Bold and courageous Ntebatse Vinolia Malapane has turned dark days into a bright future for herself.
Malapane, who was born and raised in Ga-Kgapane outside Tzaneen, grew up being bullied and laughed at by her peers due to her dark skin tone.
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“When I was in grade seven, one of my classmates made a comment about how he wanted to bring a camera phone to school to take pictures of everyone and he looked back at me and said ‘but we all know who won’t appear in the pictures’,” she explained when asked about the bullying she faced.
She has since taken back her confidence.
“All the jokes about dark and ugly were always about me. My life was hell. Having always felt down and out, I could only rely on my intelligence to get me through. I had always been a smart kid who would perform well and I always came out top of my class. The thing is, I always had a love for beauty pageants but I was too scared to participate in any at that time because I knew I would end with jokes being made about me,” she explained.
She went on to further her studies in Pretoria in 2013, where she finally made a decision to put aside her fears and follow her passion.
“Having moved far from home made me regain my confidence bit by bit. I started entering pageants and funny enough all the agencies wanted me to join them. It made me believe in myself despite the years of bullying that I had experienced. My first modeling agency was Steele Model Management and they taught me everything about being a good model and how to work well with designers,” she exclaimed.
Malapane recently graduated from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) where she studied events management and she has also started her own events company called ‘Fashion Show with Ntebatse Vinolia’.
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“I got the idea to start my own company from assessing the local fashion industry and realising that South African designers are good but they just don’t have the right models to advertise and sell their clothes. So that’s where my company comes in. And being the hard working woman that I have grown to be, I believe that I am the next big thing here in this country. After all, the sky is the limit,” she stated.
She further stated that she believes the Lord is using her to save lives of young girls who are just like her but don’t have the courage to see further than where they are presently.
“I am a living testimony and I am here to show people that it doesn’t matter what anyone says about them or to them. I am here to tell them that it is all possible. I know there are young girls out there suffering from depression because of their dark skin, they want to do certain things but they are not confident enough. All I can say is that they should not stop dreaming. They need to endure in order to be able to reach a point where they live out their best lives,” she concluded.
