14-year-old Zelma Tatua is the winner Global Face Of African Fashion For Peace. She is the first African to win the pageant.

She attends Lycée Français Marcel Pagnol d’Abuja, (French School) in Abuja.

Tatua who plans to be a doctor in the future, is a straight-A student that is passionate about touching lives positively, especially indigent and abused children.

In this interview with Esther Onyegbula,  Zelma Tatua, who is good at foreign and local history talks about the competition, her journey into fashion, her pet project, the future and other sundry issues.

What is the competition about, how you got on board and eventually won the competition?

The African Fashion for Peace is an Organisation that Is involved in different fashion shows, modelling and charity events, and the Nigerian Chapter is managed by Miss Hopez who is a model and a fashion designer.

On the modalities, first of all, there were invitations and adverts for casting, participants who are picked were groomed for a few weeks at Transcorp Hilton Abuja and are sent to the runway for the official African Fashion For Peace Fashion parade, after which models are advised to join the online contest for the Face Of African Fashion For Peace, the person with the highest number of likes and shares becomes the Global Face for AFFP, I entered the contest, got the highest vote and was announced the winner.

How do you feel being the first African to win the pageant?

 I feel very happy because I didn’t think it was a big deal until people started calling to congratulate me.

What is going to be your focus as the Global Face Africa Fashion Ambassador within the next year?

 I intend to reach out to vulnerable kids through my pet project, the idea is to not only give them food to eat but to also donate clothes and have positive talks with as many of them as possible, I am more particular about abused and traumatised kids, so I look forward to working with FIDA and NAPTIP as they handle most of these cases.

You are just 14. How supportive were your parents when you decided to participate in the pageant?

Since I was about nine years old, different people would walk up to us at malls and different functions and ask if I am a model or would like to model but we always laughed it off and thanked them, but last year we seemed to be getting those kinds of comments a lot and my mum decided that perhaps I should give it a shot and that is how we got here, so my parents are very supportive of me.

What attracted you to the pageant?

My mum prompted me to join the contest.

Which other pageants are you hoping to participate in

At the moment, I am not looking for any pageants because I want to focus more on my pet projects but even though I am not in search of one, If I hear of any pageants coming up, I will definitely love to join in to see how far I can go.

Going forward, what are your dreams concerning fashion and beauty?

 I want to Use Fashion to Pass a Message of Peace, hope and Love