Jessicas story
Jessica Pliskin (22) lives in Bristol near the Harbour, she’s studying for a masters in Physics at the University of Bristol.
Crowning moment – Jessica Gagen the reigning Miss England, crowns Jessica Pliskin a Miss England 2024 finalist ! Photo by grey_falena
On Sunday 7th April, Jessica who likes to be known as “Jessa” won the Watermans Gorgeous Hair Award in the Miss England Semi Final at Viva Blackpool, receiving her finalists crown, trophy & sash from the reigning Miss England Jessica Gagen and Miss England team.
We managed to catch up with Jessa , even though she’s abroad now & about to do a sky dive for charity !
Here’s Jessa’s story in her own words
Winning the Watermans Hair Award
” I feel super honoured to have won the top award for our amazing sponsor Watermans Hair! It is such an innovative product and I am so grateful that I get to represent the brand at the Miss England Final.
Jessa with her favourite Watermans Hair Oyl product
As a teenager I dyed my hair a lot and it was super damaged so I had to cut it quite short even though its very long now!
I wash my hair about 2 times a week.
It takes a long time to dry, it depends on the temperature, when it is super cold sometimes I can go to sleep with wet hair and wake up with it still being slightly wet!
My favourite product that ive tried so far is the Watermans Hair Oyl because it feels super nourishing on my hair and adds such a nice volume and definition to my natural waves.
Studies
I am in my third year and I am on a Masters Course so I have one more year after this.
When I was a child, I always got really good grades and I loved school and learning. I was always top of the class and was the star of my school plays. I absolutely loved it.
But then when I was 14, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer. When I was 16, it had spread to her brain. The doctors told us it was terminal and she had two weeks left to live. This completely turned my world upside down, I didn’t know what to do, I started skipping school and acting up.
My grades started getting progressively worse, I started engaging in risky behaviour, I ran away from home a few times, I would skip a lot of school. I was really struggling with my mental health and I didn’t know what to do and no one knew how to help.
Jessa & her late mum
They told my mom that she had two weeks left to live, but she was one of the strongest people I know, she would never give up, she was a fighter. She turned the two weeks she had into two years. She lived to see her 50th birthday.
My mum grew up in a very traditional house where she was told to find a good husband and to focus on cooking and stereotypical feminine positions. But she always wrote her own story, if people told her something was going to happen she would still do it her way. She found a love for science and went on to get a degree in physics at one of the top universities in the UK.
I always admired her for this. And in my teenage years, as I felt her slipping away from me, I found an interest in physics myself.
At first, I think I did it as a way to become closer to her, to try and hold onto her in some way, but the more I did it, the more I found a love for it, and I will always be grateful to her for this.
My mum passed away over two years ago, since then I have been committing myself to my studies, I really want to do well to make her proud, and the more I learn and find a love for the subject, the more I feel I understand her.
My mom had a special interest in electronics, most notably semi conductivity, while I found a passion for quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics provides insight into the fundamental nature of everything around us, it has completely changed the way I see the world and is so much more philosophical and creative than I ever realised. Its technological implications are also at the forefront of the developmental world and I am so excited to be able to learn about this.
I remember, as a teenager she showed me her final year lab report that she had created on semi conductivity. I remember looking through it and being so amazed by how scientific and complex it looked. I did not understand any of it. I am so proud to say that I recently created my own final year lab report on optical vibrational spectroscopy, and I can’t wait to put it with hers. I also can’t wait to look through hers properly and to finally understand it all.
My ultimate goal is to work at CERN which is Europe’s largest research organisation into quantum physics and home to the Large Hadron Collider as it will be at the forefront of new discoveries in quantum physics and I’d love to be a part of it. I have lots of ideas about further research that could be conducted there, in particular regarding the Future Circular Collider and it would be a dream come true to be able to work with scientistic researchers on this one day.
My mum would be so proud and happy to see me doing all of this. I know she is definitely watching from heaven with my grandma and they are cheering me on together”.
Jessica will be taking part in the Miss England Grand final on May 16th & 17th at the Grand Station Wolverhampton sponsored by Watermans Hair .
The winner of Miss England 2024 will go forward to the 72nd Miss World final .
