Hey, girlfriends, I just wanted to give you a heads up that this episode includes conversations about domestic violence, transphobia, and mentions of attempted suicide.

But if you do listen, I'll take you on a rollicking ride into the world of glitz, glamour and beauty pageants.

Oh and there's going to be some swearing.

As per us, I was in the top three.

I cannot believe I'm in the top three.

Miss Sahara is standing on a stage in Thailand.

She's wearing a long, golden dress that sparkles in the spotlight and a sash with big green letters that say Nigeria.

I didn't think I will ever wear the crown, the main crown, but I could win this.

Next to Miss Sahara are two women in equally long and golden dresses with Thailand and Lebanon sashes.

They are the final contestants at Miss International Queen two thousand dollars, the world's biggest beauty pageant for trans women.

Big sets, lighting backup dancers up to like fifty performing at once on stage is incredible.

The set looks like a big Roman temple with a winding staircase adorned with white statues holding candles.

The crowd is electric because the stakes are high.

You win ten thousand years dollars or one go win that ten thousand dollars.

The hosts are getting everyone ready for the final round.

Each of the three remaining contestants has to draw a question from the judges and answer it.

Miss Sahara's question is other than your parents, who is your idol and what have you learned from that person?

I knew that one of my biggest selling points is speaking, and if given the microphone, I would tear it down.

As the camera's role for Thailand's Channel three HD, Miss Sahara takes the mic.

Good Evening, Ladies and gentlemen and good Evening distinguish judge.

She looks confident.

The sequence on her dress glitter under the studio lights.

I would like to be like Shelley Bassi.

That's the legendary Welsh singer renowned for her glamorous stage presence.

She's gone through a pain to become the woman.

That she is.

Sahara speaks directly to the audience.

I have gone through adversity, discrimination and harassment to become the woman that I am, and I'm on this stage today as a living testimony that a dream can come true.

The studio goes wild, the whole.

Audience erupting with my answer.

I thought I was going to be the first black girl to real it.

But Missahara doesn't win.

Instead, the crown goes to Thailand's local contestant.

She fits into the demographic that they're looking for, which is a trans woman who had been taking home since the weird child who fits into this is gender look perfectly well.

The pattern wasn't about your performance.

It was more about how feminine you are.

In other words, how much you fit the beauty ideal of a woman who isn't.

Trans, pubern't sucked, gentle, meek, don't talk too much.

Be tiny, tiny shoulder, tiny hands, tiny feet, lighter skin.

I don't have any of that.

I'm tall, I'm five forty eleven on heels, I'm six foot three, but I really don't care.

This is who I am.

We are coming to this world to contribute in one way or the other, and that makes us beautiful.

All trans women are beautiful.

This belief would inspire Miss Sahara to create a brand new trans pageant with glitter and sequence, of course, but also a lot of heart, a community that would welcome trans women from all over the world and embrace their beauty on their own terms.

I'm Annisonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts.

This is the Girlfriend's Spotlight, where we tell stories of women women today, Miss Sahara Crowns Queens.

If you've listened to this podcast before, I think it's safe to say that I am no pageant girl, but Miss Sahara certainly is.

Would you be able to introduce yourself as you would on a pageant stage.

Oh that's a good one.

So how would I introduce myself?

Hello?

Everyone, good morning, good evening, and good afternoon.

My name is Miss Sahara.

I am a digital media specialist, an activist and a singer, and I am miss the name of the pageant and I would say Nigeria.

That's great.

I've never actually thought of dying a very long time because I feel like an old woman now when it comes to a pageantry.

In the pageant world, a grandma.

It means that you're a queen, you know, a dame of the pageant tree.

You know you're not a grandma.

No, I'm more of a en.

Dowager Countess Yea, the queen mother.

Yes, and that comes with a lot of grace and status, so be proud of that one.

Thank you.

So how do you.

End up on stage glammed up to the nines and representing your countrue?

Well?

To answer that, we have to go back to the nineties to a small village in Benues State, north central Nigeria where a young Missahara is watching TV.

I was watching and I saw Miss World.

That's one of the oldest existing international beauty pageants.

I remember seeing it and looking out with a glamour and I used to love love it.

