With a passion for pageants Tahera Brown was crowned Miss St Thomas Farm Queen in 2013 and returned the following year to win the Miss Portland Festival Queen title.

She is now the president of Global Progressive Movements, which hosts the Miss Teen St Thomas competition, and served as a judge in the recent Miss National American Teen and Collegiate Competition in Jacksonville, Florida.

Brown’s interest in pageants was developed when she entered her first one — Miss St Thomas Technical High School Competition.

She moved on to the Miss St Thomas Festival Queen Competition in 2009 but failed to finish among the finalists. Determined to excel she returned the following year and placed among the top five.

“In 2012 I decided to merge my passion for pageants with my interest in agriculture, so I moved on to the Miss St Thomas Farm Queen Competition and was awarded the first runner-up position after receiving three sectional awards,” Brown told Jamaica Observer North & East.

“I re-entered in 2013 and was crowned Miss St Thomas Farm Queen, then went to the National Farm Queen Competition where I received two sectional awards and was crowned second runner-up,” Brown added.

That performance brought her to the attention of many people, including Member of Parliament for St Thomas Eastern Dr Fenton Ferguson, who offered her support to study hospitality and tourism management at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE).

Brown graduated from CASE with the President’s Award for Most Outstanding Academic Achievement before relinquishing her farm queen title to enter the Miss Portland Festival Queen Competition in 2014.

“Despite many discriminatory comments about my size, I won the title and moved on to Miss Jamaica Festival Queen where I was the recipient of the Best Talent Performance award,” said Brown.

She made her international debut recently as a judge in the Miss National American Teen and Collegiate Competition.

“In March, while vacationing in the United States, I accidentally ended up in a telephone conversation with Dr Charlotte Gerry who is involved with Miss National American Teen. At first I thought it was one of those marketing calls so I was about to end the call when Dr Gerry told me she liked my accent and asked me what country I was from. I told her I was from Jamaica. She immediately got excited and told me she has never been to Jamaica before but would love to visit in the future,” Brown related.

“As a graduate in the field of tourism I began utilising my skills to convince her that Jamaica was the place to be. She began telling me about the Miss National American Teen and Collegiate Competition, then I proceeded to give her some words of advice.

“At the end of my presentation she said ‘You know what, I don’t think we ended up in this conversation by mistake; I think we were destined to meet because all you just said to me, is just what I needed to hear. You have given me so much motivation, thank you’,” Brown related.

According to the Jamaican, she told Gerry about her passion for pageants and that led to even more discussion.

“Dr Gerry said she was very impressed with how serious I took my passion for pageants and would love if I could be a part of her team that was working to build the Miss National American Teen and Collegiate Competition to make it bigger.

“She then extended a verbal invitation for me to sing and judge in this year’s competition which was later formalised. But I explained to her why I could not do both at the same time and asked her to choose one.

“She decided that she would prefer to host me as a judge because they needed persons who were as passionate, experienced and outstanding as myself,” said Brown. The rest is history.

Gerry is expected to visit Jamaica in December with the 2019 Miss National American Teen. She has been invited to attend the coronation of Miss Teen St Thomas 2019.