Miss England is planning to become the first beauty queen in space

Earlier this year, Jessica Gagen was officially crowned Miss England, and in 2023 she'll be going for Miss World - but her aspirations go a whole lot further than that.

The aerospace engineering student blew judges away back in October when she shared her plans to become a fully trained astronaut and inspire other women to pursue careers in STEM.

Jessica, 27, had already made history when she won Miss England when she became the first ever redhead to win the pageant but next, she wants to be the first beauty queen to go to space.

Right now, Jessica is a little bit preoccupied with finishing her integrated masters degree at the University of Liverpool and competing for the Miss World title in spring 2023 - both fairly simple tasks, really.

But once she's got those accolades under her belt, she hopes to quite literally become Miss Universe, and head to outer space.

As soon as she has her degree in the bag, Jessica will be applying to become an astronaut and, one day, educate children from the International Space Station.

Anyone else starting to feel kind of bad about their new year's resolutions?

Speaking about her impressively big goals, Jessica said: "I hope me winning Miss England as well as my aerospace passion will show girls that they can follow their dreams and goals and be whoever they want to be.

"My engineering degree opens up so many doors for me and one day I hope to apply to the European Space Agency to follow my dream.

"I would love to go to space one day and I’m on the right path.

"After my degree is complete, I would have to complete three years in industry and then I can apply to become and astronaut.

"My dream would be to visit the International Space Station and educate kids from space and make STEM content up there like Tim Peake did.

"Engineering is such a male dominated industry and I want to educate kids about the different engineering roles and show that women can work in STEM too."

When it comes to inspiring other young women to shoot for the stars (literally), Jessica is already on the case.

The pageant winner regularly dedicates her social media to space education and encouraging her fans to believe in themselves.

Just this week, Jessica shared a photo of herself in the National Space Centre and told her followers: "Did you know that there’s never been a woman walk on the moon, and roughly, only about 10% of all astronauts have been female?

"Last week I had a chat with a classmate about this very same topic - she described to me how she felt an instant lack of belief from her peers when she told them she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up, simply because she was a girl!"

She continued: "I just wanted to post a quick note to any girlies facing disbelief to say - YOU CAN DO IT. You are absolutely capable of becoming an astronaut; of harnessing a #STEM career and utilising your skills to achieve your dream. The only person you need to believe in you, is yourself."