WA’s own Legally Blonde blazing trails with beauty, brains and girl power in the South West

Award-winning pageant queen, lawyer and mother Monique Sawyer has visited the South West and is on a mission to debunk myths about brains and beauty. Ms Sawyer has been invited to compete in the International Ms Pageant competition in Orlando Florida at the end of this month. The multi-faceted powerhouse stopped by some popular South West spots on her Statewide campaign in a bid to gather support from all corners of the State ahead of her representing WA in the international competition. She visited the gnomes at Gnomesville in the Ferguson Valley as well as the Donnybrook-Balingup region. “I think the biggest challenge is that pageantry is relatively new to Australia or Western Australia, so, for me, I think that puts me in a position where I am a representative of my pageant,” Ms Sawyer said. “That’s why I share a lot of my journey, especially on my social media, to help break that stigma of beauty and brains, and to also show what pageantry is about — that it’s not just all about the glitz and glam, it’s what we do to make a significant impact in our communities. “For example, I’m an ambassador for Fostering Hope Australia, a charity which supports children in foster care.” Ms Sawyer said pageantry was a family-friendly platform for women for to be celebrated for who they are. “I had competed earlier at a national pageant, and following that experience, I was invited to compete internationally at the International Ms Pageant,” she said “This event is a pageant that empowers and unites women from all over the world with other like-minded women. These women tend to be driven, career-minded and family-orientated. “All of that aligns with my values, which led to my decision to make the most of this opportunity to compete internationally and help raise awareness for causes that are important to me.” Ms Sawyer said she was asked to submit an empowerment plan as part of the competition, describing what she intends to do if she is crowned the winner. “Over the next year, I plan to share my story of triumph as a testament to resilience in the media to get a global reach,” she said. “I am also pledging to donate my prize money to Fostering Hope to help them with their first charity gala and use my title to build the Australian International Ms Sisterhood. “But ultimately, by winning International Ms, the true winners will always be the lives that are impacted by my body of work.” Ms Sawyer will compete in the pageant between August 29 and September 2.