VIDEO: MISS SOUTH AFRICA CROWNED AS THE MISS UNIVERSE QUEEN

South Africa's own beauty queen, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters bagged the title of Miss Universe on the 26th of November at the final of the pageant held in Las Vegas. Demi-Leigh is the first Sout African to win this title since Margret Gardiner won the 1978 title.

Out of the 91 competitors, the runners–up were first princess, Miss Columbia and second princess, Miss Jamaica.

Demi–Leigh is 22–years old and is from the Western Cape, turning out to have a huge worldwide social media following with many fans backing her campaign to empower women through teaching them skills to deal with difficult situations like robberies, hijackings and toxic relationships. Her campaign consisted of six workshops to teach young women these skills which she intends to launch internationally.

This campaign was inspired by Demi–Leigh being held at gunpoint in Hyde Park while being stuck in traffic. The men demanded her to hand over her cellphone and car keys, wanting to hijack the car and take off with her still in the car. She was luckily able to get to safety but this sparked her need to help women take their safety into their own hands.

She confirmed in her acceptance speech that she would continue to lead positive change by acting as an example and continue to use the platform to make a difference that would make South Africa proud. Before competing in the Miss Universe pageant, she was only modeling part–time and was a full–time student, finishing her B. comm in business management and entrepreneurship.

Many of her sponsors including Cell–C and Sun International have said that they are immensely proud of Demi–Leigh and could not imagine a better role model for South Africans and young women worldwide.

See Demi in action in the video below: