At age 16,
Candace Charles has jumped in at the deep end. Having entered and won the
Miss Guyana World Pageant, her short-term focus is representing Guyana ably at the
Miss World 2007 Pageant to be held in the Crown of Beauty Theatre, Sanya, China on December 1.
But she tells us she is "still the same Candace when I am at home, nothing really has changed. I still want to become a criminal lawyer and help abused women." Her long-term focus has not changed.
When The Scene caught up with the teenager this week, she said she knew the local pageant would have been a tall order as soon as she realised that she was the youngest contestant - months shy of her 17th birthday which she will celebrate next month. But she had the support of her mother and three older sisters and they boosted her confidence.
In fact, she said, it was on her mother's insistence that she actually entered the pageant, since at first she was not interested and rather was "totally against it." She recalled that she had just finished writing her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations and was doing work study at the Government Information Agency (GINA), when her mother made the suggestion.
"I had just gone there and I was enjoying it. Because even though I want to become a lawyer I would not mind doing journalism, so I had no interest in entering the pageant," she said. But her mother was determined and Candace said she was eventually worn down and decided to enter the pageant.
Candace Charle
"I am just glad that I have been able to live up to her expectations because she was very confident that I would have won," the young woman said.
It was not her first pageant. Last year she entered the Mother and Daughter Pageant with her mother, but she admits that Miss Guyana World was nothing like the Mother and Daughter Pageant so she had no real experience to take from that pageant.
After entering, she said, she was "a little nervous because I knew I had to work harder. But I said I would not focus on the age I would focus on the competition." Her focus paid off and she won.
Candace said winning has not changed her as her mother, sisters, other relatives and friends along with franchise holder, Derek Moore and his team have helped her to remain firmly grounded. The new queen says she is enjoying the level of support she has been receiving from members of the public. "Up to this morning [Thursday] in the bus a man was congratulating me and that is how it has been. No one has given me any negative response or comment," she said.
However, she is well aware that there are persons out there who feel she is too young to be crowned Miss Guyana World. "I would say to those people, okay I know I am young but will you help to make me better. I am open to constructive criticisms and I will soak up all the advice anyone can give me. I am willing to learn. I am young and I want to learn so if they can help me I would take their advice. I am already the queen and I want all the help to make me stronger."
Candace needs support even more now as she prepares for her big date in December. She told The Scene that the training so far has been hectic, but exciting. It would be stepped up come next month when she travels to the US where she will continue her preparation.
Candace said she was going into the Miss World Pageant with the same amount of confidence and energy she had when she entered the local pageant. "I am not going to focus on how young I am. I am going to try and do my best. And that is all I can do, my best."
Candace, a former St Joseph High School student, sat eight subjects at the CSEC examination. She secured three Grade One passes (two with distinctions), three Grade Two passes and one each at Grade Three and Grade Four. The teenager has every right to be proud of this achievement but she said she was sorely disappointed at her Grade Four in Mathematics, even though she admitted that it was not her favourite subject. She plans on rewriting that subject in January.
She has not put her education on hold as she has already enrolled at the University of Guyana and come next January will pursue a degree in International Relations or Sociology. However, regardless of which one she takes up, it would just be her stepping stone into the law faculty as her ultimate goal is to become a criminal lawyer.
She said she wants to become a criminal lawyer because she wants to help female victims of domestic and other forms of abuse to get justice in the courts. She said she hopes to one day work with the Georgetown Legal Aid Centre. This urge comes from the abuse she witnesses in society almost on a daily basis. "So much more needs to be done for women. Everyday I read in the newspapers of women being killed or beaten and then in the courts they are not getting justice."
Candace noted that the abuse of women has become such a norm that people have become numb and are no longer shocked at the horrific abuse women experience. "Many days I walk down the road and see men beating women and people just stand up there and do nothing; they just say it is personal. People would hear their neighbours being beaten and do nothing," she lamented. She said she wants to make a change no matter how small and she knows she can do so by helping women to get justice. Even as she trains for the pageant she is awaiting a response from Help & Shelter as she has applied to volunteer in its programme for abused women.
Candace grew up in Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara and even though she has a younger brother she is still considered to be the baby of her household as her brother lives in the US. She lives with her mother and three older sisters and she tells us that she is not "Queen Candace" to them, but rather just ordinary Candace who still has to do her chores. "My mom ensures I make my bed up very day and I have to do my household chores and I still have a very strict 9 pm curfew," she said laughing. But she quickly adds that it would not be a laughing matter if she stayed out beyond her curfew as her mother would not hesitate to punish her.
So even though she might be the envy of many girls her age, Candace has to abide by the same rules as her peers, regardless of the fact that she is preparing for the world's second biggest pageant. (samantha_alleyne2000@yahoo.com)
Source:
Stabroek News
New York-based Guyanese designer/producer Roger Gary and the Facts and Roses husband and wife team Trevor Rose and Michelle Cole-Rose are the brains behind next Easter's Guyana Fashion Xpo (GFX).
The organizers said GFX had a successful preview at the Umana Yana in March (during Cricket World Cup) and was expected to highlight "the talent and skills of designers, models, stylists, hair and make-up artists, creating a sizzling weekend of fashion unparalleled in the southern Caribbean." It is expected that whilst the event would bring businesses and services ancillary to the industry from Guyana and the region together, it will also serve to propel Guyana as the region's new fashion and manufacturing hub. 
