Local model opens school and prepares for world competition
Louise van Greunen says the upcoming World Supermodel pageant will be history in the making, as it will be hosted by South Africa for the first time.
After nine years, the annual pageant will be held in Bloemfontein, from March 12 to 21, next year.
Van Greunen will join 40 to 50 women from across the world in the competition.
Last year she won the title of World Supermodel South Africa and went to Fiji for the international competition.
“Due to the great outcome there, the CEO of World Supermodel, Gavin Dooley, gave me a callback to compete in the 2016 World Supermodel competition,” she said.
As the World Supermodel South Africa title had already been taken, Van Greunen was crowned and will still compete.
The 24-year-old Crystal Park resident said she is excited to be competing for a second time.
“My family members were ecstatic when they found out I would be participating again,” she said.
“They’re all very supportive and help me where they can.”.
The model, singer and actress is no stranger to pageants, having been involved in modelling from an early age.
At age six, she was crowned Ms Norries at the Noorderlig Gekombineerde Skool.
She was also crowned Ms Hans Moore (her former high school) in 2007, and has been a finalist in the Mr and Ms Benoni pageant.
Van Greunen attributes much of her success to Berdine de la Porte, her teacher at Pascall Model Management.
“I’ve been with Pascall Models for two years now and they helped me grow a lot, especially in becoming a world class model,” she said.
Her mother, also Louise van Greunen, pushed her from a young age to participate in stage competitions and beauty pageants.
“I’m very proud of her and glad I made her do the pageants when she was younger, because now she’s picking the fruits of the labour,” her mother said.
Van Greunen has a diploma in drama and, coupled with her long pageant experience, this allowed her to open her own school this year.
“I’ve opened a separate branch of Pascall in Putfontein, where I teach both modelling and acting to youngsters,” she said.
She advised aspiring models to always be themselves and see God in all they do.
“Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit,” she said.
Van Greunen still needs to raise between R10 000 and R15 000 before the competition.
