In a closely contested event on Saturday night at the East Lismore Bowling Club, 23-year-old Tara Coles was announced as North Coast National 2022 Young Woman while 16-year-old Katie Johns was announced as North Coast National Teen Showgirl.

There were five entrants in the newly named North Coast National 2022 Young Woman and two entrants for Teen Showgirl.

Tegan Maluta, Tara Coles, Tina Smith, Summer Chaseling and Caitlin Standford were introduced to the guests and interviewed by outgoing 2021 Showgirl winner (as it was known then) Jenna Fisher as the three judges (Wendy O'Neil, Samantha Rixon and Andrew Gordon) listened to their answers.

(Caitland Standford, Summer Chaseling, Tina Smith, Tara Coles and Tegan Maluta vying for the North Coast National Young Woman title)

The entrant's occupations were varied, administration assistant, loan administrator, childcare, university student and dance teacher with most having an agricultural background that included showing horses and or cattle at various shows throughout NSW including the Lismore Show.

Each contestant was asked a little about themselves then each contestant was asked the same question "What do you bring to the Young Woman movement? and what makes you different from the other competitors?"

Tara's answer included going to every Lismore Show, "What I bring is having the experience of being around the show and what it represents, whether its a place where we can show our local produce or show what we've raised here in the area, showing our beef cattle, our horse and our poultry."

(2022 North Coast National Young Woman winner Tara Coles (left) and runner-up Summer Chaseling)

Runner-Up Summer Chaseling had just completed a Bachelor of Agriculture at the University of New England and will be showing her Poll Herefords on Friday. Summer was an introverted person before going away to uni and said she wants to encourage more young women like her to enter a competition like Young Woman.

Teen Showgirl entrants, Katie Johns and Holly Layton, both 16, equipped themselves extremely well.

(North Coast National Teen Showgirl winner Katie Johns (left) and runner-up Holly Layton)

Holly, like Summer, used to be very shy until her job forced her to be more outgoing and gave her the confidence to enter Teen Showgirl. While the winner, Katie Johns said, "I hope to be a role model for young women and kids who want a mentor as I'm probably one of the youngest here."

Before the winners were announced, judge Andrew Gordon acknowledged President John Gibson for his 35 years heading up the North Coast National and went on to apologise to "every judge before me" because the task was a lot more difficult than he thought when in previous years, Andrew was sitting at a table judging from a distance.

Congratulations to our winners this year, Tara and Katie, but a huge congratulations to all the entrants that took the bold step to register for North Coast National Young Woman and Teen Showgirl to represent our region for the next twelve months.

As Andrew Gordon said, We should applaud these young ladies because they will be the future leaders of our community."