Miss World Guyana 2019 Joylyn Conway won her second head-to-head challenge on Tuesday last, this time against Gunzaya Victoria, the contestant representing Mongolia. This win secured her a spot in the top 40 of the Miss World competition, the final of which is being held today.
The head-to-head challenge is a segment that allows each candidate to give a brief description of herself and share on her Beauty with a Purpose advocacy.
Joylyn’s initiative ‘STEM Girl Glo’ seeks to raise awareness of women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Women and girls have been making strides in STEM and Joylyn is advocating for young women to be afforded the same opportunities as young men. To this end, the Berbician has been tutoring the girls in her region but foresees the programme going countrywide.
In her first head-to-head challenge, she competed with contestants from five other countries: England, Peru, Albania, Honduras and Korea. She articulated why she chose STEM as her project and how much she strongly believes in it: “I’m a firm believer in lighting other candles and that it costs nothing to light other candles. At this point it’s what I’m doing. That is what my Beauty with a Purpose Project is focused on. It’s titled STEM Girl Glo… It’s also governed by a tagline ‘Guided by Light, Glowing beyond the Stereotypes’. The light is not the artificial light that we see; that light, they are mentors, they’re teachers, they’re parents, they are each one of us here. Those are the lights, those people guiding girls to be a part of STEM, career-wise and academics and most importantly ensuring that they stay that path and discover that their own inner and God-given light that will allow them to glow beyond the stereotypes that girls are faced with in STEM. It’s focused in girls of rural communities of Guyana because I’m a girl from a rural community and we are often times robbed of those opportunities and that exposure because of our graphical location and so because I know what it felt like and I know that these girls are smart, they are either smart by the books or they are smart by the skills, either way they are smart and I believe that they deserve a shot to know that they can imagine, they can inspire and that they can invent.”
After all six of the contestants had their chance to share, and before the announcement of who won the challenge, the comments section on YouTube was filled with supporter for Guyana from viewers across the world. Many were impressed with how articulate the Guyanese contestant was and even more were mesmerized by her passion for her Beauty with a Purpose.
Though a video of the second challenge has not yet been released, there is no uncertainty of how easily Joylyn would have shone in her responses.
The closest Guyana has ever come to winning the Miss World Competition was in 1967 when Shakira Caine finished as 2nd runner-up.
Miss World 2019 will be hosted in London and commences at 8.45 am, Guyana time.
