By Vivian Onyebukwa
Former beauty queen, multiple award winner, and Nigeria’s first Pageant Director to ever be awarded Best National Director in an International pageant, Gwendolyn Elohor Tagbarha, is the Founder of Teen Queen Nigeria Pageant.
She is set to launch the first ever Teen Queen International Beauty Pageant, scheduled to hold in the Lagos, the center of excellence, Nigeria come August, 2024.
The Teen Queen International Pageant, has a mission to embark on activities and projects that will enable her special teen queens to develop their innate abilities and talents, to become all they desire to be and thus become productive to the society and the world at large. “Teen pageant promises to bring standard event on a platform that can be used to promote tourism and the diverse cultures of these teen beauties from around the world.
Most countries in Africa are currently bedevilled with problems such as poverty, unemployment, unequal opportunities, corruption, lack of education, and terrorism, etal. Consequently, as a home grown pageant, we have the vision at Teen Queen International vision to create a future where our teen beauties will become selfless humanitarians, beauty entrepreneur, worthy role models, top beauty queens, top fashion models and global change makers, who can rule the world from an African perspective, Tagbarha said.
She also stated that the platform will also be used to raise awareness on the importance of education to help foster empathy and understanding in driving developmental initiatives in the society. “Our teen queens shall also become empowered individuals that will not just take positive actions but also advocate for positive changes in the society”.
According to her, the event is going to be one of its kind, the first ever teen international pageant to take place in Nigeria, thereby bringing the world to Nigeria with opportunities of intercultural and cross cultural relationships in this part of the world (Africa).
More so, since there is no formidable International Teen Pageant in Africa, she said that the cost of traveling abroad, the fees Africans pay to participate abroad, is too outrageous, with no guarantee of Africans winning, maybe, because they do not see Africans fit to win their crown. “We thought it wise to give Africans, a reputable platform to achieve their dreams through Teen Queen International Pageant. We are using this medium to call on potential sponsors, partners, fashion designers, media houses (print, visual and audio) to partner with us as we positively change the narratives of pageantry in Africa”, she added.