Yesterday morning I turned a blind eye to the heavy rains and cold weather in Johannesburg, to attend the media launch of Miss CurvyBody SA and MS CurvyBody SA. I have no regrets. It was such an amazing event, eye opening and a bit emotional.
The Miss Curvybody & Ms Curvybody beauty pageants are aimed at all those women who are normally prejudiced against – the curvaceous and bodacious who willy-nilly are a significant portion of womenfolk across the globe.
The Founders of Miss and MS Curvy Body South Africa, Mapule Mphaki & Naniwe Maqetula. “Our aim is to debunk the myth that beauty is about size. Beauty isn’t about a size zero or a size eight. It is not a number at all. Beauty is limitless. A woman needs to know that she can attain success in anything – discovering her self-worth and radiating a positive self-image.” says Mapule Mphaki the co-founder of Ms Curvybody SA. Mapule is also the Managing Director for Business Women Association of South Africa and was a finalist at the Business Women of the Year 2012.
As its name suggests, the Miss Curvybody SA & Ms Curvybody SA 2017 pageants cater for two groups of women. To qualify for the Miss Curvybody SA category entrants need to be aged between 18 and 27 years of age. The Ms Curvybody SA category is open to the more matured women aged between 28 and 39 years of age.
The winners will represent their communities as goodwill ambassadors, becoming role models of today while strengthening the country for tomorrow and discussing answers to timeless questions such as how to balance demands of looking the certain way and at the same time be successful in a world that is unbalanced.
A significant amount of the proceeds from the pageant will go towards improving lives of young girls at Gaamongoe Girls Club in the Gauteng Province as well as the Thembekile Mandela Foundation in the Eastern Cape and other NGO’s dealing with eating disorders and obesity.
Some of the finalists attended the media launch yesterday. We got a chance to chat to them and hear what they had to say about where they are now and how far they have come.
Finalist Nothile Hlatshwayo said she almost didn’t enter MS CurvyBody SA because she felt she wasn’t curvy enough. I was also shocked to see her as a finalist but then the founders reminded us about the message that they are pushing – BEAUTY HAS NO LIMITS. So any woman regardless of type, size, shape, race, height can enter the competition.
Bochabelo Leshaba struggled with acceptance when she was growing up hence confidence became one her biggest challenges. She got emotional telling us how tough things were in the past. How she was teased about her weight.
MS Curvy Body South Africa Finalist, Nokuthula Thanda said she tried all the tricks in the book to get skinny but it never worked. She has now accepted her CurvyBody and feels like a celebrity because her children see her on billboards advertising clothes and they are proud and inspired.
‘Diversity is here to stay. We need to embrace our bodies. You can be a size small and still be unhealthy. What’s important is to be healthy no matter what size you are.’ is what Dr Babalwa Funda kaMabhoza said at the launch.
The Miss CurvyBody and MS CurvyBody project is not just about South African women. The founders are already in talks with other African countries and the USA.
The 2017 finals will be held at Indaba Hotel in Fourways on the 28th of October 2017. Buy your tickets so we can all go and support these ladies. You also stand a chance to win amazing prices as explained on the flyer above. If you’d like to see all the finalists, you can click HERE
Balancing Demands of Looking The Certain Way. Beauty Has No Limits!! #CurvyBody
@KikiMarli
