(Seychelles News Agency) - A former winner of the Seychelles Miss Regatta beauty pageant has started a beauty academy aimed at bringing more self-development and positivity among the youth.  

Stephanie Duval, 33, who won the Regatta pageant in 2007, has set up Liv Beauty Academy to prepare aspiring models for the various opportunities the world offers.

"Liv Beauty Academy is a coaching platform, with the purpose of offering training within the realm of self-development, beauty pageants and modelling," Duval told SNA.

She said that her classes are also open to non-Seychellois citizens and since she started "it has been very interesting. I even got the chance to travel to Mauritius last year to train contestants from the Indian Ocean and two of them even went on to win modelling competitions in Mauritius."

Duval, who also represented Seychelles at the 2016 Miss Universe Petite in the United States, was voted Miss Personality during the 2014 Miss Seychelles Pageant.

Duval represented Seychelles at the 2016 Miss Universe Petite in the United States. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

She added that her packages are tailor-made to the individual and group's interest and range from the catwalk, speaking, competition strategies and styling, among others.

"The beauty pageant is a passion of mine and it made sense to pursue it as I had been coaching for free for the last five years. As for modelling, it becomes more apparent that models were not being trained and hence cannot secure paid gigs, where most of them work for free, even if they are providing services to big organisations and so I wanted to help with that," added Duval.

She said that what she offers is not only for models and pageant contestants, but anyone who wants to further their self-development can also take the classes. People who are interested can contact Duval through Liv Beauty Academy on Instagram.

Duval, who is also involved in sports and the media, has facilitated a number of workshops in the past.

She also founded Beauty Empowerment Seychelles (BES) and has organised a number of local pageants, such as Miss Seychelles Pageant and Miss Seychelles Plus.