I feel awful for not posting on my blog, this was my lockdown baby and I have had so much going on that my blog took a back seat! So where have I been?
Those of you who know me in pageant land know that I am passionate about spreading awareness for hidden heart conditions, as I was diagnosed with a heart condition back in November. I knew that I would be having an operation on my heart to end the problem, however when lockdown happened I presumed I would be waiting until way after lockdown before having the operation! However, I had a phone call from the hospital a couple of weeks ago to tell me that I was going to be having my operation, and 2 weeks ago I had the operation on my heart! I had an ablation, and I am finally feeling better and on the road to recovery!
For now, I am going to be focusing on my blog a lot more, I am going to be posting the Queen and finalist interviews that I have done, I will be posting weekly appearance updates, and I will also be writing blog and filming YouTube videos with lots of different pageant advice. I am by no means a pageant expert, but I love to share my experiences with others and help people when I can! Please stay tuned, as I am going to be attempting to upload every day to provide new and exciting content!
If you have any ideas of blog posts and videos that you would like to see me do – please leave a comment or send me a message – I would love to hear from you!
Today’s interview is with the lovely Kiah Bajinka. Kiah is Miss Natural Beauty Queen of the Year. Kiah works exceptionally hard with her charity work, and you can find out a little bit more about her down below!
Thank you so much for talking to me today! How did your pageant journey begin? This wasn’t the first pageant that you competed in?No, so my sister started pageants first and I thought that they looked really good and they were really boosting her confidence, so I decided to do one and then just got addicted.
It’s the pageant bug isn’t it! Everyone gets it. So what has pageantry taught you? I’ve learnt lots of key skills like confidence and communication skills. I’ve also learnt that it’s a family, and it’s not what you see in like Toddlers and Tiaras, it’s really different. You have to explain to people the charity work and the interviews and the other stuff that comes along with it.
You’ve had a busy year! What have you got up to as a Queen? Obviously you went to Internationals, tell me more! I’ve been making appearances up and down the UK and I have also been to Africa, where I went to Gambia and I did some appearances there. I’ve also done some charity work and been raising money for Giddo’s Gift and just raising awareness.
So you touched on going to Gambia, what did you get up to? We went to see a pharmacy in my Dad’s old village to see the conditions of it and we saw how it was run down. We also started to get some awareness about that. We went to a school and saw the teachers and how low paid they are, and we went to the Independence Day. You see how privileged we are living here, and it may not seem like that, but compared to other countries we are.
What did you get up to at Internationals? We had a lot of fun! There were lots of activities going on, and there was never a dull day. Everyone was always jumping in the pool, it was just really fun. We did national wear, evening and fashion. We had a Hawaiian night on the first night, where we had the chance to meet up with all the contestants. Some of them we had met at other appearances but obviously some who couldn’t travel as far from Scotland and Wales we didn’t meet, but we just got to meet everyone and make friends.
Who is your pageant inspiration? I can’t choose one inspiration, all the girls inspire me because of how much community work and how hard working they all are.
Do you have a platform or a charity that you support? I’m currently fundraising for Giddo’s Gift which is the charity for Natural Beauty.
What has been your favourite appearance so far? My favourite appearance so far was when we were in Gambia and we went to the school. We got to see the conditions of the school classrooms and the outside and we got to see the teacher. It was an eye opener to how things are over there.
What is your favourite round to compete in? My favourite round is national wear or the all about me rounds. Anything where I can express myself.
And finally, do you have any advice for someone that wants to compete but might be a bit scared? I think they should just go for it. It will come naturally and everyone will be there to support them because that is the pageant community. We just all chip in to help people.
Skylar and Caitlin are two of the CUTEST girls that I have spoken to. We spoke about both of the girls amazing titles, Caitlin’s experience at Internationals, and their favourite things about pageants.
Would you like to introduce yourselves and tell us your titles? My names Caitlin and I’m Face of Europe and the World. My names Skylar and I’m 4 years old. I’m Mini Miss Atlantic.
Before we get into the pageant questions, we are going to have a talk so people can get to know you a little bit better! What is your favourite colour? My favourite colour is probably blue and purple. Pink and yellow.
Who is your favourite Disney Princess, or Disney character? Mine is Ariel because she’s caring for other people. Mine is Aurora.
What other hobbies do you have other than pageants? I do quite a lot of dancing and singing in my room so probably them two hobbies. I do some things in my room because I play with my dollies and I play with my poniesbecause I love them toys.
