A FORMER Trinity School pupil has played her part in an international Dove campaign, calling on advertisers to show women how they are - and not how others believe they should be.

Thirty-year-old Emma Walton made the long journey to Chile in February on a top-secret mission.

She had been scouted on her Instagram page and was contacted by the cosmetic brand about an opportunity in an upcoming marketing campaign.

“I was surprised,” she explained.

“I thought it was one of those stupid things that comes in on Instagram. I am quite fat, but I am okay with that. You get emails you accept it happens. I said I will send something but I only if I trust who you are. They were really good with me.

“They called me in January to ask what my availability was like at work in February. They asked me to keep a week free and I told work.

“I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about talking about it before it happened.”

The freelance soprano and collaborative artist was then forced to endure a long wait to hear from Dove again - uncertain if it was even going ahead.

Emma explained: “I didn’t hear anything until a week before. All I had was that it was happening, I had no information.

“I didn’t even know where I was flying to until I arrived at Glasgow Airport and I asked them - so I would be able to tell immigration.”

Emma grew up near Houghton, before moving to Smithfield and then to Crosby-on-Eden.

She now lives in Glasgow, working at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

“The advert is about promoting people who are different,” she said.

“It is in association with Getty, creating a new kind of stock image network, so we have people that don’t look like what you expect to see in adverts.

“We had a couple of trans girls, girls with vitiligo and African American girls with natural hair rather than a weave.”

According to Dove, the Shattering Beauty Stereotypes campaign was aimed at creating “the world’s largest stock photo library by women and non-binary individuals, to shatter beauty stereotypes by showing women as they are, not as others believe they should be”.

Emma, whose parents live in Howard’s Place in Carlisle, said being part of the photo shoot was very exciting.

“I did two days of filming,” she explained. “The first bit has me walking past a shop window display that is someone that is not like me - so wouldn’t inspire me to buy something - but the girl inside the dressing room in the next shot is the inspiration for me.

“When the advert first came out it was really worrying me, I felt quite uncomfortable.

“At the time of filming nothing felt real, I didn’t feel like it was happening and that this (the advert) was something that would come to fruition.

“Then it did happen and all of my friends were super supportive, really proud of the campaign - which is really nice.

“There was lots of good feedback from the advert which is really good to see.”

Emma continued: “I am really proud to have been part of it.

“I look back at it as an unbelievable experience that did actually happen. I am really proud to have been part of such an awesome campaign.”