Kuala Lumpur ― At a time such as when news of the pandemic and local politics can be downright depressing, one thing that appears to bring joy to Malaysians is discovering the various success stories and achievements of fellow countrymen.
The recent happy news comes from the world of beauty pageants.
Everyone has heard of pageants such as Miss Universe and Miss World. But have you heard of a pageant for teenagers? Well, there is one called Miss Teen Universe, and the happy news is, Penang-born Dheper Reshaa Teh is the finalist for the 2021 edition of the pageant.
The 19-year-old is now pursuing a Diploma in Business Studies at INTI College Penang and has hopes of promoting Malaysia’s diverse cultures when she first joined the pageant. She also hopes to make Malaysia proud as she goes to Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Oct 25 to compete in the international pageant on Nov 6.
Quoting Bernama, she said, “I hope that my four years of pageantry experience will lead to my success in being crowned as Miss Teen Universe for this year. Those who wish to support me representing Malaysia can visit the Miss Teen Universe’s Instagram page (@missteenuniversepageants) and vote for me there.”
At the tender age of four, Dheper started to have an interest in participating in beauty pageants. She was inspired by other Miss Universe pageants during that time. Dheper learned how to catwalk by herself at home and enrolled in a modelling academy in Penang, subsequently receiving her diploma there.
According to Hype.my, she won her first pageant in the Miss Teen International Malaysia Pageant 2018/2019 and since then, she competed at 2 international-level pageants, namely Miss Teen Universe 2019 in New Delhi, India, as well as Miss Tourism Global City, held in Guangdong, China this year. She made it into the finals of the 2019 Miss Teen Universe and was ranked within the Top 20 under the Miss Tourism Global City.
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Adding on, Dheper said, “International level pageants are far different from national level ones. There were a lot of aspects I was not aware of such as issues on racism, politics and lots of culture shock … and here I was, being young and naive.” She also stated that the contestants she had met had taken great care of her during her lone travels.
Besides this, the teen hopes she can use her hands-on experience in pageantry at the international level and represent Malaysia to compete in the Miss Universe pageants in the future.
This Miss Universe aspirant also hopes to be able to get featured in publications like Vogue magazine as well as on billboards.
Show your support for Dheper by voting for her. All you have to do is to leave a comment in the posts by Miss Teen Universe on their Instagram followed by the country of your preference. /TISG