'They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.'

Over the years, beauty pageants have evolved, giving girls across the globe an opportunity to be vocal about social issues and make a difference in their communities and worldwide. However, many still consider pageants a mere platform for beautiful young women to parade on stage, exhibit their talents, and walk away with sparkling crowns and trust me; the struggle is real! I, too, had my fair share of struggle convincing my parents to participate in pageants.

I was not content with the life I was leading, I sure had all the comfort, a secured job, financial stability, ample of me time, but I had a deep desire to change a lot in society and realised pageants are the ideal platform that lets you be the voice of the unheard. After a whole lot of dedication and efforts, I won the national title. And along with the battle to win the coveted crown was my battle to convince my parents to believe in me and my dream.

My parents were completely against the idea of me participating in a beauty pageant. But over the last few months, I've seen a drastic change in my parents with regards to their perception about beauty pageants.

I truly hope that the kind of change I've seen in my parents is something we will see in the mindset of parents across the country, in the world, because we need to recognise the fact that beauty pageants are, in fact, a stage to celebrate women and everything that we can achieve. It goes way beyond the exteriors and the glitz and the glamour; there's so much hard work with so much opportunity and purpose behind it. And I do feel positive that more and more parents recognise this.