PALESA MOTSEWETSHO – DARING TO DREAM
Palesa Motsewetsho is Miss Teen Botswana 2022
“When I put my mind to something, I can never be swayed.”
She might be young but Palesa Motsweletsi, age 15, is a pageantry star who was recently crowned Miss Teen Botswana 2022. During her journey in the Miss Teen Botswana competition, she showed her potential by working hard and participating wholeheartedly. Miss Teen never let anything turn her head down. Here she tells us how she managed to be a top star who is now famous and greatly admired by many.
Her Upbringing And Inspiration
Palesa knew from an early age that she wanted to be a Star. She had a multicultural upbringing. She says, “Throughout my life, I have been exposed to different cuisines, places, and people. My mother was born in Mmankgodi and my father in Cape Town. My curiosity exposed me to different activities through middle school life, such as gymnastics and soccer. However, having the privilege of caring and supportive parents who believe in me, I had to make them proud. My parents inspire me to do better and be better. They are constantly support and motivate me. My dad is my personal driver and tutor, and my mom my best friend.”
Moreover, Miss Teen Botswana explains, “they consistently push me to do better and to look at the bigger picture.”
Miss Teen Botswana 2022
Being crowned Miss Teen Botswana 2022 is one of the greatest achievements in Palesa’s life.
“I feel extraordinary! I cannot even begin to express how I feel. I am most excited about the opportunities that being Miss Teen Botswana brings. It has only been a few days and I am loving and enjoying the experience. From having an official photo shoot, interviews and being on TV. All which are first-time experiences make me realize that I have been given a platform that allows me to reach out to a lot of people which is why I am excited to continue my project across the country.” Palesa reflected.
On Positioning Herself For Success
To be successful in everything you need to position yourself for the success. That is why Miss Teen Botswana has turned into a standard of fulfilling her desires of wins.
Palesa explains that, “for any new chapter firstly one has to be mentally ready. Therefore, I positioned myself for success by making sure I am equipped with knowledge about the industry I am pursuing being Pageantry. I asked for a lot of advice from almost everyone I came across who I believed could help me. During the Miss Teen Botswana 2022 competition, we practiced religiously with previous pageant Queens who gave us advice.”
However, she also exposes herself more to various videos of pageant competitions to acquire and learn something from them. This is one other way that has helped her greatly in preparing for the unexpected in the competition. By so doing she gets to learn more from other people’s experience.
“I remember there was a day the judges came, and we had a surprise interview with other contestants listening. I remember pushing myself to attempt to answer every question thrown at us. Putting myself out there during the interview session could have been one of the ways I positioned myself for success,” she explains.
The Importance of the Miss Teen Botswana Role
“Miss Teen Botswana is of utmost importance and priority in my life. I aspire to be an influential public figure contributing to those individuals determined to bring about change in the world. Being Miss Teen Botswana is a step in the right direction because it’s a great networking platform. Moreover, I look forward to fully utilizing it.” Says Miss Teen.
On Building a Name For Herself
It takes more than hard work, dedication, and commitment to build a name for yourself. It does not just happen over night. Miss Teen Botswana Competition was not the first nor the second competition Palesa participated in.
However, she started building her name from scratch and gathered impressive skills to make it in the pageantry industry.
“For the last few years, I was able to build a name for myself especially in the pageantry industry as I have joined and won other pageants before this one. I was Junior Miss Botswana 2nd princess and Little Miss Princess of the World 2020. I have started a non-profit organization called ‘Palesa’s Caring Sisterhood‘ which focuses on making sure that female voices are heard. Being an active pageant girl and content creator with platforms on almost every social media app, I have been able to accumulate 11.8 thousand followers on Instagram alone which excites me because that means my messages regarding different issues I normally address, reaches a lot of people.” She says.
Dealing With Drawback
It is most natural that sometimes you feel like giving up, but Palesa is the kind of person who doesn’t easily allow anything to distract her.
She explains that, “during Miss Teen Botswana I never felt like giving up because I had supportive parents throughout the competition. In addition to that I entered the competition with one goal which was to become the Newly crowned Miss Teen Botswana. When I put my mind to something I can never be swayed.”
Her Motivational Words
It is true that to make it to the crown one needs motivation, whether simply words of motivation from other people or yourself.
Miss Teen Botswana has been strolling through her journey with people by her sides who motivate her. However, there are also certain words by Jonna Cachola that play an important part as her motivation. These are some of the motivational statements that had push her to be where she is today:
If you have a voice, use it.
If you have legs, stand up.
If you have feet, step up.
If you have each other, fight together.
Pageantry Industry
Unlike any other industry out there, Palesa revealed that she doesn’t recall taking risks in the pageantry industry.
“Pageantry is an industry that a lot of people don’t understand. They think it’s about glitz, glamour and big prizes but that’s not the case. When you join a pageant, you don’t take risks but rather a leap of faith that you will be the one chosen to be a beacon of hope for the hopeless. A pageantry queen is meant to serve people therefore I can’t think of any risk associated with being the one selected to bring about change.” She says.
Goals and Transformation
Being ordained Miss Teen Botswana 2022 is one of Palesa’s greatest achievements. As a result during her time as Miss Teen, she has in mind plans and changes she wants to bring to light to fellow teens in Botswana. One of her plans is to keep up with her great initiation projects.
“I plan on continuing with my project and branching it out on an international level. I also plan on distributing sanitary pads to more villages and getting more sponsors to further fund the project. I plan on networking with other beauty queens to learn from them and overall create friendships. I hope to enforce helping each other as ‘motho ke motho ka batho,” she announced.
Advice To Other Teens
Palesa, as a crowned Miss Teen, shared her advice to the aspiring teens who wish to be Miss Teen one day.
“Like the Miss Teen Botswana slogan says: Believe In Your Dreams, that’s all it takes. Believe wholeheartedly then work hard for that dream. Never ever listen to people telling you it can’t be done. Sometimes the only yes you need to hear is the one you tell yourself.” Miss Teen Botswana concluded.
Ripfumelo is an ambitious and self-motivated individual who thrives on challenges and constantly sets objectives for herself. She's always looking for an opportunity to do better and achieve greatness.
