{"id":1003,"date":"2021-08-13T09:07:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T09:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2021-08-13T09:19:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T09:19:43","slug":"from-lincolnshire-to-anywhere-you-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/highlights\/from-lincolnshire-to-anywhere-you-want\/08-2021","title":{"rendered":"Lincolnshire’s amazing twins!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two super-siblings are putting the Great in Great Grimsby, demonstrating that with \u00a0determination \u2013 and strength of spirit \u2013 you can achieve anything you set your mind to\u2026<\/h3>\n
\"Image:
Image: Hollie at Tiny Feet Photography, 07754 028676, tinyfeetphotographybyhollie.co.uk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s 31st July, just before half twelve. The Atkin family are watching the Olympics taking place in Japan from the comfort of their sofa, in the village of Laceby near Grimsby which, incidentally, is about 5,814 miles away from the Olympic village.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re rather more invested than most viewers in proceedings, as it\u2019s their son or twin-brother Sam who is on the starting blocks, competing with Team GB in the same event in which Sir Mo Farah achieved gold in 2012 and 2016; the 10,000 metre.<\/p>\n

As for Sam\u2019s twin sister Jen, she\u2019s also used to representing the country, having competed in Miss England on two occasions and having won Miss Great Britain, too.<\/p>\n

As siblings go, the twins are quite the overachievers, but very lovely they both are, too!<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re super proud of us both,\u201d says Jen of mum and dad Helen and Bob. \u201cIn fact they really don\u2019t get the credit they deserve. They\u2019ve been so supportive and they\u2019ve taken Sam to so many cross-country events and athletics meetings, cheering him on from the side of the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jen, meanwhile, found her strength and regained her confidence in 2016 after breaking up with her first love and says the experience motivated her to take control of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had always struggled with my weight but lacked to motivation to do anything about it,\u201d she says. \u201cAfter my relationship ended though, I found a job I really liked and really pushed myself to exercise and make positive changes to my diet. I managed to lose eight stone in weight and soon realised that self-discipline and self-motivation are inextricably linked to self-confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother has always been amazing, and I did feel like I lived in his shadow a bit, but it\u2019s something we laugh about now. When I was making changes to my life, he was so incredibly proud, so supportive and so encouraging. He knew it was hard and he really helped me to stay focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I lost the weight, it didn\u2019t just change my body, it changed my perspective on life. It made me realise that with confidence and motivation you really can achieve anything you set your mind to. It sounds dramatic but it was like I\u2019d been given fresh chance to take my life in the direction I wanted it to go, so I started to get out in the community taking up volunteer work and helping out local charities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scouted to represent my home-town in the Miss Great Grimsby competition in 2017 and achieved second place before reaching the finals of Miss England and winning its sporting round. The following year, I ranked third in the competition and represented the country in China as part of the Miss Global City pageant. Finally, in 2019, I competed to be Miss Great Britain for 2019 and was named winner in February 2020, so I\u2019ve held the title for nearly 17 months now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an unfortunate preconception about pageants; that they\u2019re concerned only about looks and they\u2019re a bit dated in their representation of women, but actually they\u2019re very forward thinking and all about body positivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different rounds including one which assesses your contribution to charity, which provided an opportunity to raise money for Alex\u2019s Wish \u2013 for which the pageant has raised \u00a314,277 in funds and greater awareness of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy \u2013 and for Cancer Research UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother round is concerned with how you can use the title to raise positive publicity for the place you live, and there are interviews and congeniality assessments. It\u2019s about being an ambassador for confidence, body positivity and empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been the subject of bullying because of my weight when I was younger, I\u2019m very determined to encourage everyone \u2013 but especially younger girls \u2013 to know themselves and to accept that they deserve to feel confident and have good self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in an age when remarks made on social media can be made very easily and publicly, and they can be very cruel and hurtful. To encourage people to be kind is important. I\u2019ve stretch marks galore and I\u2019m very keen to say to everyone \u2013 but especially to girls growing up, doubting themselves \u2013 that it\u2019s normal and beautiful to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the other responsibility of the role is to promote your home town and having grown up with so many lovely memories and with such a great family, I always feel proud to live in Grimsby. In one direction there\u2019s a beach, in the other there\u2019s some really beautiful countryside and there\u2019s a thriving town centre right in the heart of the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never feel ashamed of where I come from and I feel really lucky to have grown up in the town! Both my brother and I are proud of where we\u2019re from and we each hope that we can use our own experiences to inspire people and raise the profile of our home town!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two super-siblings are putting the Great in Great Grimsby, demonstrating that with \u00a0determination \u2013 and strength of spirit \u2013 you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[232,77,230,27,235,234,233,231],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","tag-atkin","tag-grimsby","tag-jen","tag-lincolnshire","tag-miss-england","tag-miss-gb","tag-olympics","tag-sam"],"acf":false,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}