Imagine angels singing, confetti, raining light shining down from the heavens above a big.

I used to wish that would be on it, I said, I want to be on that stage.

What was it about seeing those women on stage that resonated with you?

When I watched them doing it, like doing a catwalk like you see me wearing our mosquito nets, thinking it's a gown.

I'll be pretending to be one of them and walking and pausing.

I think it was the aspirational aspect of it is exactly one I wish I could be.

And I know I couldn't be.

And then growing up, as I seeing that I was more interested in artics, dancing, and I noticed that this is the area I want to be in performing like so for example, in my Grandpapa's compound, he has many wives and those wives had many kids around my age, so we all used to play together and hang out together.

I used to hang out with the girls.

We used to tie rappers around our chest and dance.

That is how the women do it.

The men tie the rappers around their waist, but I tie my wrapper around my chest and I was allowed to explore the aspects of my childhood.

But I think I felt very comfortable in my own skin.

Growing up.

I did spend a lot of time with my grandma Mom, and she let me just naturally be myself.

The gendered stereotype and behavior wasn't really first on me until when I started becoming a teenager.

It was when people were beginning to ask questions that why you're not outgrowing?

This breast wasn't developing.

There was something growing down there I wasn't comfortable with, and I was like, this is not me.

Mister Harris.

Teen years are complicated.

I come from a staunch patriarchal society where a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and a boy is a boy, a girl is a girl, where you are not showed and trained to be a certain way.

So how come I am so different?

I was incredibly feminine.

I thought my brain was telling me that was a woman.

I was a girl, and I should act like the rest of the girls.

But the society says I am a boy and I should act like a boy.

But we didn't really know what the terminology was.

School is hard, constant drama.

Of bullying because of the way I was presenting, and so is home.

When you're being bullied, you can't even talk to your parents because you're worried that they will never understand.

And it's true, they will not understand.

It was okay, start acting like a man then, so stop doing that.

Then I couldn't talk to my mom, who was a single parent.

She is my hero of the woman has given up so much for us.

She's been true hell to bring us up.

Miss Sahara has a younger sister too, so safe to say that mom has a lot on her plate.

But Sahara is spreading her wings after having lived with her mom and sister in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

She starts studying at Benues State University, about a four hour drive away.

I was able to comb my hair, grow my nails.

I would use nail polish on my nails.

However you like make up.

My clothes are very tight where hipadding because I was away from my mom, who was always telling me, oh, don't do that.

Cott your nails, caught your hair, you need to do this.

And you say she was being a parent, because that's what she understood.

When my mom found condoms in my bag when I was in the university, she found pictures of my friends dressed up in luxuries.

That really freaked out.

So she took those things and took it to my church where I was a singer and I was part of the choir, and the pastor sat me down asking me all these tupid questions for two days.

Did my dad touch me?

Did I slip with my dad?

My homosexual?

And all that?

And I kept telling them I'm not gay.

They don't really understand, and I was trying to explain it, but I just couldn't explain it because even I didn't know the right world to use.

And I didn't know the history of it.

And there's quite a lot of history.

Actually, homophobia and transphobia and Nigeria trace back to colonial times.

That's when the British violently imposed their own laws and attitudes towards sex and gender onto Nigerians.

It was a form of colonial control.

Then came the rise of radical religion, evangelical Christianity imported from the US and ultra conservative interpretations of Islam.

But queer Nigerians have always found a way to exist and support each other.

While being trans wasn't an accepted part of her upbringing.

As a student, Miss O'Hara was able to carve out the space she needed, like getting a side job for a charity, training models and teaching them how to catwalk.

Whenever I have an opportunity to go on stage with the girls, all lest dress up as well.

And joining one of the volunteers there notices that Miss Sahara has that star power herself.

He used to look at me and be laughing and be going like, you're very good at this, and I know a lot of people are like you that live in London.

He used to say that, and I was like really, and he was like, just get a shot, cross and goal, and.

In early two thousand and four, in her final year of university, Miss O'Hara experiences something that pushes her to take that plunge and get the fuck out.

I was locked up in Nigerian prison for three days or a weekend.

Why someone stole on the bus going back to school to the campus.

I was in the front.

The passengers on the bus end up witnessing an accident on the road.

