Meet magnificence queen who works as a bus driver – and will get chatted up by passengers

Anya Hudson drives the X20 bus on the late shift between Colchester and Stansted Airport and is also Miss Smile and Miss Top Model Universal

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Meet the international beauty queen who spends her days working as a bus driver. Anya Hudson, 24, drives the X20 bus on the late shift between Colchester and Stansted Airport.

But she is also Miss Smile and Miss Top Model Universal – having bagged the awards at the recent Miss Universe Beauty competition in Peru. The former car saleswoman decided to start driving buses in July 2023, aged 22, to prove her dad Dave wrong.

She said: “I distinctly remember saying to my dad ‘they’re hiring at First Bus in Colchester’, and he said ‘you’ll never be a bus driver’, joking around with me as he always did. So I was like: ‘I’ve got to prove my dad wrong now’.”

Just over a year into her job, one of Anya’s friends encouraged her to try pageantry, and she entered the Miss Galaxy competition.

Colleagues at the Colchester bus depot were ‘shocked’ when she posted her glam headshots on social media.

Anya said: “They were all a little bit taken aback – I’m quite a jokey person. I don’t think I’d ever stepped foot into the yard with a single bit of makeup on.

“I remember posting my first set of headshots on Instagram and I came into work the next day – they said ‘I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t think it was you’.

“Everyone was really surprised, in the best possible way.” Though she did not achieve a ranked place at the Miss Galaxy competition, Anya was hooked.

She said: “It was my first-ever pageant, I just went for an experience, to prove to myself ‘you can do this, Anya’.”

In May 2025, Anya placed as a runner-up at her second pageant, the Miss Glamour competition. She was then selected to represent Great Britain at the Miss Universe Great Britain competition in the Peruvian capital Lima.

There, she scooped two sashes, including one for her smile, despite being bullied as a child for her ‘crooked’ teeth.

Despite her success, Anya still ferries bus passengers between Colchester and Stansted – some of whom have tried to court the ‘fare lady’.

She said: “I came back from Peru and a news article had been released about it.

“I remember three or four of my regular passengers on the X20 saying ‘is this you?’ and saying ‘tell me all about it’.

“They loved it all, they said ‘I can’t believe my bus driver is a beauty pageant queen’.”

She added: “I’ve had no marriage proposals yet – I’ve had a few interactions over the years, even before pageants, people on the buses asking for my information.

“I’ve had the occasional scenario – I’m a late driver, people have been out drinking, having a good time, there’s no malicious intent.

“I’ve had a few people say ‘you’re the most attractive bus driver I’ve ever seen’. I’m like ‘cool, great, go sit down so I can drive please!’”

Anya said other pageant contestants are left ‘dumbfounded’ when they find out about her day job – though she has friends taking part from a wide range of professions, including accountants and solicitors.

She said: “I always get the question ‘do you ever drive a double decker?’ and I say ‘of course I drive a double decker.’

“It’s such a random scenario for people to wrap their heads around. I had the question when I was out in Peru, and even when I’m competing nationally other British contestants ask it.

“It always makes me giggle. I show them photos of me with the buses and they say they can’t believe I drive them, because it’s such a male-dominated industry.

“Yeah, I do – but there doesn’t need to be a stigma about that.

“There doesn’t need to be that stigma of ‘oh, you’re a woman that drives buses, that’s amazing’, it should just be ‘oh, you’re a woman that drives buses.’”

An important part of being a pageant queen, Anya says, is charity work – and the one she supports is close to her heart.

Tragically, just three months after proving her dad wrong and becoming a bus driver, he passed away from Motor Neurone Disease.

Now, Anya supports the MND Association, for whom she’s already raised more than £3,000.

Anya said: “He would absolutely roll on the ground laughing if he was alive to see me doing these pageants.

“He would think it’s the most hilarious thing known to man, but he’d also support me tenfold – he would laugh in the corners, but he’d support me tenfold.”

Jim Ward, operations manager at First Bus’s Colchester depot, said: “Anya’s achievements show that becoming a bus driver can be for anyone.

“She’s a brilliant example of the diverse and incredible people that make up our driving crew.”

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