Seventeen-year-old model, Pearl Mathebula from Makotopong, a remote village in Polokwane, Limpopo, has made the country proud after winning the 2025 Miss Teen International. The pageant was held in Lima, Peru on Sunday.
Speaking to Sunday World from Peru after her win, Mathebula couldn’t hide her excitement: “I never thought I could pull it through, more so when one is competing against models from different countries who have been in a number of competitions more than oneself.”
Still at school
Mathebula, who is a Grade 12 learner at the Northern Academy says the win feels like a dream.
She started her professional modeling career in 2022 when she was just 14. “After realising my passion for modeling, I entered Miss Capricorn. My performance was not that good. The following year in 2023 I entered Miss Teen South Africa where I came 10th. Being placed tenth made me feel I did not do enough so I entered again in 2024.”
First win
“I won it in 2024/25 having competed against other models from across the country,'” said the beauty queen.
“I couldn’t believe my ears when my name was announced as the winner of MTSA because it was my second attempt. It felt unreal. I was shocked, coming from Limpopo, a province which is mostly undermined. But I made it,” she says about her first crown.
It was in December last year. This feat then earned her the ticket to this year’s international competition in Peru.
She was accompanied to Lima by her mother.
Second crowning glory
“For me, winning the 2025 Miss Teen International here in Peru, is just a way to show my peers, the youth, that age and the background of where you come from are not a barrier, but a motivation to achieve our dreams.”
