Hey Everyone!
This month's Tea With Queens is an exciting one because we will be talking about Irene Soh, Mrs Singapore Chinatown 2018, and some of us will know her as our neighbourhood friendly Ah Soh!
Recognise her yet? Hahaha. You might have seen her videos about working from home and the current circuit breaker on instagram, if not, click on over after this blogpost!
A little bit about Irene, she's actually a full-time flight attendant and is also a mummy of 3! In 2018, she joined the Mrs Singapore Chinatown pageant as a challenge to herself and to figure out what self-worth meant to her and to be empowered in the presence of other women.
Through her pageant journey, she found a really close friend amongst her pageant sisters and despite the stigma that pageants have, her shared that her journey was mostly pleasant. Thankfully, she was blessed with support from her company as well so going for sponsor visitations and fringe activities were well within her reach despite being a flight attendant! I can only imagine how tough managing her schedule would be!
Of course, with a heavy schedule, she wasn't able to spend as much time as she wanted to on raising funds for her adopted charity; Metta Association. Nonetheless, her hard work paid off because she won the title! Irene did say it was quite an unbelievable experience because she felt that everyone else in her batch was an equal contender for the crown.
Being in the pageant taught her that pageantry is more than beauty and wits, its also about charity efforts and advocating for them. From her experience, she developed a newfound respect for beauty queens. Irene also shared similar sentiments about meeting her fellow finalists as most queens do; they found a new sisterhood.
"I’ve met many strong women in the ERM sisterhood who have greatly inspired me to do better. Women who are beautiful inside and out. Women who are smart and talented. Women who persistently champion their platforms by walking the talk. Alone we can only do so much, but together, we could move mountains. "
If that quote doesn't even begin to break down the stereotype about beauty pageants, I honestly don't know what will. If you're wondering, Irene hasn't had the chance to represent Singapore on the international stage just yet, but we can only hope her time will come soon!
"I’ve learnt that as women we should not be afraid to dream big in order to achieve bigger things in life. I’ve also been truly blessed by all the opportunities and new friendships that has happened through this pageant."
To end this blogpost, some more words of advice from Irene:
"Fear is temporary, but regret is forever."
And there you go, if you're considering joining a pageant, it's never too late! The Mrs & Classic Mrs Singapore pageant will be happening still, not to worry. Do stay tuned~ I hope you guys enjoyed reading about Irene's journey in the Mrs Singapore Chinatown pageant! Stay safe everyone!
xx
Shayne