In all the chaos, the bus driver claims his money has gone missing and refuses to move until the purpose caught and.

I was like, what's going on?

Who took the money?

She just give the money back, I suggested.

Stupid me never explienced the police before.

Said, look, this is the police sician is just next door.

Let's go to the police station and let him set us and check who took the money.

They setched the boss.

They found the money underneath the seat of the conductor.

That's a young boy who collects the fairs.

While they were seching all of us, they such to me, this saw my hip, buddy.

They sat I was camp and meaning and girley.

They already started slapping me and beating me up and telling me act like a man.

Did you stell the money?

I said, I did not steal any money.

The money that you people are talking about, that is told, the money I have in my bank account is a lot more than that.

They knew immediately that there is money to be made, because Nigerian police are very corrupt.

They beat me up on the driver started pleading on my case and saying, we found the money.

This one is a student in the university here, just let this one go because this one didn't do it.

The police refused to let me go.

They kept me and the boy together.

They put us in the same cell, like a small, tiny box cell with twenty people, and the strip was naked.

And yeah, they beat us up, the boy and I and I remember they asked me what I was doing.

I said, I'm a student.

Was this the end of your studies?

That's okay?

That sounds like a horrible experience.

Yeah, yeah, And so was this really the thing that made you think I've got to go?

Oh?

I.

When I was younger, I tried to convince side twice because I felt like I found that no one understood me.

I remember very well that if I don't leave, I'm gonna be successful in the end of my life because I can't live like this.

I just can't.

I have to get out.

I felt like I was suffocated, like grasping for air, and constantly told that was emoral and what I was doing was wrong and who I was every step of the way.

When I finished the exams, my mom supported me.

She sold her saloon equipment, her freezer.

I think she sold so many tings and enough to give me the money to fly.

Was shocked to even get the visa.

And then I came to the UK and I my eyes were open.

Sorry, that's all right.

Let's have a little pause, a little break.

After the break, Missahara leaves Nigeria behind you.

I've gage you.

I've In July two thousand and four, only a few months after the prison incident, Missahara arrives in London, UK, where she'll be staying with a friend.

But a week later, she's kicked out by the landlady.

As new You know I had that nature.

I mean tell you to thinking when you know someone the best thing would be willing to keep you and help you no matter what.

It doesn't work that way in London.

You have to really fame for yourself and you have to go out there and fight for you to survive.

Missahara is now without housing and she only has a three month student visa.

It's for a short course in art direction at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design.

She has just started looking for work when she stumbles upon a colorful parade.

You were so pride.

That's a huge queer festival in the heart of London.

And I just couldn't believe what I was saying.

Two men kissing each other, women kissing each other, trans women, drag, queens, everything.

And I was like, oh, oh my god, I'm me Heaven.

You'd arrived, I said.

I just said to myself, there is not a thing way I'm going back to Nigeria.

There's no way I'm going back.

By quoitness, was it when you moved to London that you first really categorically understood that you were trans and you understood what trans was.

It was when I came to the UK here that I saw trans women, And I say, so it makes so much sense now.

By day, Sahara starts working at a bakery, scrubbing floors and toilets.

By night, she goes out in soho.

I sat going out into the club scene asking for work, and then Heaven night Club gave me a job as a glamorous hostess.

Heaven is an iconic nightclub for queer people in London.

Our were like twelve inch platform hills, big hair, big makeup, and we go onto the street of London, very cold, like no jackets, going to give up flyers and encouraging people to come in.

I've met a few of you on the street.

You must have yes, you've probably given me a flyer, definitely, And I will go back into Heaven Nightclub and then we host the night and it's actually quite fun.

In those days working in the nightclub scene, I met so many trans women, keep asking them how did you do that?

Why did you do this?

Asking them questions and unfortunately led to many mistakes that I made from surgeries.

So many things I did where where we regret it up to today because of that lack of education and lack of support growing up taking dangerous medications.

Self medicating to get prescription was very difficult because many gps don't even know what trans means.

I went to so many gps to finally finding a GP that understood and then referred me to a psychotherapist.

All of this while trying to find her feet in a new city.

And it's at work at Heaven Nightclub that Missahara is scouted to become a model.

