I lived rough on the streets as a teen – but I turned my life around to win beauty pageant, here’s how
A BEAUTY queen who was homeless as a teenager has revealed how she turned her life around.
Astrud Theadora Caldwell, 21, went from being homeless at 16 to winning a beauty pageant crown.
Her mum kicked her out of the family home due to clashes with her ex-partner.
Astrud lived rough on the streets and in homeless hostels, looking for places to stay most nights with her then partner.
It was a toxic relationship but they helped each other through.
She told the Sun Online: "He wasn’t a saint...but if it wasn’t for him and his company I wouldn’t have survived it”.
"We didn't get on and we were arguing but he had my back".
She said they would walk until the sun came up, sometimes sleeping in stairwells, not knowing where they were going to go each night.
Astrud, from Glasgow, now struggles with PTSD, and finds it difficult when it gets dark because of the memory of having to look for shelter each night.
She struggled with an eating disorder and alcohol abuse, from a combination of stress and poor mental health.
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She said: "Its not just being homeless, everything goes up in the air – your appetite, your mental health, your weight, your clothes. I’ve had to start from nothing”.
At the time she was so young she didn't really realise how bad her situation was.
What kept her going was thinking about her future, and where she wanted to be.
At 18 years old she was given a house by the housing association in Glasgow, which was a turning point.
Keen to get into the beauty pageant industry, this dream helped her get through the tough times.
She said: "From a young age I watched the Victoria's Secret angels and I wanted to be one of them."
"It was a story I always thought I was gonna have – like a Dolly Parton rags to riches.”
After winning the Miss Kelvingrove title, Astrud hopes to become the next Miss Great Britain and go on to do more beauty pageants.
She's also going back into education to try and get herself a degree.
She said: “I didn't really get the chance to be a student who can just spend all these student loans”.
“At the time when I should’ve been doing that – I was on the streets thinking: how do I feed myself tonight.”
She said she can't afford to be proud of herself yet despite how far she has come - because she's not where she wants to be yet.
She said: “I've still got a lot to go. But I’ve come so far from being literally on the streets”.
But she added: “I am starting to realise on my own terms how strong of a person I am. These are things that were taken away from me.”
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This comes after a taxi driver won a national beauty pageant, but vowed never to give up her day job.
