Her background in care – which saw her move placements nine times during her A-levels alone – was short on glitz and glamour.

But instead of hiding her story, Levy, 24, decided to embrace it.

"I wanted to turn that pain into purpose and I wanted to speak about it," says the current Miss Northampton, who was in care between the ages of 16 and 18.

That decision has helped propel her to the Miss Great Britain final in October, where she hopes to change the perception of care leavers like herself.

For Levy, who got in touch with the BBC via Your Voice, pageantry provided the perfect stage to change the narrative.

"A lot of [pageantry] terms and conditions say you must not have anything in your background that can bring this organisation into disrepute," she explains.

"I internalised that and I thought of the most shameful thing that happened in my life, which is going into foster care.

"I thought, 'Oh gosh, this could be a real problem.'"

There were 50,670 care leavers aged between 17 and 21 in England in 2023/24, according to the Department for Education.

Levy was one of them. She believes too many of her peers are written off before they even get a chance.

Her ambition, however, knows no limit.

"After Miss Great Britain, my biggest dream is to be Miss Universe," she says.

Her lived experience is the driving force behind her campaign.

As a teenager in care, Levy says she often felt misunderstood and that there was no role model for her in the media.

"I felt really isolated and almost ashamed of who I was when I left care," she says. "I don't want any other girls to feel the same.

"I really felt like my credibility as a person was just diminished."

Levy was shuffled from place to place while studying for her A-levels.

"It was really crazy," she recalls. "It was a lot of disruption and it's quite hard to find a strong base or foundation."

When Miss Great Britain began in 1945, it was only about judging the physical beauty of contestants.

But 80 years on, its organisers are also keen to give a platform to the personal campaigns and good causes the contestants are supporting.

This gave Levy a sense of purpose: she had something meaningful to discuss with the judges.

"A beauty queen is the ultimate girl next door, right? But that assumes a lot of privilege," she says.

"It assumes that you've got family privilege, of that support net that you can always go to and rely on.

"It assumes you've got GCSEs and formal qualifications. It assumes you've got stable accommodation, access to health care."

Now, Levy is working to ensure other young, female care leavers can access the same opportunities she has.

She is launching a social enterprise, Care to Crown, which will support those women with crucial life skills – as well as how to boost their confidence in the world of pageantry.

Alongside pageant preparation, the online programme will offer one-to-one help on everyday challenges people face when leaving care – from help with council tax to claiming Universal Credit.

At its heart, Levy says, the initiative is about tackling hidden inequalities.

"We use a pageant as a tangible goal for the girls to work towards... to be at the same level as their peers who would have left school at 18," she explains.

Levy has previously worked with Become, a charity for children and young people with experience of the care system, on various campaigns.

The organisation said it is "very proud" of what she is doing.

Campaigns and participation manager, Jo Petty, said that isolation after leaving care is a "real issue".

"They may have experienced being moved multiple times, changing schools and then at 18 - and sometimes earlier - they are expected to become independent and sometimes overnight," she said.

"Often the support will fall away at that point and they are unsure how to navigate adulthood, who to go to, how to hold down a tenancy, find a job and manage their money.

"[Charlotte] understands what other people have been through and also those challenges that they may face.

"It's really important that care experienced people can support each other with their rights and entitlements and that they can do something that they love and that care experience doesn't become their defining characteristic."

Levy hopes her advocacy will encourage change within the pageantry industry itself.

"There are ways we can improve access to care leavers within the Miss Great Britain organisation," she continues.

"That would be such a fun journey and improvement to have."

After all, Levy believes the values promoted by pageantry align closely with the message she wants to send.

"It's all about self-improvement, it's all about being the best that you can be, so I hope that other care leavers enter as well."

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