This beauty with brains was crowned Miss Teen Africa Botswana on June 25, 2022 after outshining fellow beauties at the Cresta President Hotel on the pageant's second edition.
In an interview with Arts & Culture, she said she felt honoured to be crowned the new queen. She added that winning the pageant gives women or young girls fame, recognition, confidence and a course of direction and a sense of self worth.
She said as the reigning queen, she would be using her title to inspire many other girls. She added that she would start up an initiative to protect the girl-child. She said she also wants to advocate women and children protection because of the abuse they suffer, living in fear of perpetrators, which results in them living on the dark side, voiceless and hurting.
“For me, being the queen has opened new avenues as a mentor and a grooming partner for others. The competition was tough and I had to make lots of sacrifices to win the title.
I am schooling and I had to give both school and the pageant time. I sometimes went for two to three days without reading my school books, practicing questions that are normally asked on beauty pageants and it gave me a lot of stress,” she said.
Palai also stated that she had challenges since the journey started until the day she was crowned. She explained that sometimes she did not have money to go for rehearsals and was forced to borrow money from friends.
She added that making friends with fellow competitors was not easy, as she had to be patient with them and learn their behaviour. She also stated that she struggled to find attires for the competition but was happy to get them during the final day. Even though it seemed easy to win Miss Teen Africa Botswana title, she said things were not a walk in the park since she had to work hard for it.
She said winning the crown came with hard work, confidence, dedication and being authentic. However, this beauty is no stranger in the pageantry ramp. She started partaking in beauty pageants while still at Radikolo Junior Secondary School on 2017 where she scooped the second runner up title and in 2018 she was crowned Miss Radikolo Junior Secondary School 2018/19.
The same year, she was selected to represent her school at Miss All Schools Kgatleng and made it to the top five. She did not give up but joined Miss Playurole in 2019 but did not go for competitions because of COVID-19. “I went for Miss Beauty With Brains Botswana in 2020 and I managed to win the title even though it was a tough competition.
Again on 2021, I joined Miss Teen Africa Botswana but I only made it to the top five and I wanted to quit pageantry but something inside of me told me that I should not give up. Come 2022, then God did wonders. I told myself that I was going for Miss Teen Africa Botswana again and guess who won the title, the very same young lady who only made it to top five on 2021 in the same pageant,” she said.
For her part, the pageant’s director Lame Jerry said Teen Africa Botswana was a beauty and talent show pageant showcasing young women aged between 14 to 20 years of Botswana origin.
She said the winner is going to represent Botswana at the main event together with the other 56 countries of Africa. She explained that Miss Teen Africa Botswana empowered women to realise their goals through experiences that build self-confidence and create opportunities for success. “The pageant is the first of its kind and it is devoted to strengthen the voices and representation of the young females within the African community around the world with a greater emphasis on charitable deed.
The inauguration of the event in Botswana follows the need to have Botswana represented at an international level when the main event takes place. The expectation is that the event shall take place every year in the build up towards the main event.” “The initiative is vital in unleashing talent for the young generation, which is instrumental to the new government’s new vision on transformation especially towards the knowledge-based economy and positioning Botswana as a destination of choice,” she said.
