Demi-Lee Nel-Peters, a representative of South Africa, became the beauty queen.
The final of the 66th International Miss Universe 2017 contest was held in the USA. South African resident Demi-Lee Nel-Peters received the precious crown, an advertising contract and a one-year residence in New York. The title went to the 22-year-old beauty not easily. She almost lost it because of the scandal. However, first things first.
The girl was born on June 28, 1995 in the South African city of Sedgefield. At school, Demi was an excellent student and even the head of the class. The beauty received her education from Northwestern University with a degree in business management, and the girl is also an active participant in a program to train women in self-defense skills. Demi came to this program for a reason, immediately after winning the Miss South Africa contest, she became a victim of an armed robbery. She was attacked in her own car. Demi managed to fight back and escape. This incident made her think not only about her own safety, but also about the well-being of other women. After taking self-defense courses, the girl is now teaching others to stand up for themselves.
Demi works as a model, does fitness, and makes postcards in her free time. As the beauty says, she participates in competitions to change the lives of women for the better, in particular, to draw public attention to such a problem as low wages for women. Demi’s main inspiration is her disabled half-sister.
In general, Demi-Lee Nel-Peters is just a role model, and this is what Miss Universe should be. However, she might not receive the coveted crown because of the scandal that erupted in the summer.
Then the model visited a community in Johannesburg and posted pictures of children with HIV on social networks, to whom she brought food and medicine. It would seem a good deed, but …
Followers noticed that in the photos, Demi communicates and dines with the kids in gloves. The girl was immediately accused of racism, because the children were black. The entire Internet was full of headlines that Miss South Africa is so squeamish about African American children that she cannot touch them without latex gloves.
The beauty even had to record a video to explain to subscribers that gloves were a mandatory requirement of community staff, and all volunteers wore them during lunch in order to maintain hygiene measures. But users of social networks did not like this explanation. They even launched a flash mob called #MissSAChallenge, in which they posted their photos, where they suddenly remembered hygiene and therefore use the phone, read and type with gloves. Luckily for Demi, this incident soon exhausted itself and did not stop the girl from becoming Miss Universe.