Iana Tickle Garcia makes her mark

WHEN Iana Tickle Garcia decided to enter her first pageant at 18 years old, she did so only because she wanted to leave her comfort zone and improve her interpersonal skills before starting university. She did not anticipate that within a year of entering Miss Montego Bay she would have been completely re-routed to a path to self-discovery, philanthropy, international popularity, and yes, the ‘Annie Palmer costume’ controversy.

But it did, the reigning Miss Jamaica Universe, now 19, shared with All Woman candidly about her journey over the last two years.

“I was never a pageant girl. Anyone who knows me from before Miss Universe Jamaica would tell you that I hated the spotlight. I hated the stage lights. My hair was always a mess. My uniform never looked too proper,” she laughed. “When I was much younger I wanted to be so many different things — a singer, artist, nurse… at one point I felt as if I wanted to be a spy or a race car driver. I liked adventure!”

But as she entered high school, Tickle Garcia got serious about a career and decided that she was going to stick to it. It was law.

“I started doing martial arts and my martial arts instructor was a lawyer. Every week after martial arts I would stay back and he would teach me law, in a very informal class setting. I was serious about the law thing,” she recalled.

She was so serious about it that when most of her grade nine peers at Mount Alvernia High were considering what subjects they would sit in CSEC, Tickle Garcia sat the CAPE law exam and passed. It wasn’t until last year when she was considering her options for tertiary studies that she was forced to do some soul-searching.

“Although I had got into the law programme at The University of the West Indies (UWI), I decided to apply to some international universities as well, because I thought, ‘Why not?’ But international universities require that you write why you want to do the programme and why they should accept you. It was as I was trying to write that piece that I realised that I didn’t actually know why I wanted to study law. I was just stubborn and persistent.”

She went as far as to attend the orientation for the law programme at The UWI just a few days before she was crowned Miss Jamaica Universe, and that’s where it was cemented that law was not what she wanted to do. She decided to take a gap year to carefully consider her options. And what a year it has been so far!

“It has been a life-changing experience to say the least,” she said of her reign as Miss Jamaica Universe. “It’s been just seven months now, but it feels like years have passed. I have changed so much and so much has happened in such a short time. I feel really happy when I look back and I see the change in the person I am and who I’ve become and what I’ve been able to achieve.”

Tickle Garcia rode the magic carpet blissfully into a whole new world that was opened up to her as a national representative, until the skies became clouded by controversy surrounding the national costume that was selected for her to wear in the Miss Universe pageant. The outrage at the costume, which paid homage to the legend of Annie Palmer — the White Witch of Rose Hall — was only quelled when days later, Jamaica’s Toni-Ann Singh was crowned Miss World.

Tickle Garcia returned home without placing in Miss Universe, but readier than ever to serve her country.

“Even though people might look at me not placing in Miss Universe as a failure, they fail to realise that competing in Miss Universe is not the only thing that Miss Jamaica Universe is here for,” she pointed out. “I am doing other things and I am trying to make an impact in the best way possible. One failure does not compare to the many successes that I am achieving, and will achieve. I am one single individual but I have the power to do a lot.”

And indeed she does.

The teen queen has focused her efforts on creating a cleaner Jamaica, starting with her Montego Bay hometown. Her initiative ‘I Recycle. What’s your superpower?’ was launched at the end of 2019, and so far it has been active in four schools and two business places in MoBay. She plans to extend this project to the rest of the country.

“This really started with my sister Yaderia Davis who was always interested in the environment,” she shared. “She got my entire family to be more eco-conscious. I saw how passionate she was about the environment and from her I learned the importance of caring for the world. I am passionate about taking care of what we have and making sure there is a future.”

Tickle Garcia, though still not sure of a specific career that she wants to pursue, has found a programme of study that better suits her interests and personality.

“After speaking with an academic advisor, the cultural and creative industries is where my heart is right now and I’m really looking forward to it,” she gushed.

It comes as no surprise that Tickle Garcia, who grew up with the influences of her Cuban mother, Swiss-born German-British father, and rich St Elizabeth and Montego Bay creole, has an innate love for cultures and languages. Thanks to her childhood neighbour, who is now deceased, Tickle Garcia also has a deep appreciation for finer artistic expression.

“An elderly woman, Ann Mills, lived next to me and I would go to her every Sunday for about three hours, and she would teach me certain things,” she recalled affectionately. “She would teach me how to garden, sew, embroidery, crochet. I stopped crocheting for a while, but I took it back up because I didn’t want it to be something that died with her.”

In her spare time, Tickle Garcia still does some sewing, crocheting, knitting and macramé, but no hobby comes close to catching up on her beauty sleep.

As she looks forward to her 20s and beyond, Tickle Garcia knows better than to have specific expectations as to what the years will bring. Instead, she focuses on the kind of person that she wants to be.

“I’m not minimising anything. I’m trying to maximise and capitalise on every single thing,” she said boldly. “I have a solid foundation and I’m just building on it. I don’t exactly know what I want to do, but I want to travel, learn more languages, and possibly represent Jamaica in yet another way.”

As she reflects on her Miss Jamaica Universe journey so far, she does not see the costume controversy as a boulder to crush her spirit, but another jewel in her crown.

“I’m pretty sure a lot of people will remember me by that, but I have done so much good, and I am still trying to contribute so much,” she said. “Remember me as someone who stuck by her initiative, her passion, and her platform. Even when my reign ends, I want to be remembered as someone who did not let my journey end when I gave up my crown. Someone who continues…”