Saobe Crowned Miss Teen Universe Botswana

Marylin Saobe bagged the Miss Teen Universe Botswana title on Saturday becoming the pageant’s eighth queen since its inception in 2013. The final for the pageant was held in Gaborone.

The National Director for the pageant, Messia Jackson said theirs was a platform for young girls around the ages of 15 to 19 to voice their concerns and also advocate for issues that affect their communities. Being a former pageant queen herself, she said she understands that teenagers aspiring to become models and taking part in bigger pageants need grooming and mentorship so that they are better placed to compete.

“COVID-19 has affected our pageant because normally I would expect an attendance of at least 300 to 500 people but now with the limitations of the pandemic, we have to adhere to set out limit of 50. This has affected the processes of due diligence as we had 65 applications to participate. But we had cut down that number to our top five in order to avoid over-crowding,” Jackson remarked.

She also pointed out that they have been receiving sponsorship from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to send their winners to international pageants abroad. Former queen Selwana Motsemeng handed over the crown to Saobe.

Motsemeng encouraged her successor to utilise the platform provided by the pageant to make a change as it also gave her chance to represent Botswana in Panama. She highlighted her own success during her reign, which include her work with the youth to reduce the spread of HIV in the country.

Saobe who is a passionate advocate for Gender Based Violence (GBV) exuded confidence and grandeur as she walked down the runway and the winning combination was her project proposal and her answers to the questions posed by the judges.

The 16 year-old Maun native expressed utmost gratitude to Jackson for creating the pageant, saying it has shown her that hard work actually pays off as she had to sacrifice a lot to be crowned as the queen.