Cherell Williamson at the Nassau Guardian
In 130 days Cherell Williamson will take to one of the biggest world stages with her sights set on winning one of the most coveted crowns -- the Miss Universe title. Less than a week after winning the Miss Universe Bahamas title she believes she has what it takes to represent the country in the best way possible.
"I just want to put my best foot forward," said the country's newest beauty ambassador. "I want people to have faith in me and the support to move forward. I believe in positivity and of people being supportive of their country and of their fellow Bahamians."
Williamson, 23, took home the title in her first ever pageant. The pageant, which was held under new licensee, Ivy Lane Ltd., a subsidiary of Tavistock Group, was held at Aviva Beach at Albany. She will represent The Bahamas in the Philippines on January 30, 2017.
Like every queen she wants to make a difference.
"Before I even won the title, I started helping with the hearing impaired, and I definitely want to make this bigger. I want to make it something that is over the top, and just develop it into something that is beyond what I expected. Of course I want to bring home the Miss Universe title -- that is the main goal. But I want to take away an experience where I can say that I did make a difference, and I did use this title to create something positive in our country."
Less than a week after being crowned, the stunning six-foot beauty said her win still had not settled in fully, but the realization that she is queen was settling in after having done a number of interviews and people calling to congratulate her.
"This experience is overall totally out of my box. Everything has been different. It isn't my normal everyday Cherell routine," said the makeup artist, face painter and jewelry designer who also trained hearing impaired young ladies the art of jewelry making.
Williamson describes herself as the person who was always the shy and reserved girl. She pursued modeling which broke her out of her shell. Even though she modeled she said she was still shy because she did not have to interact with people really.
"Modeling is walking down the runway looking pretty, walking back, changing clothes and just doing the same thing over and over. I finally built up the courage, and said you have so much more to offer than just outer beauty, and took this as an opportunity to just develop myself and be able to push what I'm passionate about."
She's passionate about working with hearing impaired young women, a platform she went into the pageant on.
"You do things on a smaller scale, but you want the opportunity to make it big and impact the country, so it was a jump because of the fact that I was able to develop along the way and interact with people and build myself as an overall person."
Williamson also wanted to do something big.
"I've always settled for just being behind the scenes, and was a settled person overall. But there have been a lot of people encouraging me over the years to just go out and do it and I never thought I was ready. You want to go into something big being very prepared and open-minded and I finally became that. The prizes were a plus of course."
Her prizes include all-expenses paid representation to the 2017 Miss Universe pageant; Albany membership for one year; $10,000 cash; an official car during her reign; a $50,000 appearance and competition wardrobe; and serving as the official hostess of the Hero World Challenge PGA Tour event.
She is now preparing to head to the home of the reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach for her international competition. The Philippines will host their third Miss Universe pageant (1974 and 1994) on an $11 million budget that is said will be funded by the private sector.
Williamson said the Miss Universe organization for which Michelle Collie is the national pageant director is ensuring that she trains to prepare herself to represent The Bahamas.
"They are doing everything in their power to make sure that happens. They are an organization that believes in being yourself, but at the same time bringing forth your best self, so that was something I kept in the back of my mind, and I will continue to keep in the back of my mind, because it's so important to not try to change yourself completely, because you have so much to offer as an individual, but just try to be the best possible you."
The Miss Universe Bahamas organization's mission states that they empower young ladies to own their personal value and invest it into creating a better world. Through their training program, the organization teaches the contestants to live beautifully through physical presentation, public speaking, self-development and purpose, community service and civic mindedness. The woman to wear the Miss Universe Bahamas crown they believe has the ability to change the world.
"They [pageant board of directors] are an amazing group of women that really push for the fact that a pageant and a pageant process can definitely be a sisterhood and that we don't have to be picking at each other."
The daughter of Revello (who stands six feet, two inches) and Chevette Williams (who is five feet, 11 inches) said the two-month training process she went through in preparation for the pageant seemed more like a family as far as the environment, the attitude and the personalities she met.
"Even up to today, the young ladies that I competed with are encouraging -- they are making sure that I'm good with everything that I need, so basically it has formed a sisterhood I would say. It has developed us into young ladies."
Williams, the new face of The Bahamas and Bahamian beauty said while pageantry is new to her and that she's still in the learning process, she said she wants to promote the organization as something positive, because pageantry has too many stereotypes.
Shavaughn Moss, Guardian Lifestyles Editor
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