What dollies do you have? Do you have lots of them? Yeah and I got new ones too from Father Christmas.
What do you want to be when you’re older? I probably want to be a nursery teacher because I like little children and they’re really cute. I want to be a mermaid when I’m older because I love the Little Mermaid.
What is your favourite animal? Mines probably a cheetah because they’re really fast and I like being fast. Mine is a kitten.
We’re going to move onto the pageant questions now.Caitlin, I know that you went to Disney,and didn’t you for Internationals! What did you get up to in Disneyland? There was this ride in Disneyland which I hated last year, and me and my best friend went on it, because she went to Disney too. I thought I’d be scared of it again but I realised I wasn’t scared of it that time. We went on lots of rides, we ate lots of nice food, it was really fun though. I made new friends as well.
What have you both been doing with your titles? We haven’t done that much yet because mums been working, but, soon I will be going back to be on the radio again.
Do you have somebody in pageants that you look up to? It’s my sister queens because I miss them. Mines probably Grace who was Senior Face of Kent, sadly she didn’t win but she’s probably who I look up to. She’s really good on stage and she’s really kind to people.
What has been your favourite appearance that you’ve done?Probably when I was Face if Kent and I was on the radio. When I did my walk with Romy.
Do you have a charity that you fundraise for? I support Headway, that’s the charity I fundraise for, it’s a really caring charity because it helps people who have brain injuries. Mind.
Have you got any advice for somebody that wants to do a pageant but is scared? It’s not a scary thing. I was really nervous when it was my first time doing a pageant, it’s not that bad, there’s a lot of people watching you but it’s really fun, and you make lots of new friends.
What is your favourite round to compete in? Probably fashion wear.
Ellie-Mae is an incredible girl, with so much potential in the pageant world. She is hard working and passionate! I had so much fun talking to her.
How did your pageant journey begin? So my sister originally started them, and I kind of went along with them to kind of see how they worked. I was immediately hooked! I wanted to be part of the action!
Was your first pageant a charity pageant? My first pageant was a glitz pageant.
What have pageants taught you? They’ve taught me that your confidence isn’t defined by other people, and you have to define it by yourself.
What have you been doing throughout your year as Miss Teen Diamond Dorset? I have been trying to raise awareness for invisible disabilities. My worst thing is when people say you don’t look like a pageant girl, but it’s so broad. No two pageant girls are the same. What even is a pageant girl that you’ve based your opinion on to then say I don’t look like that? Something similar is when people say I don’t look like I have a disability, just because you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
So tell me a little bit more about your disability and why you raise awareness for invisible disabilities? I have cerebral palsy which means that the signals from the nerves to the brain are delayed. It takes me longer to do something than the average person. It causes muscle pains, stiffness, but to look at me you can’t see it, unless I’m having a severely bad day.
Who is your pageant inspiration? I’m inspired by everyone I meet through pageants because everyone has their own individual story that inspires you in some way. If I had to pick someone, it would be Lucy Rayner who is the current Teen queen, I just like how she, like where she goes you can’t help but smile when she’s in the room. She’s amazing that her personality can light up a room.
What is your platform, or do you support a certain charity? I like to support Scope which is the official charity for cerebra palsy, as well as PrematureBabies because that helps my sister to boost her campaign, I think that again, she isn’t fitting the stereotype. You wouldn’t think she was born premature, so we are both campaigning in the same way.
What has been your favourite appearance? I think.. I love all appearances for different reasons, but I think my favourite would be the one I did at my school where I did a cake sale, it was for the Diamond charities.I got to show the other side of me at school, and it was like bringing pageantry to school and raising awareness for amazing charities whilst doing my GCSEs and managing everything else. People ask3 how I manage to do it, and it’s just about finding a balance between your hobby and your education.
What is your favourite round to compete in? I think my favourite round is interview. I can tell my story and explain that I have fought for my platform and I have worked hard to build what I believe in. It also gives me a chance to talk about how important invisible disabilities are and how they are shown in society. People no longer have to say they have an invisible disability, it’s just part of society, we are here.
Have you got any advice for somebody that wants to do a pageant but is too scared? I would say don’t listen to the haters. If it’s something you really want to do you will find the motivation in yourself to persevere and push through all your fears. If you’d of told me two years ago I just wouldn’t believe that this is where I would be, in this position.
Pageant Diaries with Georgia 