Adrenalin rush
For Alvira Laurentina Wahab, 24, from Kota Kinabalu, beauty pageants are fun and she enjoys the adrenalin rush.
Of Kadazan-Bajau descent, she cannot join the Unduk Ngadau pageant but admires the girls who qualify. She is happy she could still take part in other beauty contests such as the Miss Teenage competition.
Alvira is interested in fashion and hopes to create her own fashionwear and have her own brand name.
“I treat the Miss Teenage competition as a learning experience and hope it will be useful for me to coach models when they parade my fashionwear one day. For now, I’m trying to gain as much experience as I can,” she said.
Nur Hafitah Mustaffa, 23, from Tawau, agreed, saying at her age, she wanted to gain experience more than anything.
“It was my first beauty contest and I was very excited about it. I knew I wasn’t in my element but I gave it my all,” she said.
This young lady of Suluk descent said although unable to join the Unduk Ngadau pageant, she admired the contestants for contributing to the preservation of their culture.
“For me, I want to be a part time model and am willing to do product endorsement or catwalk modelling for fashionwear,” she said.
Nur Hafitah, a student nurse, believes helping others is a vocation — not mere employment.
Glittering affair
For nursing graduate Marylyn Pius, 24, of Penampang, beauty pageants are nothing new as she has joined the Unduk Ngadau pageant a number of times.
“I won once at the village level and was a finalist in Klang Valley last year. It was very exciting. I like it. But this year, I was very busy, so I didn’t join any other competitions except this one (Miss Teenage).
I had to do my nursing studies, so I really didn’t have much time for anything else.”
She thinks the competition will give the contestants the confidence to answer questions in front of a big audience.
The competition was a glitz-filled affair with contestants wearing heavier make-up and in modelling segment, they wore traditional, casual and evening wear.
It’s not a multi-tiered competition like the Unduk Ngadau pageant but the winners are given the chance to model with Sri Andaman, led by Bakhri Arfah.
The crown was won by Ziani Johor of Kudat with Musyrat Shahen and Nurfazidah Tajuddin of Kota Belud as the first and second runners-up.