the pageant away from polished appearances and towards something that feels more real. “There is no rule,” she says. “You can’t tell people what to be.” In an exclusive conversation with Deccan Chronicle ahead of the Miss World opening ceremony in Hyderabad, Morley spoke about instinct, dignity and how women, when given time and space, come into their own.
The world, she says, has become smaller. “Young women today want to know more, do more and meet others like them across borders.” That desire for meaningful connection is what she believes makes the event matter, long after the crown has been passed on. A group of twenty women who competed ten years ago recently reunited in London, not out of ceremony but out of choice. They stayed connected. That, Morley says, matters far more than titles.
Morley doesn’t recount grand stages. She remembers the girl who arrived with one small suitcase. Clothes handled gently, packed with care. Nothing extravagant, just a sense of value. “They had dignity. That’s what I remember,” she says, adding, “They come with potential. We just open the door. Some leave and move on. Others hold on to the friendships.” She speaks of medical students, architects, even astronauts who’ve entered the competition. “They’re curious. They ask questions. And that’s everything.”
This is her first visit to Hyderabad, though the city isn’t unfamiliar. It was home to Diana Hayden, one of India’s most composed Miss World winners. “She had an aura,” Morley says, recalling her calm presence. As the festival returns to India for the third time, she speaks of Hyderabad’s lesser-known strengths. “I’ve seen the impact it created on children elsewhere. The medicine. Hyderabad is very popular for that,” she says. “People here might not feel it as much, but everyone needs to know what this place holds, even beyond medical tourism.”
Morley does not pretend to offer solutions for the divisions in today’s world, but believes one thing can change the mood of a room and that is kindness. “Even a glance can lift or destroy a person. Children know. Animals know. They don’t need words. They read feelings and with that kindness I believe is important.”
The Miss World stage, for Morley, is not a solution. It is a space. And if that space can be held with care, if it can remain porous enough for ordinary women to find extraordinary possibility within it, she thinks it’s worth continuing. “You give people a chance,” she says. “That’s all. You let them be.”
