Tumelo Maunge
Little Miss Princess Botswana Director, Tebbie Lebanna has been tasked to be one of the judging panelists at the upcoming Teen Miss World 2016 billed for Brazil in November this year.
At the age of 23 Lebanna has worked her self to the top by grooming young pageant models such as Wame Baleseng, Lekana Baipoledi and Tshepang Khan who have gone to win international titles.
The young pageant director recently earned her stripes in Russia where she was the youngest and only African judge at Little Miss Princess of the World. In the same pageant her protégé Tshepang Khan was crowned Little Miss Princess of the World 2016.
“The Miss Teen organizers noticed my hard work at the kid’s pageant that was held in Bulgaria where I put all my effort into. Upon noticing that they developed interest to work with me,” she said.
Lebanna stated that international invitations such as these have helped her grow her expertise in the pageantry industry as she is networking and collaborating with international pageant directors and other experts.
“This is a platform to gain more experience that will help me in grooming more upcoming young models locally,” she said excitedly.
She is yet to travel to Brazil prior the grand finale for a briefing by the Teen Miss World production team on a date yet to be confirmed.
The passionate Lebanna who has tried her luck as a model at Miss Botswana and Miss Universe in 2012 but was not successful stated that the Miss Teen World invitation is a testimony that in life there are no shortcuts but for one to make it they have to work extremely hard.
“When I didn’t win the Miss Botswana and Miss Universe in 2012 I did not give up, I decided to work on developing and grooming young models. Absolutely there is life after being a contestant if you are really determined to unleash the greatness in you,” she said.