Davina Bennett took our breaths away when she took part in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant.
The Jamaican beauty made it to the final three and viewers fell in love with her natural fro and sent the internet into a tizzy. She recently sat down with Vibe to speak about self-love and being natural.
Here are a few of our favorite quotes.
On Cyberbullying:
“I think people overall have a tendency when you’re moving forward or you’re moving upwards, they tend to believe that they need to pull you down. I became a victim of that, where I was propelling forward and people thought as I shouldn’t. Or I’m moving too quickly for my age. I would get a lot of backlash and people would lambast me differently. I have to say I have my down moments. As I said, when you have good people around you to keep motivating you and supporting you then it’s easier to pick yourself back up.”
On Being Natural:
“Yeah, I’ve had natural hair up to about the eighth grade. I was like, I can’t deal with it no more. It’s too thick. I was in high school and Mommy is still [doing] my hair in three [plaits] and everybody was laughing at me. I was like I need to grow up. I can’t keep having bubbles and stuff in my hair going into high school. I was like I need to get long straight hair. At the time, I always wanted to be a model and there wasn’t much representation in magazines that looked like me. I wanted to look like the girls with straight hair. So that’s what really made me think that would make me look more beautiful. My mother was resistant of me doing it. But I was like no, “I want to do it. I want to look pretty.” She’s like, “All right, ‘gwan damage your hair. Do what you want to do. After a while you will realize.” And I have come to the realization. You really don’t need to do anything to embrace your to be beautiful. I’m really proud of the decisions that I’ve made today because I can see that it has made a very big impact in the world today.”
Speaking to Her 10-year-old self:
“Just be you. Be confident. Everything is going to be ok. As a 10-year-old, I have to say I overthought a lot. I didn’t have a very high self-esteem. I never thought I was beautiful. I never thought I was good at anything. I always thought I wasn’t going to reach anywhere. I would just tell myself to just relax. It’s all going to fall into play.”
Click here to read the entire interview on Vibe.com.
