Curro Krugersdorp learner, Boipelo Tlhabi, 12, presents pageantry with style and grace since she was barely three years old, and boy, did she pick them up like she was born with them! By the next year, she was competing in her first-ever beauty pageant. She loved every moment of it, and there was no stopping her thereafter.
Mom Tidimalo described her as introverted at the time, but looking at her now, sitting with perfect body posture, one leg crossed over the other with her hands gently draped over one knee, fully articulating every word, you’d never guess Boipelo was anything less than 100 per cent confident.
She didn’t ever do it for the attention, though. In fact, she really doesn’t like the attention at all.
Tidimalo very quickly said, gently teasing her daughter: “She doesn’t want me to tell anyone!” Boipelo especially doesn’t want the kids in her class to know.
If she’s not there for the attention, then why do it at all? “Because I get to dress up with make-up and make friends with every new competition. And then I do a lot of charity work for the competitions too.”
When Boipelo recently walked into the hall of one very prestigious pageant competition, she never once thought that she might win. She hoped, obviously, and was definitely ready to give it her all, but the competition was very strong and she felt a bit stressed about it all. Looking back now, she very clearly had nothing to worry about, as she walked out as the new overall junior winner of Miss Mini Teen South Africa.
She also won in numerous other categories in her group, including: Best interview, Best interview wear, Best ramp model, Best themed outfit, Best evening wear, Most photogenic, Miss Congeniality and Public choice award (which involved a public voting session on Facebook).
So, what’s next? Boipelo, after winning Miss Mini Teen, now has the opportunity to go to the International Junior Miss in Orlando, America.
For now, Boipelo needs to start looking for a ball gown for the competition and learn how to walk and parade in this new kind of dress, because, “In south Africa you don’t need ball gowns, just the normal pageant dresses. There they want ball gowns and we need to get them made. It’s going to be hard for us to learn to walk in the gowns, because it’s our first time ever”.
With a long road still ahead, Krugersdorpers can feel assured that our town and country will be excellently represented by this young beauty queen.
