GALLERY: Alberton girls make it to the SARIE Voorbladgesig top 10 competition

SARIE Voorbladgesig is now in its ninth year and recently announced its top 10 finalists in their August issue.

Two Alberton girls are in the top 10 and the RECORD recently met up with them to hear their stories.

Schané Venter

Schané Venter (27), a resident of Meyersdal was born and bred in Alberton and absolutely loves Alberton, even though her job as logistical and operational manager at the Miss South Africa Organisation takes her to Morningside every day.

Since June this year she has been a full-time employee at Miss South Africa and before then she worked at Cell C in corporate social investment. She holds a BCom degree in marketing from the North West University in Potchefstroom and completed another course at the university in fashion and event management because of her love for fashion and beauty.

The traces we leave

Schané decided to enter the competition after a friend nominated her, and she realised that deep inside she carried the dream to become Sarie’s Voorbladgesig.

“The process I have gone through has already made me feel like a winner,” she said.

“I have met such incredible women and have been pampered and treated beyond belief.”

Schané draws her inspiration in life from working with other women and helping them realise their dreams.

Her hardships in life made her grow up faster than other children, but she has seen each hardship as an opportunity to become a conqueror and to fight for her dreams.

“You have to choose to see the positivity in life, be grateful and count your blessings,” she added.

“A great lesson I have learnt in life is that people will never forget how you made them feel, and I try and hold that close to my heart with each person I come into contact with.”

The real super heroes

“Many women think they are unworthy of success, but women are in actual fact the real super heroes. We do the physically impossible, we are resilient and we need to be celebrated.

“When a woman realises her worth she is able to climb any mountain. We have to accept ourselves, realise our worth and give back to other women,” Schané said.

Schané believes that every woman has a worthy story to tell and that when we all stand together we can mean so much to each other.

“Beauty does not have a definition. Women of all shapes, sizes, quirks and imperfections are being celebrated around the world.

“Beauty is more than what we see on the outside; it’s about passion, kindness and good-heartedness,” she added.

She also believes that as women we need to be relatable to one another and not afraid to talk about the real things in life.

She feels that by helping others we get to take the focus off our own problems and see value in the fact that even when we feel trouble-ridden we can still add value in someone else’s life, and that empowers us.

“Being grateful makes a world of a difference, even for the smallest things and it is often what pushes us to keep going.”

Living with gratitude

In her free time Schané runs a small online shop where she sells clothes and accessories.

She enjoys visiting markets over weekends and has recently taken up tennis with her fiancé.

“We both love spending time in shops and especially spending quality time with our loved ones and friends,” she said.

Schané believes that there will always be hardships and challenges in life but she believes we will always come out stronger, even when we don’t always understand the reason.

“We need to learn and grow and we cannot get stuck in the past. Yes, certain things we need to mourn, but the important thing is to get up and to keep going.

“We need to allow ourselves to be sad at times, but as women we need to stick together and nurture one another.”

Vinishia Ras

Lisa Robertson, model, coach and owner of ACE models scouted Vinishia Ras (24) at Starbucks a few months ago.

They kept in touch and then nominated Vinishia to enter the competition.

“I never won anything in my life before and in that moment it felt like I won something for the first time.

“I felt very blessed, excited and grateful!” Vinishia said. This was also her first time entering any beauty competition.

She described the experience as extremely thrilling.

“It is one of those experiences that only happens once in a lifetime! We were being spoiled to the max and we got to meet new kind, beautiful and inspirational contestants and the Sarie team. It has been such an amazing opportunity!”

She says other contestants are not only beautiful on the outside but very much so on the inside as well.

Vinishia believes that everything happens for a reason and although she has no specific plans should she win she trusts that this experience will open the door to new and exciting beginnings.

The importance of kindness

Vinishia was born in Middelburg and grew up in Alberton.

She studied Somatology and Aesthetic Therapy in Centurion and currently lives and works in Pretoria.

She is a laser therapist for nine dermatologists at LCM Skin and Laser Clinic, hence her interest in beauty.

“I’ve found that anything beauty and health (spiritually and physically) related has always interested me and made me excited to know and do more.

“Practising the knowledge I have about beauty on myself is only a benefit,” she added.

Her message to other contestants or women interested in entering such competitions is, “You will never know unless you try and you are more beautiful than you think.”

Kindness is most important to Vinishia and she added, “It cannot be done without a smile.”

Her main goal in life is to follow God’s plan and will. “I would love to be a blessing to others I get in contact with.”

“It would be satisfying to help people reach self-actualisation and help bring their best selves to the surface.

“I would like to achieve things that are out of the ordinary. Grabbing any opportunity to make a difference would be a very wise thing to do,” she concluded.

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