Two best friends enter Miss Grand Malaysia 2017

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KOTA KINABALU: From competitors to best friends, Felcy Fransie Julian and Sanjeda John are about to represent Sabah at the national level, in hopes of making it further at the international level and bring pride to their beloved country.

That is the fairytale-like story of Felcy, 20 and Sanjeda, 25 who were both crowned as Miss Grand Sabah 2017 and Miss Intercontinental (first runner-up) respectively, last Saturday.

Felcy and Sanjeda had previously competed in another coveted beauty pageant together before, which even saw them take home some of the pageant’s biggest titles.

That is how these two aspiring beauty queens first met and the rest is history.

“Yes, we are best friends. We help each other in doing everything,” uttered both of the women who will be representing Sabah in the upcoming Miss Grand Malaysia 2017.

Felcy said she was not that surprised by the result. This was proven as she had exhibited her confidence in style during the question and answer round.

“I answered with confidence and I knew I was going to be in the top five,” she said.

Commenting on her secret to success, Felcy said all she did was to rely on her own confidence.

“My secret is being confident even though there are a lot of competitors out there. Just stay confident and stay positive,” she said.

As for Sanjeda, she thinks that there is no real secret to achieving success in the beauty pageant industry.

“Actually there is no secret. It is just about hard work, confidence and you just have to be yourself,” said Sanjeda.

In advising the aspiring beauty pageant competitors out there, Sanjeda said  all they had to do was make a move and go ahead with it.

“If you want to do it, do it. Do not regret it later on. When you do it, you have to give it your all,” said Sanjeda.

Felcy, on the other hand, said:  “To never give up on anything and to always be brave.

“If you are brave and confident enough, you will win,” she said.

Felcy is now working as a deejay while Sanjeda is currently studying in the medical field.

When asked about their preparations as they are about to represent Sabah and possibly even represent Malaysia in the national level, Felcy said she would practise her catwalk with her manager and perhaps she would prepare her dress design as well.

Sanjeda disclosed that the motto for Miss Grand this year is   “Stop war and Violence”. She also said they would be doing a lot of charity work in Sabah.

The second, third and fourth runners-up wereKristina Yohanes, Isabelle Lansing and Shobana Rahman respectively.

There were several subsidiary titles that were up for grabs namely, Miss Cafe Society, Miss Body Beautiful, Miss Natural Beauty and Miss Facebook Popular, which were won by Ernietta Henry, Sanjeda John and Rozelin John respectively.

Sanjeda also took home the subsidiary titles for Miss Popular Audience and Best Evening Gown (which was designed by Jamier Ramos Monteron)

Also present at the event was Miss Grand Malaysia national director Jude Benjamin Lisa.

In his speech he said this was a milestone for Miss Grand Malaysia as this year would mark the debut of Miss Grand Malaysia in Sabah.

“Miss Grand Malaysia aims to further strengthen the pageant industry in our country and through state-level pageants like this one.

“We empower more young Malaysian women and give the opportunity to be better individuals for themselves and the community.

“This year, the national pageant will be held in Kuala Lumpur in August, where we will be crowning two deserving women to compete at the upcoming Miss Grand International and Intercontinental,” said Benjamin.

The event was held at The Pacific Sutera and it featured a total of 14 finalists from across the state.