Krugersdorp’s own Indian queen
First-time pageant entry and she walks away with the title.
The first time Sherianne Pillay entered a beauty pageant, she ended up walking away with the Miss India Gauteng crown.
After serving the community in her church for the past six years, Sherianne took a leap of faith by entering a beauty pageant to further spread her goodwill.
She described her first pageant as very intimidating as she was competing against girls who grew up doing modelling.
“Even their walk was on point. I just decided to focus on myself and tried my best,” she said.
The Miss India Gauteng pageant was hosted at Gold Reef City last year. There Sherianne competed in a Eastern and Western category, talent category and in a question-and-answer session.
She wowed the judges in the talent category with her unique Bollywood African-inspired dance during which she did a wardrobe change on stage in 12 seconds.
Her mother, who is one of her role models, designs and makes all her pageant clothing, including the talent category costume.
Next she competed in the Miss India SA pageant, which was held over December.
Sherianne and other pageant hopefuls underwent various training workshops from morning to night, every day for the duration of the competition.
In the Q-and-A session she cited the late Nelson Mandela as one of her role models.
“Apart from fighting for the country, he had a dream,” she said.
She was crowned as first princess.
She is thankful for the new experiences she has gained and spends most of her time appearing at events, doing motivational speeches at schools and giving back to the community.
The 21-year-old Wits student also started her own organisation called Princess Diaries, through which she gives motivational talks to young girls at various schools around Gauteng.
Besides Princess Diaries, Sherianne also is involved with Babies Behind Bars, Reach for a Dream Foundation and Cupcakes for Cansa.
She aims to enter the Miss South Africa pageant in the near future, but for now it’s back to serving her community.
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