The rules of the Miss France contest no longer prevent transgender people from participating, the director of the Miss France pageant, Sylvie Tellier, said in a recent interview. But, she added, she does not believe France is ready for a transgender Miss France. In an interview with local newspaper Le Parisien in French, Tellier confirmed contestants will no longer need to fill the requirement of being assigned female at birth. Instead, the rules require being a woman between 18 and 25 years old. With this, France follows in the footsteps of some of its neighbors. In Belgium, a contestant who is transgender, Céline Van Den Bossche, entered the pageant in 2015, and in Spain, contestant Angela Ponce, who is trans, won the title last year.