All hail, the gracious Gail

Gail's thunderbolt smile, deep dimples, and a calm demeanor will lull you into thinking that she's a soft-spoken pushover. Add her Miss Limpopo title and it's easy to categorise her into the beauty queen mold: Beautiful. Birdbrain.

"Patriarchy disgusts me!" utters Gail, with a strong sense of conviction. This, after a short exchange with the University of Limpopo's all-male security guard team for access. My ears shot up. I was a little surprised. Yes, and guilty too! For also having initially cast her into that mold. Not quite the type of stuff that would ordinarily come out a beauty queen's mouth, I thought. But she's a Leo. It's typical of them to be feisty.

Our mother is our pillar

It may also have something to do with being raised by a single mom. "We were brought up as a team with my two siblings, doing everything together with our mother as our pillar," says Gail of her Mokopane and later, Ga-Mashashane upbringing. She describes her elder sister as an angel, adding that they are very close. Of her brother, she says that "he's my first king and always will be. He is my best friend, the person I fight with but also laugh with the most." 

You could say that Gail's brother is a default, male figure as their father died when she was just three years old. Although she never lacked for anything while growing up, she admits that they could've used a fatherly figure.  

I want to retire by 35!

Fast forward to present day 2018 and you have a wholesome 22-year old whom I've assessed to be wise beyond her age. She's opted to simultaneously study two qualifications: a degree in accounting science at the University of Limpopo, Turfloop campus and a diploma in project management at MSC Business College in Polokwane. Her reason? "I saw myself graduating in consecutive years, it looked amazing in my head and so I dived." With ambitions to retire at 35, she has just over a decade to work towards that dream. She's confident about it too! "I'm already doing a lot, plus I also want to get into business. I believe that it'll happen when the time comes," declares Gail, again, with a certain level of conviction.

On winning Miss Limpopo

Gail says winning Miss Limpopo was validation from God to trust the process, as well as believe that she's enough, capable and worthy of carrying such great aspirations. She adds that the journey to the reign also helped her deal with a lot of unresolved issues. "I discovered my weaknesses and then took time to work on myself... when you make a decision to be completely in love with yourself - which is an issue most women struggle with - nobody can make you feel inferior."

Images by Brian_stop

On staying inspired 

I live by the words: “I am enough, a thousand times enough” and this permeates every aspect of my life. Gail aptly diagnoses the issues that we face as a community and concludes that it's a game of self-affirmation. 

"We are facing a lot of issues as young people, especially daddy issues. So many of us don't have positive male figures in our lives and if present, they are abusive in one way or another. We also grow up in unstable environments and end up building broken homes ourselves...teenage pregnancy, substance, and domestic abuse, we need therapy! We, the black people who believe in it the least. We need to recover from apartheid-induced poverty,  the patriarchy that is too high to overcome in our generation, depression we cannot identify and the perpetual mental conditioning that we are not good enough for greatness." 

Towards Miss South Africa and beyond!

Even though Ice and Boss models rejected her in 2015, she plans on trying again this year.  And since Demi-Leigh Nel won Miss Universe and Miss South Africa in 2017, she is inspired that previous height restrictions no longer exist. She'll try for Miss Sundowns later this year while working towards Miss SA. Her dreams know no bounds as her eyes are set on Miss Universe 2020.

I know what you are thinking...ambitious much? Maybe. But the greatest achievement was, at first, and for a time, but a dream.