Miss England says she was told to gain weight

New York – A British beauty queen says she was told to pack on pounds for the upcoming Miss World competition – an unexpected request, considering she’s not rail-thin.

“I was a little bit shocked,” Miss England Georgia Horsley said Friday in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

“I don’t think I’m too thin. I’m happy with the way I am,” said the 20-year-old, who is a size 4. She added: “I probably would have been more hurt if they told me to lose weight, I think.”

Horsley said pageant organizers want “their girls to be more voluptuous and womanly and curvy, you know, rather than the stick-thin, size-0 models that you see around.”

“I’ve just got quite more of an athletic, boyish-type figure rather than the hourglass figure that some women have,” said the 5-foot-8 Horsley. “And they’re just seeing if, you know, I could maybe put a bit of weight on and it might give me those curves.”

Horsley has little more than a month to gain weight: the Miss World pageant will be held in China on Dec. 1.