Youth Embraces its Beauty

By: Avumile Seela

Twitter: @avumile_seela

Email: avumilemofasa@gmail.com

 

Picture from Facebook: The Face of Azania

The Face of Azania Pageant heated up the Gauteng West region in Kagiso on the 8th July 2023 with its first Beauty Pageant event after the country suffered from catastrophic Corona Virus pandemic in the last 2 years.

Beauty pageants are seen as a platform for showcasing women empowerment, diversity, intelligence, and leadership. They are a way to promote societal connections and to encourage self-discipline, a way for today’s youth to find new opportunities, encourage self-confidence, healthy competition and charitable work, promote local economic opportunities.

“The purpose of this event was to give young individuals a platform where they can embrace their beauty, skills on a platform where the society will see the significance of having a glowing youth and to groom young ones who are not yet exposed to this platform,” said co-host, Tebogo Sehularo.

Picture from Facebook: The Face of Azania

According to Statista, South Africa is one of the best 10 countries with most beauty pageant crowns; standing on number 9 with a total of 6 crowns. Beauty pageants have long been a contested part of the culture, some see them as a hangover from a far more patriarchal era, while others defend them for helping women of all ages to feel more confident and to know their self-worth.

“Participating in this event gave me a chance to step out of my comfort zone and start looking at the positive side of my life. I was always involved in bad situations and I nearly gave up on myself,” said Tshepiso Tsiloane who was later named the Queen of Azania.

The face of Azania handed over prizes according to participants according to their respectively achievement or positions in relation to the event. The most common duty that they received was a 6 months’ contract to promote The Face of Azania Pageant page.

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Noluvo Mabuza from Tshwane University of Technology Soshanguve Campus, outlines how participating in beauty pageants from her early age helped her overcome situations that she sometimes found herself in her teen life.

Beauty Pageants help participants when it comes to their job resumes, they will have so much to talk about and show what one has done with their title through community service. Each participant has a platform to raise awareness and money. This teaches individuals to be active and give back to the community.