Will Thomas’s beauty in scars movement take Botswana forward?
Sharon Mathala | Monday October 6, 2025 06:00
At the Miss World stage, every queen must present a Beauty With a Purpose project (BWP), alongside the gowns and the catwalk. The initiative has evolved into a pivotal aspect of the competition, often playing a crucial role in determining the top 10 finalists.
Thomas unveiled her project last week, titled ‘The Beauty Movement’, under the slogan ‘Wonderfully and fearfully made’. According to Botswana’s fairest, this is a campaign that seeks to redefine beauty, restore dignity, and build confidence among women.
Her background as a professional beauty advisor gave her a close-up view of the silent struggles many women face. The way unrealistic standards and unspoken pressures erode self-esteem, leaving most people feeling inadequate and unworthy.
For Thomas, the experiences made the case for a nationwide conversation. She insists that beauty is not a rigid standard, but a personal choice rooted in self-love and acceptance, and that differences, whether scars, burns, or vitiligo, are not flaws but freedoms.
The project, ambitious in its design, intends to marry mental well-being with livelihood creation. Through community engagements starting in Hatsalatladi village, it will blend counselling and confidence workshops with practical training in sewing, basket weaving, and baking.
The choice of Hatsalatladi, a village that has endured its own scars through devastating land disasters, is symbolically deliberate and ties the narrative of healing to the project.
Beyond the grassroots, the Beauty Movement also pledges to take on the digital world with plans for a social media watch platform that will confront cyberbullying and beauty-based abuse.
It all sounds promising, but as Botswana knows too well, the promise of BWP projects has not always translated into lasting impact. Recent queens have each announced initiatives that captured attention briefly but struggled to achieve depth or longevity. Anicia Gaothusi, Miss Botswana 2024/2025, launched ‘Lights’, which aimed to promote first aid training across communities. Before her, Lesego Chombo rolled out ‘The Genesis Project’, which set out to support underprivileged children through development programmes, medical checks, and educational support, and Palesa Molefhe’s project, ‘Le Ojwa le Sale Metsi’, focused on discipline and early childhood development. Each of these projects began with good intentions, but in time, their momentum faltered. The recurring question has been whether Miss Botswana and her team have the capacity, resources, and strategy to carry these projects beyond the launch pad and into sustained action.
This year, the team says they have engaged a private company called Project 124 to assist, but is this enough, looking at the project rollout so far? Miss World judges are not moved only by ideas; they look for execution, depth, and measurable impact. The projects that win at the global level are often deeply personal and exceptionally well run. Uganda’s Natasha Nyonyozi, for example, took home the Africa BWAP award this year for her advocacy around autism, inspired by her younger brother. Her project was specific, authentic, and visible.
Last year’s Miss World, Krystyna Pyszkova of the Czech Republic, won with an English school she founded for underprivileged children in Tanzania, a project she had been building long before she was crowned.
These examples point to a reality that Miss Botswana must reckon with: it is not enough to announce a project, it must live, breathe, and change lives in a way that can be documented, presented, and defended on the Miss World stage.
This is where Thomas and her team face their greatest test. The Beauty Movement is expansive, covering everything from mental health to cyberbullying to livelihood creation, but expansiveness can be a double-edged sword.
Without focus and sustained effort, it risks becoming a list of activities rather than a transformative movement. To stand a real chance, Thomas will need to ensure her project is not only wide but deeply anchored in communities, measured by numbers, and told through the stories of real people who have been changed by it. The narrative must be compelling, not just locally but in a way that resonates globally. But there is reason for optimism. Thomas is young, articulate, and grounded. She brings a lived professional experience that makes her message authentic. She has forged partnerships with organisations such as Ratong Centre and Project 124 Africa, which, if fully mobilised, could provide the sustainability that past projects lacked.
If she and the Miss Botswana organisation can translate their vision into visible, consistent action, Botswana may finally have a BWP project that not only inspires at home but commands respect abroad.
The challenge then is execution. The crown has given Ruth Thomas a platform, but it is the work of her activism that will decide whether her reign becomes a footnote in the long list of pageant queens or a turning point in Botswana’s Miss World journey. If her project can move beyond speeches and ceremonies, be lived in the lives of those who carry scars and stories, then Botswana might just find itself stepping up to a global stage with a story too powerful to ignore with the BWP and actually stands a chance for the top 10.