Ané Oosthuysen
From a very young age, I have always known that my passion and purpose is to live a life that is designed to serve others. By combining this passion with my determination to make my voice heard, I was motivated to enter Miss South Africa 2023 for the second time. Growing up, I faced challenges related to bullying and not feeling adequate enough - specifically, being bullied about my height. Being one of the tallest people in school was extremely tough, and as a result I would constantly slouch and try to make myself smaller so that I could fit in. It has taken me several years in my adulthood to work through this and several other challenges, and despite having access to resources now, I see the struggle of dealing with these challenges in the youth of today - they simply do not have access to resources, tools, or empathy from those around them to cope with their own issues. By utilising my knowledge and studies in psychology, I know that if these issues are not addressed and dealt with at a young age, it can cause a severe impact on them when they are older, ultimately affecting their adulthood. The powerful platform Miss South Africa provides, will enable me to educate and empower the youth of South Africa on a much larger scale than I am doing right now. My mission would be to visit as many schools as possible and talk about my struggles and give the students actionable steps and resources to deal with bullying and other related issues. I would love the assistance from the Miss South Africa Organisation to help me set up my own foundation. This foundation would focus on the children and give them, as well as teachers and parents, actionable tools and resources to help work through bullying and help in following their dreams and aspirations.