I used to model in different parts like London Fashion Week.

I was on the cover of Timeout magazine.

Wow, and then yeah I was Yeah, and I was on the billboards actually and the tube.

It was so weird.

Yeah, your whole life just flipped around, didn't that.

I know, I know, I know.

She even tries her luck at applying to Britain's Next Top Model.

And never got picked.

Tried to compete in gender pageants.

I was never picked.

If sis gender is a new word for you, it just means people who aren't trans.

There were so many pageants and so many opportunities I'm modeling.

I ever went for casting, and I got rejected for being trance.

But Miss Sahara is booked and busy.

And then my agent got me a job to model for Marial Testino in New York and they're gonna pay me seven thousand pounds.

This was a big amount of money for me, is a life changing amount.

When her agent tells her about the booking.

She's delighted.

There's a problem.

I told him I don't have papers.

My papers have expired.

Her student visa has run out.

I became illego.

That's why they used to call undocumented people.

And it was a time when the conservative government was putting a lot of heat on the labor government and they made it very clear they don't want immigrants here.

It was quite hostile.

Unfortunately, this is very much still happening, babes.

So I start asking questions, researching.

Then I found out about a place called refuge Legal Center.

I expect that my transfer from Nigeria.

Who does not have papers, I'm illego, And luckily enough, there is a woman on the phone and she was so kind and she prepared my papers and sent me off to the Home Office and told me that I may likely be deported.

I was so scared.

I can my mom, it's very likely I'm coming home.

I'm coming home too early.

And she said to me, just go there to what you have to do.

So they sent me there.

They even did like a medical search of me because they didn't believe that was a trans woman, that I was faking.

It.

It's very invasive.

It was very invasive.

Actually, after all of this, Miss O'Hara has to wait to hear whether she'll be allowed to stay in the UK.

And she waits and waits and waits for two years until she finally gets her papers.

Way too late to make it to New York for that modeling job, but it'll be an even longer road to get papers that reflect her gender.

A whole suing of the Home Office later, and she's equipped with asylum in the UK and a passport that labels her female.

It's a case that creates a president immediately.

She knows exactly how she wants to celebrate.

So the first thing I came to my mind is to start applying for pageantry again, applying to all these places that rejected me.

I looked at the age.

Oh god, the age I really aged out.

And what age is aging out?

When you hit the age of dan it was twenty seven ancient.

That was very issue, right, And then I said, okay, let me see what I can do.

Okay, let me join transpigents.

Then trans pageants are not so agist apparently, and why not start at the top.

Miss International Queen, the biggest trans pageant in the world, put on in Thailand.

The company running it.

Is Tiffany Show Patatea, which is behind the first trans cabaret of Southeast Asia.

It goes all the way back to the seventies, but controversially, the organizers assist gender.

It's also sponsored by the Thai Tourism Department because of all the tourists that come to watch.

They all come there to marvel, so when they're performing on stage, these trans women are gocked at and treated like, oh my god, I can't believe this is a man.

Miss Sahara is obviously not thrilled about this, but there isn't much else available, so she decides to compete.

Anyways, listeners with actually already been at this pageant together at the start of the episode when the tie contestant was crowned ahead of Messahara.

The selection every year was very strategic.

You could tell who is going to win because I know they are formula.

I know what they're looking for.

They're like popular girls, girls who are in the media, girls who are already famous in their countries, girls who will give them prominence because it's a business.

I think I felt that me I was a political choice to be put into their top three, because I felt that the reason why they put me there was because I had a documentary grow.

Yes, what I didn't tell you before is that Miss Sahara's journey on the show is accompanied by documentary crew from the Sky Living Channel.

The program comes out in twenty twelve.

And they called it The Lady Boys.

I was pissed off because I said to them, I don't want to be on a show called the Lady Boys.

I'm not a lady boy.

I'm a woman.

Don't call me lady boy because he's there a gretory term and some of the things that we're saying was very invasive, Like I was in the process of hirving my bottom surgery.

We're talking about my bottom surgery and I felt that it was strong and then it written just when nuclear before the documentary, I was living my life as a woman quietly in society, blending in quietly.

But when the documentary came out, I start having issues bought in the UK and in Nigeria because it was evident that I was a transfoman now and Nigerians were very upset by it.

