THEN AND NOW

Monday, September 13, 2021 - 09:30

“THE EXPERIENCE STAYS WITH ME FOREVER”, said Ornella Costa, Miss Gibraltar 1991

by MEGAN STRINGER
1991 was a significant year for Ornella Serra, previously known as Ornella Costa, as it was the year that she won Miss Gibraltar 1991. At only 17 years of age, she travelled to places such as South Africa and the USA, to make memories that will last an entire lifetime. In present time, the previous beauty pageant winner is married and has two boys aged 20 and 26, and has been a school teacher for around 17 years.


Before signing up to Miss Gibraltar, Ornella described herself as kind of a tomboy and she was quite sporty. She had never worn makeup and never even walked in heels. Explaining why she chose to enter the pageant, she said: “I would never had thought in a million years I would have entered any pageant. I had never gone into anything in my life. So I was approached and in the beginning I said no way, but then I thought, well, I need to experience things. As I was thinking of going over to study so I thought this would be my last year to give it a go.
“So I said I’m going to go and see who the other contestants are. They [organisers] actually tricked me a bit and said ‘go, see who the contestants are and then you come and join’, but when I went, I was the first one to sign.

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