By Aneesa Malik
Miss Ashmaani 2014 beauty contest
Aged 14, moving from Hong Kong to the UK, Shabana Chaudhary was like every other teenage girl, trying to fit in and make friends- not to mention her dream of becoming a model. Unfortunately, at that age, Shabana’s accent and timidity was the cause of her being bullied throughout her school life.
Determined more than ever, Shabana looked to Facebook as an escape into her modelling life. It was after some time that she came across Ashmaani events. A poster for the Miss Ashmaani beauty contest was advertised and Shabana felt it was the perfect opportunity to get noticed.
Shabana elaborated: “The reason I joined this beauty contest was to boost my self confidence. I’m quite a shy person. I felt there was a lot of jealousy from other girls about the way I looked. It was a very difficult period in my life, but I just put my head down and always believed in myself.”
After coming to these Ashmaani events, Shabana noticed her social life really expanded and her confidence has grown. “I had a very tough time and modelling has really helped me to get through it. Look at me now- I can talk to anyone and my confidence has grown so much.”
Ashmaani, the founder of Miss Ashmaani beauty contest was thoroughly pleased with Shabana’ s performance, saying: “There were 10 contestants taking part in the beauty contest and as soon as she walked out onto the stage, all eyes were on her. Before we even announced the winner, hundreds of ladies in the audience were chanting Shabana s name! The public loved her. She’s stunning, she’s got a clean heart and I love the way she carries herself- very elegant and that was obvious on the night compared to all the other contestants.”
Shabana has received substantial exposure after the event, but her word of advice to those wanting to break into the industry, is to: “Be yourself. In this industry, you have to be truly comfortable with yourself. Everyone is beautiful and inner beauty is more important than outer beauty.”
