‘It’s an individual choice to be professional model or professional prostitute’

Winner of Queen of Royalty Beach Resort 2019, Violet Ijeoma, has said that it’s a personal choice choose between being a professional model and being a prostitute, adding that there’s a thin line between the two.

The 23-year old beauty queen, who is a final year of the Imo State University, made the statement at the formal presentation of her prize by the organiser in Lagos.

Ijeoma, who is also a makeup artist, said, “I got into makeup because it’s something that always interests me. Currently, no lady wants to go out without her making up so, I love doing things with my hands.”

On when she decided to become a beauty queen, she said, “From my secondary school, I wanted to be a runway model, but when I finished my secondary school education, I visited an agency and I was told I didn’t have the required height. Then, I decided to be a makeup artist, which does not require height.”

On winning the crown after a weeklong competition, she said, “It is not really about the N1million and the car, I decided to give this contest a trial with two mindsets that I will either come out as the winner or go back home with nothing. I‘m happy that I came out as the overall winner. My family and some of my friends discouraged me from contesting because they never believed in pageantry; they said organisers of the contest just want to get money from people.”

On what earned her the crown, the final year student of History and International Relation, said, “My humility made me the winner, not my beauty or height; I was not the prettiest among the contestants. It’s the courage, humility, the persistency; I was always ready to do everything we were asked to do without complaint.”

On the negative perception about the modelling industry, she said, “When you talk about models in Nigeria, people have the ideology that models are prostitute, but that’s wrong. Prostitution is a choice, so, I don’t think anyone is right by putting prostitution and modelling on the same page; it has nothing to do with the industry. It’s an individual choice to be a professional model or to be a professional prostitute.”

In his remarks, one of the coordinators of Royalty Beach Resort, Emmanuel Etim, said, “this is the first of its kinds because we are using this to promote beach; this is the first time for a beach to get people attention. “We came up with this concept to use this platform to develop and also to empower youths opting for a successful career to become a brand ambassador and bring people to Nigeria to boost our economy.”

On his part, Joseph Etim, while speaking on the choice of ladies alone to be the face of the brand, he said, “this pageant is strictly for young ladies. The best people to use to be the face of your brand are female.”