Miss Petit Bordel, Rolanda Samuel is the Queen of North Leeward

Winner of her secondary school pageant, community pageant, and hopefully soon, the Miss SVG pageant, 17 year old Rolanda Samuel has set her sights on wearing many crowns.

The student of St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC), on Saturday, June 17, triumphed over five other contestants to be crowned Miss North Leeward 2023, also taking home other awards, including People’s Choice, Best Introduction and Best Swimwear.

Samuel told SEARCHLIGHT it was her cousin who prompted her to enter the queen show back in March. She admitted initially being hesitant as she believed her recent weight gain may have been an issue. She also had to juggle many responsibilities, including revising for exams for her Paralegal Studies, rugby practice, as well as preparing for the pageant.

To give her the edge over the other contestants, Samuel said she sought out the help of two former Miss SVG contestants, Arielle Ollivierre and Rockel Coombs who entered the pageant last year.

“[Chaperone] asked them to work along with me, because he is in England. I used to have walking sessions with Arielle, and Coombs would then go over everything that me and Arielle did and she would be the one to say if I improved or not.”

This additional training, coupled with the experience she gained when she contested and won the Miss Petit Bordel Secondary School pageant in 2019 at just 13 years old, Samuel said, boosted her confidence in being able to take the crown even with what she described as an average performance in the talent segment.

“To be honest I cannot sing and I did not like the way I sang, but everyone else was like ‘you did great’ but to me I was not pleased with the way I performed. For everything else I was pleased.”

Samuel also said she intends to defer her participation in the Miss SVG pageant until when she has completed her college studies.

“ I am going to be 18 in October, I am thinking maybe when I am 20, I will enter.”

First runner up went to Miss Spring Village, Natasha Baptiste and the second runner-up was Miss Chateaubelair, SueNique Edwards.