Kirsty heslewood biography channel

• Kirsty Heslewood, 23, from Hertfordshire suffered from selective mutism

• Known in her school as 'the girl who wouldn't speak', Kirsty didn't utter a word outside of her home

• Her silence was finally broken when her mother sent a video of her talking to be shown in her school assembly.

  'I felt my secret was out,' she says
  

By LUCY WATERLOW FOR MAILONLINE

Published: | Updated:

A woman who suffered from selective mutism has overcome her shyness to become a contender for the Miss England crown.

Kirsty Heslewood, 23, was once so shy she wouldn't speak to anyone outside her home and was known at her school in Hertfordshire as 'the girl who wouldn't speak'.

It wasn't until the age of seven that she began speaking at school and she gradually became more outspoken as she grew up.

But it wasn't until she got into modelling as a teenager that she really found her confidence