Missahara becomes the first trans woman from Nigeria to come out in international media and she sees her mum in person for the first time since leaving home.

I know it was very difficult for how when I came out as a trans woman, and I totally understand.

She was like, why do you want to do that?

Do you know?

Watch what you see on Jerry Springer's.

That's a popular American daytime talk show from the nineties and noughties.

It's Agony Aren't Style, but with families and the host Jerry Springer, would frequently feature trans women in segments like thought you were a girl.

You get the gist.

It was not cute and.

I loved to reference that.

I just say, oh my god.

Yeah.

Because of lack of education on the subject.

Like once she said something about people are talking about me and they were being very derogatory that they don't even know me.

I say, I know, I know, But nobody would choose to be harassed and beating up, constantly called memes and treated really badly.

There is no privilege in a trans perconte or a feminine boy.

In Nigeria growing.

Up, if you were comfortable a man, you would stay being a man.

That is a position of privilege.

Exactly, No one would choose that.

And I remember when I first told my mom that was gonna this is my journey.

I'm becoming a woman.

She said to me, why, I never forget this, So why do you want to be a woman.

She said something in the essence that men have more privilege and women don't have any.

And she's right, and I understand because of what she went through.

She's like, why would you want to be that?

And and then I said, it's my choice.

For me, it's my choice.

I didn't choose to feel the way I feel.

And a lot of people say, oh, it's not feeling to be a woman.

But the truth is, that's why I am.

I in need sense of self says that's who I am.

Yes, the way I look is a choice.

Being glamorous and being the person I am going on stage and doing well, that's a choice.

But I didn't choose to wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror and be happy with who I am now.

But when I was growing up as a child and not be happy with it, bring keep telling me what is that?

Why are you?

You have no breasts, you have no vagina?

What is that?

You know?

There are lots of trans people who don't have this story of our Mine was very intense, as like it was really bad and not all trans people are like me, and they're totally valid too.

And this is why ALYS say to people that there is no single path into womanhood.

Everybody's journey is different.

If you are being exclusive in your womanhood, then you're not a true feminists.

After the social media backlash, Miss Sahara withdraws from the public eye, but the whole ordeal ignites something in her a new purpose.

That's it.

I'm going to do more pageant.

I'm sure them what it means to be trans.

After the break the crown.

Glad you have, glad you, glad you, I've glad you.

Misahara is representing Nigeria in pageants around the world to show the haters that you can't keep a good woman down, but she keeps hitting a wall with the judging criteria.

I had problems with so many transparents when I joined them and seeing their process of selection, and I found it to be restrictive, discriminatory, and incredibly patriarchal.

Something you said that I thought was really interesting is like how narrow the beauty standards are that the women are being judged.

John, that idea that beauty is like a certain very limited lens makes it feel like a place where I wouldn't want to try and put myself in to be judged, you know, by that criteria.

What is beauty to you?

And why do you actually want to interact with these spaces?

Yeah?

For me, beauty is beyond physical.

It's more, in my opinion, interpreted into your talent, creativity, and how well you speak, inspired with people, and how you influence people around you.

That is beauty for me.

I don't believe there should be a physical set of rules that makes you beautiful.

In twenty fourteen, Miss O'Hara gets scouted for another pageant.

I going phone called asking me to come and compete in the Philippines for a patent called super Serena.

Super Serena means super Mammy.

It's one of the longest TV shows in the Philippines.

For the first time, this popular Filipino daytime show is being made into an international competition.

Unlike other pageants, which usually have around thirty contestants, this one only has eight.

Before I went there, I was telling my mom, I'm not really I don't think I will do it.

It's sweet really.

Despite the backlash in Nigeria when Missahara came out as trans, her mum becomes an ally.

My mom was like, no, just go and have fun.

Jepping for your flight and giving you five hundred dollars pocket fee.

They will help you with costume if you need it.

You have nothing to lose.

So I went there with allergy under my eyes.

My eyes were swollen.

I was really in the bad place.

I didn't get my feet on time, arrived late, going in and seeing the process, all eight of us were giving the same equal limelight.

For over a week.

The eight contestants are wishd in and out of costumes to go on TV.

