I DESERVE TO BE HERE

Beautiful Mia le Roux has made history by becoming the first deaf woman to win the pageant

- ROSS MICHAELS

THE moment she stepped onto the stage for the final round the world around her faded to a muted, fuzzy buzz and an echo from the sound system reverberated through the implant in her ear.

But Mia le Roux is used to the challenges of being deaf in a hearing world and took it in her stride and when she made the top three she dared to believe she might actually see her childhood dream come true. And it did. The 29-year-old marketing student from Oudtshoorn was crowned Miss South Africa 2024 - the first hearing-impaired woman to take the title.

When YOU meets her the day after the pageant she's every inch the beauty queen, gorgeous in a striking red dress, her Miss SA sash draped across her body and the crown on her glossy head - but Mia still has to pinch herself to make sure she isn't dreaming. "Wow," she says.

"I know there's still a lot ahead and I'm here to take things day by day. But I know I want to promote inclusivity."

Mia is all too familiar with the feeling of exclusion. As a child other kids often said hurtful things, such as "deaf children don't go to heaven" and the taunting took its toll. "I struggled a lot with depression," she says. "It took an incredible amount of work to get to where I am. But there's a line I love: 'I know my worth because I have felt my unworthiness"."

Despite the challenges she faced, her resilience and determination have brought her to a place of empowerment. And as Miss SA she plans to use her platform to inspire and advocate for others.

"I deserve to be here," she says. "Now that I'm here I can be a voice for others."

WE MEET Mia at The Maslow Hotel in Pretoria and she asks us to move closer to the table to her "good side" - her right ear where her cochlear implant is. She's candid about her lack of hearing. "You don't have to be afraid to use the word deaf, okay?"