Mia Le Roux Reflects On the Ups and Downs of Her Reign As Miss South Africa 2024
Mia Le Roux Reflects On the Ups and Downs of Her Reign As Miss South Africa 2025. All that we see in the pageantry world is beauty, glitz and glam. For participants though, there is so much that goes on than meets the eye.
Mia Le Roux, who was our Miss South Africa 2024, has just opened up about some of the highs and lows she encountered during her reign. The beauty queen was crowned Miss SA on 10 August 2024. Mia’s win was historic as she became the first woman with impaired hearing to be crowned Miss South Africa.
After her win, she launched the Mia le Roux Movement. This is a platform dedicated to advocating for the estimated four million deaf individuals in this country, while also raising awareness of all forms of exclusion. From raising funds for life-changing cochlear implants to encouraging the use of closed captions on national broadcasts, her mission is to break barriers for all who are excluded.
There are also downfalls Mia faced during her reign. One such is when she withdrew from the Miss Universe 2024 competition. Days prior to the finale, Mia, suffered severe vertigo. Since deafness affects balance, her vertigo got so intense that she couldn’t even stand without support. Mia thus couldn’t go ahead with the competition.
“Being differently abled doesn’t mean less. But it also doesn’t mean I’m never sad.
My journey to Miss South Africa was powerful. It was empowering. It was history in the making. But it was also heavy.
Somewhere along the way, I felt the pressure to always be inspiring. Always smiling. Always strong. As if being differently abled meant I had to prove my worth by never breaking. As if empowerment cancelled out sadness.
But the truth is, empowerment and sadness can coexist.
There were days I felt on top of the world. And there were days I felt the weight of expectation pressing down on me. 📈 Growth wasn’t linear. It was up and down. It was confidence followed by doubt. Strength followed by vulnerability.
I was afraid that if I showed my hard days, people would question my capability. That vulnerability would be mistaken for weakness. That honesty about struggle would somehow undo the progress and work on breaking the stigma surrounding persons with disabilities.
And then I realised, denying my full human experience is its own form of ableism.
Being differently abled doesn’t mean I exist to be a constant source of inspiration.
It just means I navigate the world differently.
And I’m allowed to feel all of it.
Strength is not pretending you’re okay.
Strength is allowing yourself to be human.
Strength is allowing your identity to be imperfect. ♥️,” Mia said.
