WHEN 22-year-old Shweta Sekhon decided to take a break from pursuing her tertiary education to focus on pageants, she had set her mind on bringing home the crown.
Her patience and perseverance paid off when she was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia this year.
Shweta grew up watching beauty pageants on TV and has always found the contestants inspiring and their messages empowering.
From there, she harboured a dream to walk on the pageant stage, with the title to her name.
A dream that came true indeed.
With a huge responsibility to represent Malaysia at the 68th Miss Universe pageant, Shweta is confident that with Malaysians’ support, she will be able to bring glory to the nation.
Standing at 172cm tall, Shweta, from Kuala Lumpur, attributes her success to her small family consisting of her mother, Kal- want Sekhon, and her elder sister, Sabrina.
“My sister is my book of wisdom and manager.
“She has been supportive of my journey from day one and I am actually living a part of her dreams.
“My mum is my backbone. Even though she brought both of us up single-handedly following family issues with my dad, we managed to live life to the fullest.
“We are a normal family with strong cultural traditions.
“We had fun growing up, always making sure to get together for dinner and giving each other support for whatever endeavours no matter how crazy they sounded,” said Shweta of her childhood.
In fact, it was her mum who suggested that she participate in Miss Universe Malaysia, having reassured her that she had a gift of the gab.
“I have honed some skills in public speaking.
“When I was in From Six at SMK Cochrane, I represented my school in an elocution competition.”
She said her mother, who had always supported her in both academic and co-curricular activities, saw her natural gift and told her that she would do well in anything that involved public speaking.
“When she suggested that I join the pageant, I decided to give it a try. Why not?”
She believed that her family’s support and blessings had given her the strength during the journey.
“They always give me words of encouragement and have always been there every step of the way.”
Shweta said her journey to become Miss Universe Malaysia began when she went to a boot camp where she met 17 other hopefuls, all with the same goal in mind.
Despite her family’s support, she knew she had to work hard after meeting the other women.
“Everyone was unique, with her own inspiring stories and strengths.
“Each of us had a shot at winning.”
She remembered having her confidence shaken when she realised that she was not in the group referred to as the “hot picks”.
“When I realised this, I admit it didn’t do well for my confidence.
“But I knew that at the end of the day, the judges knew what they wanted.
“So I prepared myself mentally and physically to come back stronger for the actual pageant,” she said.
When her name was announced as one of the top 10 contestants, she was confident of winning the pageant.
During the question-and-answer segment for the top four contestants, Shweta was the last to be called.
This gave her an opportunity to prepare herself mentally, to formulate her answers and express them confidently.
As she moves closer to the actual stage for the Miss Universe competition, Shweta said she wanted to focus on improving her catwalk and building a better physique, while planning for comprehensive advocacy work at the same time.
She hopes to inspire young women to have confidence in themselves.
“Be the best version of yourself. Create your own trademark and don’t let others affect you.
“If your mind is strong, no one can break you down as long as you are comfortable in your own skin.
“I have had people telling me that I should do this and that.
“But at the end of the day, I know who I am and what I want.
“Stay strong and no one can stop you.”
Her role as a beauty pageant contestant may require her to wear high heels for a long period of time, but Shweta said she preferred sneakers.
On her ideas of winding down, she said they included being at home in pajamas, reading or listening to music and hitting the gym.
She named her late grandmother’s cooking and pizzas as her favourites.
“Pizzas with lots and lots of pineapples,” she said.
Her advice to other young women who want to follow in her footsteps?
“Follow your dreams”.