Gwen Elliot

Gwen, 20, is from Beaverton, Ontario. She is studying Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University and dreams of a career in television.

Growing up in small town Ontario, Gwen says that she was painfully shy. "I never even thought I would move to Toronto, much less compete in Miss World Canada," she says.

She sees the pageant as a way of challenging herself, proving to herself and to everyone else that she's no longer the shy small-town girl she once was.

Gwen, a former Ryerson Varsity basketball player, says that she's "not a typical pageant girl." Having spent most of her life as an athlete, rather than a "girly-girl", she says that she feels like an "underdog" in the Miss World Canada competition.