Every now
and then you come across someone who just blows you away with their amazing
attitude towards life and their mission to encourage people to strive for a
better life. That’s the feeling you will leave with after speaking to Miss SA
Teen, Moloko Masemola.
At 17, this Bryanston
High Grade 12 learner, who resides in Lonehill, is a reluctant beauty queen, who is more
interested in sport, studies, and cultural activities, than needing to be seen
as someone who is beautiful. There is no doubt that Moloko is a beautiful girl,
but she would like her personality to shine rather than her looks. And does it
shine!
Moloko, who
was crowned last December at the Sun City Super Bowl, is the kind of young
woman that South Africa should be privileged to have as a citizen, someone who
cares enough to put the needs of others before hers.
While
supporting the iThemba Breast Care Foundation and Tapologo Aids Hospice, which
are her two main charities, as Miss SA Teen, Moloko’s mission is to launch a
girls’ camp to encourage South Africa youth to live their best life and love
themselves for who they are.
What we love
most about Moloko is her love for sport. She is a trained ballerina who
currently participates in cross country, netball and athletics. Her sporting
highlights include being named Sports Captain at her school and playing
district netball, something she is very proud of.
Moloko spoke
to gsport about her reign as Miss SA Teen, why sport is crucial to the
development of a child’s life, and why she is keen to inspire South Africa’s
youth!
Moloko, what’s your life been like since you won
Miss Teen South Africa?
It’s been
quite busy, very different to the life I lived before because now I am being
seen and put in the spotlight. Everything I do or say is not only being seen by
people around me but by South
Africa.
It has put a
bit of pressure on me but it’s also been quite an enjoyable experience being
able to meet people that inspire me so much and also being able to teach
important people a little bit about myself and being able to tell the youth
about who I am and what I stand for.
In the
beginning my school friends were very excited and happy about it and giving me
extra attention. I’m not someone who really likes being given extra attention;
I just like being ordinary like everyone else. I just had to tell them you know
what guys, please let’s not blow it out of proportion, but they’ve been okay.
In interviews since you’ve won you said you are
not a typical beauty queen, so how would you describe yourself?
I’m more
someone who would rather wear jeans and flat shoes and a T-shirt, rather than
wearing heels and makeup, and blowing out my hair and things like that. I am
more of a real person, and I’m not someone who just enters pageants just
because I have to win and I have to be seen as someone who is beautiful.
I’m more
someone who keeps my eyes on what wearing the crown is going to do for the
public and how I want to inspire the teenagers of South Africa. I think a lot of the
time many typical beauty queens enter pageants just for the sake of winning
them and just to be seen as someone who is beautiful, and has the ability to be
seen as one of the most beautiful girls out of a group of people.
I’m not one
of those people. I think a lot of the times in beauty pageants, personality
isn’t really shown. I’m someone who would rather show my personality rather
than my face and what I look like.
Why made you enter Miss SA Teen?
I entered
Miss SA Teen because I saw it as an opportunity to really get my voice heard,
and my opinions, and what I believe in. To let teenagers know that it’s okay to
be yourself and that it’s okay to believe in what you believe in.
You don’t
have to be forced to be a particular way, or try to be westernized, and that
being yourself and being beautiful, and your uniqueness, can really take your
far in life. So that’s basically why I entered.
Tell us about your interest in sport and sporting
codes you enjoy participating in?
I love
sport! I see it as an escape from pressure of school because this is a time
when you can really have fun in a good way. I do netball, cross country, and
athletics. I also do cultural activities such as debating.
But I love
running because this is the moment in time where you can just run free and let
the wind blow around your body, and just release all the frustrations, angers,
and stresses you have daily, and also benefit you health wise. That’s mainly
why I love sport!
What have been some of your school sporting
highlights?
I’ll
definitely say my biggest sporting highlight was being elected as my school’s
Sport Captain, and also being selected to be play district netball, which was a
highlight for me because its something I was working towards. Being able to
have fun and achieving something while having fun is something really great.
A lot of the
times when you achieve things, you kind of have to stress about it but with
netball I was just having fun and then ended up being recognised as someone
being really good at having fun…laughs!