As they do their intros and catwalks, back up dancers throw shapes behind them, but there's also plenty of time to answer questions and show personality.

Miss Sahara doesn't want to get her hopes up.

I saw the Filippino that she's so flawless, like beautiful, representing Philippines.

She's gotta win it anyway, just like Thailand.

So Southeast Asia, black skin is not seen as beautiful.

And I'm just gonna have fun because my mom said to me, go there and have fun.

So I whin they're making fun of the presenters and just enjoying myself making people laugh.

And because I've been to the Philippines before, I did some of my surgeries in the Philippines, so I know the Filipino culture very well.

Many of my very close friends are from the Philippines, so I know some of the lingo.

Because I knew it's a funny show and I wanted to keep them fun.

They do around where everyone has to wear their national costumes and Miss Sahara goes all out.

She has horns on her head and on her tits.

They we just absolutely loved it.

I was so happy about her.

And was it fun with the other competitors.

Doing in competition mode.

Everybody wants to win.

Me I was like, I just came to clap for the winner, so I'm just gonna enjoy myself and I really care.

Right before the crowning, they asked her to share why she lives in London, and she tells her story the one you heard earlier.

What was kind of hanging in the balance for you in that moment before you won?

What would it have meant to win that?

For me?

It was a dream.

I've always wanted to win something, at least I've been doing pageantry at that point for a very long time.

And I molisa clapper and we call herself clappers.

We clap for the winner and Melisa on her up.

But this time things were different.

When it called my name, I was shot.

I was crying.

Miss Sahara is crowned the first ever Miss super Serena worldwide.

People were laughing at me.

I had snap on ven years.

If you see the lipstick standard, he was soppering.

I look very weird, but I went in there wanting to have fun.

So when I wanted, I just couldn't believe it.

Her price ten thousand dollars, a sash, a scepter, and of course a big blittery crown.

Her childhood dream has finally come true.

Miss Sahara is a pageant queen.

And then I was getting so many followers.

I got like overnight, I got twenty thousand, and it's increasing increasing, And I said, okay, so I need to do something.

She makes a promise to shake up the world of trans pageantry.

My experience in a pageant that I did in Philippines really opened my eyes to what I don't want in a pageant again, and how I would want to do it differently from what they're doing.

Trans pageantry is fuck in the fifties, But what people forget is that we need these spaces to empire a lot of black and brown trans women.

If they won't allow us on the table, we'll make our own chair and create our own table on our own space.

So in the pandemic, when everyone was living their lives on zoom calls, she has an idea.

We're all at home.

I saw my transistors desperate looking for somewhere to express themselves.

So I was thinking about, let's do digital.

It's at a pageent.

So I spoke to activists from around the world, my very close friends that have big platforms.

So we came together and we had the conversation about it, and then we're like, let's start a platform where it's a pageant, but it's advocacy focused only.

And I say yes, and those of us who have competed before, who learned from the past experiences and correct those things that those pageants are doing with our pageants, even though we don't have the resources.

So that was what we did.

I miss Transglobo was born.

Miss trans Global a new kind of trans pageant.

We don't class ourselves as a beauty pageant.

We call ourselves as an advocacy pageant.

There are fewer participants, so you can really get to know people, and they're joining from around the world, submitting videos about themselves for different rounds.

Still a pageant, of course, they have to make videos of their gowns, their catwalks, etc.

But the most important part is to showcase creativity, talents and social impact.

There's a lot more than just looking pretty and being on stage.

Yeah, the judges to get numbered by you, but Dispaths does not score you high.

You're in the interview scores you higher.

Your final question answers and the Queen's speech is the main one that's caused incredibly high, which is very important because it's where you give us one year manifesto of what you're going to do when you become mistrands Global.

It's very important because you're helping our community.

The competition spanned six months leading up to the grand coronation, which is a live stream on YouTube and Facebook for a worldwide audience, and if you win, you get the empowered Queen crown.

Every week were giving them tasks to do.

We had girls from refugee camps.

One of them was using scraps from her bed to create her costumes.

We had girls who were creating their content because of the isolation, and a lot of girls were stuck at home.

We transfer big family members and they were having to sneak out to shoot their content.

And with the restriction of going out, some people were tiptoing.

