Cayla set to wow at Little Miss World

TEN-YEAR-OLD beauty princess Cayla van Eeden is all set to jet off to Turkey in May to take part in the Little Miss World 2014 competition.

This Van Riebeeck Park Primary School learner from Birch Acres will be one of only three girls from South Africa to represent the country in the worldwide contest.

Cayla was selected to be a part of this prestigious affair after she came in first princess at the Little Miss World SA pageant in March.

Girls were chosen by the Directors of Pageants SA to take part in the pageant in Turkey based on how well they had been doing in competitions, how well they did in the Little Miss World SA (where they had to either win the competition or be crowned first princess), as well as their charity work, which is the most important criteria.

“We are really happy and excited for her. For her to be chosen for this competition is a great achievement and honour. It is also a great opportunity for Cayla to not only represent her country at a global competition but it will also bring togetherness with other children from around the world,” Cayla’s mom, Elize van Eeden, said.

Since she started entering contests in 2011, Cayla has moved from strength to strength, collecting many pretty crowns, medals and sashes, including Little Miss World SA, where she was crowned first princess.

“We never made a conscious decision to enter Cayla into such competitions, it all happened by chance. A colleague entered her daughter in the Mini Miss Dollar Pageant in 2011 and suggested I also entered Cayla, which we did,” Van Eeden said.

“It all happened so quickly. We entered that week on a Wednesday and the show was that Saturday at Sun City. We got her ball gown made in a rush by my brother’s wife and off we went, with no experience and not knowing what to expect at all.”

In fact, it seemed mommy was more nervous than Cayla, who was the one who should have been the anxious one.

“I was not scared, I was just really excited. I thought I could see first what the other girls did when they went on stage but I ended up being called first to walk. So I had no choice but to go ahead and walk without seeing what to do it first,” Cayla said with a smile.

With no prior experience or even training, the talented young girl managed to make it into the top 10.

Since then, she has been going for regular classes where they teach the girls the basics of modelling, walking, smiling, how to answer questions and how to present yourself on stage.

Also, the family is very selective when it comes to the competitions she enters.

“Although she enters beauty pageants, she is still a little girl who is not even a teenager yet, so we don’t want her to grow up too fast. She only enters contests where the girls are natural and not allowed to have any make-up on except some lip gloss.

“Their shoes can’t be too high either, just a few centimetre high wedge shoes,” Van Eeden said.

Cayla is also involved in charity work, which they did as a family even before she started competing in beauty pageants.

“I have always encouraged my children to strive to better the lives of those less fortunate. We collect toys for children in orphanages and distribute the toys over Christmas as presents to the kids,” Van Eeden said.

Even though she has such a busy schedule with competitions, Cayla’s parents never let that get in the way of her schoolwork.

“We made a compromise with her that if she wants to continue with the modelling, she must still do well at school.

“No school, no modelling. That’s the agreement.”

So it helps that she is an intelligent learner who does very well in school, getting brilliant marks for academics. When she grows up, she dreams of becoming a doctor.

“I really want to become a doctor so I can help people who are sick and make them better again.”

With her brains and amazing talent, Cayla will surely wow the judges when she jets off to Turkey for the Little Miss World, which will cost her R72 000 for the whole trip.

Her mom has been trying her best to reach out to people for donations and to try raise the funds so Cayla can represent her country in Turkey.

If anyone is interested in donating money, or any other thing that can help, such as an outfit or ball gown, contact Elize on 084-555-9293 or 011-640-8104.