The girl child is raised with the understanding that she needs to do everything perfectly. This is why many are ridden with insecurities and often compare themselves to those with the smooth skin, a flat belly and beautiful curves.
Face Of Lesotho 1st Runner Up, Karabo Keketsi is no stranger to the insecurities and pressure every girl goes through. In fact, she states, “I used to be very insecure about my body and public speaking.”
Today, Miss Keketsi is 18 and has won many sashes and tiaras. These include Little Miss Lesotho, Miss Pre-Teen Kingdom Nations, Miss Maseru High Schools and many more. Her recent win is being the 1st Runner Up in the Face Of Lesotho beauty contest.
She reports that she decided to compete in the latter contest because she is in love with pageantry and in her own words, “I needed to remind myself of my strength and capability since pageantry brings me back to myself.”
Many girls who go through the pressure of looking perfect usually hide and shy away from the spotlight. However, this queen rose against the fear of criticism and insecurities by modeling. She dared herself to catwalk on many stages not as a way of showing off her ability to walk eloquently and smile radiantly. She did this in order to overcome her insecurities and build her self esteem.
She stepped out of her shell of fear and when she did, her smile did not just light up the stage on which she walked, but it significantly strengthened her to ease the pressure she had placed on herself to be perfect. In her own words, “What sets me apart from other models is that I do it for myself before I do it for publicity.”
This inspirational queen’s greatest desire is to change the perception of beauty among girls. In her opinion, the many insecurities girls have are a result of thinking that there is one kind of beautiful. It baffles her that many still dwell in insecurities because they think smooth skin, a voluptuous body and slim waist classify beauty.
She wishes to change this by making girls aware that beauty is the ability to allow oneself to constantly do things that positively impact our world. Most importantly, beauty is consistent inward growth matched with outpour of love to the world. Miss Keketsi plans to change the perception of beauty by including women in her Passion Projects, which encompass women empowerment at their core.
There is no beauty without purpose. Karabo Keketsi has a heart of gold that goes out to the less fortunate. This is why she has been involved in a project that donated clothes to orphans in Katlehong. Her heart went out to the orphaned children and she felt that she needed to help them with the little she could.
In addition, being interested in socio-economic change, she had a talk with the President of the Yearn for Economic Stability (YES) political party on how youth can drive change in Lesotho and eradicate over-dependence on the government.
Besides, she is an active member of the Transform Lesotho Initiative Women. This initiative is renowned for the organization of the BachaShutDown march where Basotho youth protested against issues such as unemployment, lack of youth inclusivity in governmental sectors and many more.
The women segment of this initiative is focused on women empowerment and prompts women to get more involved in making Lesotho a gender-inclusive country. Miss Keketsi believes that with more women in power, Lesotho will become better and young girls will have more role models to look up to.
Closing off, she modestly said she does not have a clear picture of where she will be in 10 years. However, her greatest desire is to see herself having grown and cultivated her potential. She wishes to keep growing and rising above insecurities that come with being a girl and hopes to inspire more girls to do the same.