“I was surprised by the reaction,” Pitt said.

“I don’t know why it was such a big deal. I’m not offended, I’m just perplexed I suppose.

“Everyone says we should have more real women in the media and then as soon as there is a real woman, there’s so much attention over it.”

Whether Pitt is willing to admit it or not, the groundbreaking cover was a bold editorial decision.

Suffering burns on 65% of her body after she was engulfed by a wild bushfire while competing in an ultra-marathon in the Kimberely, the former mining engineer and model realises she is not the same woman she used to be.

To her, that’s not a negative though. She’s turned her tragic experience three years ago and her incredible journey to recovery into a source of inspiration for others, speaking to people all over the country.

At the Miss World Australia competition at Cypress Lakes Resort in the Hunter Valley over the weekend, Pitt was on hand to share her amazing story and be a judge at the event.

The message? Beauty should not be the sole defining feature of a person and the human spirit is capable of remarkable things.

“I’ve just tried to make the most of my circumstances and if people get something out of my story, that’s fantastic,” Pitt said.

While the reception to the Women’s Weekly cover was overwhelmingly positive, it hasn’t always been so easy for Pitt to face the public since that fateful race in the West Australian outback.

Some cruel people were unable to see past Pitt’s scars.

“People wrote me emails,” she said.

“But that woman who wrote me that email saying I looked like a troll, I bet you she’s seen the cover of the Women’s Weekly and she’s eating her words right now.”

That’s the sort of candid, feisty and slightly rebellious personality that has helped Pitt through her years of rehabilitation, undergoing more than 100 surgical procedures to get where she is today.

Once told by doctors she would never run again, this year she completed the 4000km Variety Ride, the 20km Lake Argyle Swim and walked the Great Wall of China to raise almost $200,000 for Interplast, an organisation which funds reconstructive surgery for patients in developing nations.

“I really enjoy when people tell me I can’t do something,”

“In hospital I used my anger at the race organisers to fuel me, to make me train even harder.”

Next year Pitt says she will commence training to do an ironman, and has aspirations to study medicine and start a family with her partner, Michael.

The sheer determination Pitt has demonstrated to move forward with her life since that horrific ultra-marathon gives little reason to doubt all those goals will be achieved very soon.