[optin-monster slug=”o1oltbelggnq0q5uohhx” followrules=”true”]Bizana-born model Siziphiwe Gwagwa is set to represent her town in a Provincial Beauty Pageant the Miss Empower Eastern Cape.
The 24-year-old started modeling as a way to keep her motivated and shy away from the distractions that come with peer pressure at college and helped her to stay focused and eventually started to gain a love for it. “I was able to help a few in my community who loved modeling and started my pageant in 2020 Mr and Miss Golden Treasure in partnership with Bongeka Mqadi to help more from young ones to the youth that love modeling,” she says.
Her journey as a model was not all roses, as she experienced backlash from the community telling her that modeling is only for people who are well off not for someone who was struggling like her, but despite everything that never discouraged her it gave her the courage to do more for herself and not let people’s opinions get to her.
“In my modelling journey, I was only crowned once as a Queen and in all other beauty pageants I was always the first princess that made me lose confidence and I did not participate in any pageants until I saw the Miss Empower Eastern Cape and right there I wished I learned that it’s not r crown that determines you to be a Queen but it’s the reality of who you are and how you step out and value yourself,” she explains.
Siziphiwe advocates for Mental Health, she believes that it’s time we become true to ourselves, mental health attacks us because of living in a cage and not living the reality of our lives so whenever the reality comes it finds us in the wrong place and wrong time, that’s when depression and anxiety starts.
When asked how she would convince someone to change their mindset for not believing in her advocacy, she says:
“It’s easy to change the mindset others if they see you do according to your words. So I would put action to my advocacy to make them believe how useful and helpful it can be in their lives and well I believe in walking the talk.”
“If you choose to do anything someone is going to have an opinion about it and when you step out in what you do you give them the fear of how it could work out for you. So when people criticize you, walk taller, stand firm, and don’t answer their opinions because I believe God will never give us a burden that we can’t bear, and when the time is right the Lord will make it happen for us all,” she concludes.