Will you continue with sport after school?
Definitely!
I am going to be studying medicine but when I get free time I’ll definitely
want to do sport. My body is my temple and being able to use it to my fullest
is one of the things I love doing. So I’ll definitely try as hard as a I can to
continue playing sport after school.
How can we encourage young girls to play sport and
lead a healthy lifestyle?
As a prefect
at school I struggle to get children to do sport. A lot of the times girls feel
its un-cool to be wearing your sports kit, and sweating, and things like that.
They should realise that sport isn’t something that only helps you physically
but you gain respect among your peers because you are doing something for your
school.
You also
meet a whole lot of other people that can benefit you in the future, and also
mentally, doing physical activity does boost your brain power. So I think they
must realise that sport isn’t something that should be forced upon you, it
should be something you want to do because it’s fun. If we can make it out to
teenagers that it is fun by advertising fun sports days where girls just come
together and have a good time, I think that would be very effective.
All parents
should get their children into sport from a young age because from then they’ll
realise that sport is good for you. A lot of the time kids that don’t want to
do sport are the ones who’ve never been exposed to doing it from a young age.
So it’s fundamental that parents realise that they also need to play a role in
their children’s sporting careers.
What are your favourite spectator sports?
I do like
rugby especially with the World Cup that has just happened, and I tried as hard
as I can to watch as many games as I could. I also enjoy watching netball.
Although South Africa
is not highly ranked with figure skating, it’s also one of the sports I highly
enjoy.
Also having
been a ballerina I love classical dancing. I was trained as a ballerina for 11
years from a young age. I recently stopped doing ballet because of school work;
it was getting a bit much. I will surely try going back next year.
Tell us more about the girls’ camp you are planning?
The girls’
camp originated from the American summer camps. My sister, having gone to one
of them, told me it’s a very effective way of bringing points across to girls.
I think a lot of the time girls think that boys and status, and what you look
like is everything. Sadly society has made it that way; that what you look like
and being rich is most important.
Basically in
the girls’ camp what I want to do is bring girls around from every sphere of
life together and make them realise that we can have fun us just being girls. We
can have fun in youthful way, we don’t need to drink, we don’t need to go to
clubs, and we don’t need to be with boys in order to have a good time.
We will have
career guidance at the camps and help them to establish their futures, because
I feel that these years between the ages of 14-18 are one of the most
fundamental periods in our lives. This is when you decide if you are going to
work hard in high school and get that degree or you’re going to be slack,
become a drug addict, fall pregnant, and just throw your life away.
This is the
time when we should be making teenagers realise that they have their own lives
in their hands and this is when they decide what they want and how they are
going to live their lives. I think this is the best way possible to bring this
across
When are you hoping this camp will take place or is
it still in the planning phase?
It’s still
in the planning stages, but I am hoping to have it in June. If everything goes
well in June I’m planning to have another one in September and then December, and
then continue to have it year after year during the holidays.
What other projects will be keeping you busy during
you reign?
Definitely
my charities, I’ll definitely be raising funds for them in every way possible.
I support the iThemba Breast Cancer Foundation as well as the Tapologo Aids
Hospice that Tansey Coetzee (Miss South Africa)
and I are working on.
What makes you want to inspire the youth?
I know how
it feels to be a teenager; I’m here right now! Sometime you think which road am
I supposed to take? Where should I go? Can I take the easy road in life or am I
going to take the kind of road where I know in the end I will be a success but
its going to be really hard for me to get there?
So I want to
make teenagers realise that it is possible to live that kind of life; a life
that is drug-free, a safe kind of life, a successful, academic, sporting life,
and a life full of love. Its not just a dream that Miss SA Teen can achieve…
You said you want to study medicine, but what are
your long term career goals?
I want to
become a Maxillary Constructive surgeon who is a surgeon who specializes in
cleft lip and cleft palate reconstructive surgery and that’s my main goal. To
me a smile is the only organ on your body that truly shows how your heart feels
and being able to give children a chance a smile is one of the greatest gifts
that I could ever give to another child.
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