When they see the police, will run and hide.

And the story was just amazing seeing what the girls were doing.

I didn't think it was going to be popular.

I didn't even think people even watch it.

And it's just when nuclear the page had so many vistas, one million, and I was like, my god, this is serious.

You know.

Can you describe the crowning of the first Miss trans Global that moment?

Oh my god, Philippines was the first winner.

God, I was in flots of tears because I was shocked that I didn't know it's going to mean that much to them, and she just lost it.

He say.

It was a really very late at night.

The parents were sleeping from the screaming.

They woke up and they ran downstairs and they couldn't believe in the family.

They were so happy and I was like, oh my god, this is why we started Miss Transglobal.

It's changing their lives, it's giving them a purpose, and it's giving them a chance to go out there and be an example for our community.

And I think that's alone, it's enough.

The Philippines winner, Mela Habison, She's done so much for the community over there after winning Miss trans Global because she got so much media attention.

Even though a lot of people look down on pageantry, our pageant, it's not just about just showing your talent and leave.

No, there is something beyond it.

We use the voice and the platform that we're given to educate people, to encourage people to support us, to raise more awareness about our situation.

Mistransglobal was such a success that in twenty twenty three it became a physical pageant.

Got the drama.

Who the fight?

What was the drama?

All girls who wanted to win so badly?

And I'm introducing in new seminar, which is how to Lose with Grace.

Why are the contestants taking part?

It's a safe space for all trans women, including non binary people.

A baby trans you can be two minutes into your Transnens and joining Mistransglobal.

You're very welcome in that space.

We welcome everyone who want to occupy that space of performing, looking for a space for them to perform on stage, common stage and tell the stories, get them, give them the microphone to speak.

We want girls who are truly activists and girls who advocacies in their blood when they're talking about issues happening in their local countries or things that have gone through, Like majority of our participants are asylum seekers living in the United Kingdom here, and they all come with so much scars, and I totally identify with them because of what I've been true and from some of them acquiring HIV and ISTE rape, to how their families have disowned them, to some being locked in prison like myself, to others who have been attacked like our current queen she almost lost her arm because she was attacked by two men in Brazil.

When we hear their stories, it's like it's just so inspiring.

I know that what we're doing, as much as it doesn't give them a financial boost, it gives them confidence.

We build a lot of confidence.

Wow.

I mean, it sounds like an amazing community, like far beyond just the pageantry that we as outside.

It's get to see.

Yes, the pageantry is the magnet that brings us together.

And together they're visible, visibly beautiful in their own ways, glittering under the spotlights, in their sequins and sashes, talking about the good they want to do in the world, about the sisterhood they create, and also just being fabulous.

If you've enjoyed this conversation, you can find loads more incredible women on our feed.

Do check them out, and please do spread the word and tell your friends about us.

We want as many people as possible to be part of the Girlfriend's Gang.

Next time on The Girlfriend's Spotlight, Lois captures criminals.

After all these years, Yeah, I got justice for when I went through This stupid guy got me going after every kind of guy like him.

This season, we're supporting the charity Womankind Worldwide.

They do amazing work to help women's rights organizations and movements to strengthen and grow.

If you'd like to find out more or donate to help them secure equal rights for women and girls across the globe, you can go to womenkind dot org dot UK.

The Girlfriend's Spotlight is produced by novel for iHeart Podcasts.

For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio.

The show is hosted by me Anna Sinfield.

This episode was written and produced by a Malia Sortland.

Our assistant produce is Lucy Carr.

Our researcher is Sayana Yusuf.

Sensitivity checking and editorial support by Jesse lou Lawson.

The editor is Hannah Marshall.

Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers.

Production management from Joe Savage, Shreie Houston and Charlotte Wolfe.

Sound design, mixing and scoring by Mark Pitten.

Music supervision by Jako Taievich, Nicholas Alexander and Anna Sinfield.

Original music composed by Louisa.

Gerstein and Jemma Freeman.

The series artwork was designed by Christina Lemkol.

Willard Foxton is creative director of Development and Special thanks to Katrina Norvel, Carrie Lieberman, and Will Pearson at iHeart Podcasts, as well as Carl Frankel and the whole team at WM