BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA
In all her life, award-winning model Mary Mundeya has faced adversity after another and believes that hindered the manifestation of her full potential growing up, but she is ready to lift the same burden from the next generation of girls through pageantry.
On March 8, Zimbabwe joined the world in commemorating the International Women’s Day, a global day of celebrating “the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women”.
Drawing from her life lessons, Mundeya, who founded Miss Pre-Teen in 2018, opened up about how she is motivated to use her capabilities now to empower the younger generation so they can be better versions.
“I grew up with low self-esteem. As much as I was bright at school, I was always that shy little girl who was always by herself in some corner somewhere,” she told Standard Style in an interview.
“It (mentoring young girls) is personal to me, I did not grow up having the opportunities that I wish I had and I know that if I had been exposed to better opportunities I could have done better, so personally I feel that as a young lady it is important that I go ahead and make a difference sometimes in the little of ways I can.”
Against all odds, Mundeya, who doubles as a multimedia journalist and entrepreneur, has hosted two editions of the Miss Pre-Teen pageant so far.
“It is a competition that I started because I wanted to firstly correct a number of wrongs that I had seen in the modelling industry and I thought that the perfect way of doing it was through working with a completely new generation so they grow up informed with an understanding of what they want,” she said.
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Through the pageant, she and her team are grooming children with a host of qualities including self-confidence, personal hygiene and environmental consciousness, among others.
Apart from grooming girls to later become empowered women that dismantle the patriarchal tenets of our society, Miss Pre-Teen’s core business is centred on influencing environmental advocacy.
“The other core purpose of starting Miss Pre-Teen is to spread environmental awareness to children who go ahead and spread the same to their families, at school and the community at large. So, whatever activities we do are focused on environmental awareness.
“Finalists are taught about environmental issues and last year’s theme was around wetlands advocacy and they are carrying it through 2021, also whoever the winner is for each year automatically becomes an environmental ambassador,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mundeya concedes that as a result of growing up without enough information on how to pursue her childhood dream of modelling opened her up to various forms of exploitation, but that should not happen with initiatives like her pageant in place.
“What I am aiming to achieve with the pageant is the continued environmental advocacy, hoping that whatever that we will be standing with or advocating for, we will make a difference,” She said.
“I hope to also continue making positive changes to every little girl’s life that I meet or takes part in the competition because it is not just a matter of winning because after all is said and done, it is how someone views themselves and influence others in society.”
