Africa-Press – Botswana. Pageantry is no longer about winning the lucrative prizes but empowering young women with invaluable life skills.
Beauty pageants instil self-discipline, motivation and determination, said Kgosi Bakae Khumo of Basimane ward during a courtesy call by Miss Junior Serowe contestants at Serowe main kgotla on Wednesday.
He commended the organisers for catching them young.
Kgosi Khumo also pat the organisers on the back for encouraging the contestants to wear traditional attire, fit for a kgotla gathering. He said they were indeed raising a generation of well-versed women that the nation would be proud of.
The pageant’s director, Helen Tumotumo, said the Miss Junior Serowe pageant came into existence after being selected to compete at the Miss Africa Unity in Ghana in August this year.
The 28-year-old Tumotumo was tasked to come up with a project and, being passionate about beauty contests, saw the birth of Miss Junior Serowe.
The pageantry targets girls aged five to 20 years and so far they have 21 contestants who will be competing for the crown on May 27 at Swaneng Primary School.
“We have divided these girls into three categories that consists of the little category that caters for five to nine, pre-teen for 10-13 and junior category for 14 to 20 years old.
To hype the pageants we have a series of activations, which include a picnic for mothers and daughters that took place at Sekei Stables on March 18. We will have a boot camp from April 28 to May 1 and a sponsored walk on April 29,” she highlighted.
Tumotumo explained that the winner would walk away with one-year tutoring services, accommodation at a selected guest house and many more prizes that would be announced at the finale.
Although she has a few sponsors she is still in talks with, TumoTumo appealed to all for support stating that it would do her a great service if they came on board because organising a beauty contest was taxing.
One of the finalists, 13-year-old Naledi Segadimo said she was looking forward to the finale and confident about eclipsing other contestants to be selected the fairest of them all.
Segadimo is not new to beauty pageantries, as she won Miss Royal International in 2022 and yet to travel to USA, Florida to compete with other girls from across the globe.
“Crowns are not made of rhinestones. They are made of discipline, determination, consistency and a rare trait called courage” the young beauty explained.
She said beauty pageant was more than just a pretty face and a pretty walk, as such parents should allow their children to take part in pageants as there was a lot they could learn from it.
Another finalist, Lebopo Gaorekwe, a first time beauty contestant said the journey with Miss Junior Serowe had been a fascinating one.
“There are so many wonderful memories created by interacting with my peers. I look forward to coming out of this pageantry a better person” she added.
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