According to the beauty queen…

My name is David Glory Ogechukwu, I live in Port Harcourt Nigeria and I am 21 years old. I am an HND student of Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic Bori where I’m studying computer science. I am the current winner Paragon Queen Nigeria Beauty Pageant. I am a model, makeup artist and currently learning to be a stylist. My hobbies are fashion designing, travelling, modelling, and painting. I hate discrimination and I love respect, charity and humanitarian services.

I’ve always wanted to be a model, it has been my dream even when my parents won’t accept that career path for me. I’ve always dreamt to walk on the biggest runway in the world. I had dreams that one day I’ll be recognized like Kendall Jenner, Naomi Campbell and Ashley graham little did I know that it took much more than dreams but more of work.

I come from a very religious home where one isn’t allowed to do or wear certain things because they are seen as worldly and ungodly. My dreams were almost impossible to come true as long as I was still under my father’s roof, but there’s a saying: “A journey of a thousand miles starts with just a step”.

I joined an agency, got trained, “it was time to come out to limelight” I said to myself. I went for my first runway audition, made it to the second selection but then I was dropped without reasons why I wasn’t selected, all I heard was one of the judges scream “NEXT!”. I went home sad and disappointed, unaware of why I wasn’t selected. The next day I visited a friend who is a model, I told him of my experience the day before and all he said was “You were rejected because you aren’t as tall as their requirement” At this moment, it dawn on me that my height was going to be an issue. “I cannot kill myself and die” I said, being fed up with everything.

One day I got a notification on facebook: my friend has mentioned my name on a post about an ad Paragon Queen Nigeria Beauty Pageant. When I checked, it was a comment on the comment section saying “You can win this, Glory David. I ignored it initially then I received a message via messenger with the requirement for the pageant but I still ignored again. Getting to the office the next day I saw this same friend that mentioned my name on the ad, we were colleagues where I worked. I asked why he did it what he did and he said “Glory, you’ve got what it takes to win this pageant, go for it, you’d never know”. This was the first time I saw pageantry as an opportunity.

At this point, my only challenge were my parents, they’d never agree or accept this path I choose. My family would not support or buy the idea based on the impression they had about pageantry in general but that wasn’t going to stop me, my mind was made up. I packed my bags, took a leave from work but I lied to my family that i was going for a field trip. I had so much courage and boldness to lie to everyone aside my friends and few colleagues. I was determined to succeed in this new and different opportunity.
I arrived boot camp, excited, scared and anxious. I met very pretty ladies at a point I got intimidated, but I encouraged myself. I made it to the grand finale where I emerged winner, Paragon Queen Nigeria 2017/2018 edition. HURRAY!!!.
How do I share this news with my family? I asked myself. I was out of ideas on how to present my crown and sash to my dad especially. But I told him anyways.

To admit, my initial motivation in joining the pageant was the price, but my experience in the competition gave me another perspective in life. A beauty queen can become an inspiration and represent empowered women.
I remain at the core of improving to be able to achieve my goals.
As my journey continues in the world of beauty pageant, I plan to establish a school that will help train and guide aspiring beauty queens for the journey of their own.

I started a project “HOPE FOR TE GIRL CHILD INITIATIVE”. It is strongly founded and geared to educate, enlighten and empower the girl child through seminars and skill acquisition. I took this as a mandate to carry out this project in the south-south and south-east states of Nigeria, to visit these states and hopefully get their governors involved in this.
I have a commitment to reach my goals and traits of an empowered woman of beauty. I want to turn my dreams into reality.
Being Queen Glory David taught me that a beauty queen can be a fierce runway model and rock both worlds perfectly because there’s huge difference between being a runway model and being a beauty queen but I manage to play both roles perfectly.

You can connect with the beauty quern via instagram:- @glory_david_17