 What's up everybody? Welcome to SPM Buzz. My good name is Miss Kethingi. Today on Buzz it starts I'm hanging out with a beauty queen but before I introduce her guys make sure you subscribe to SPM Buzz. We are heading to 200k subscribers and I mean just bless us with that subscription. Now I'm hanging out with a newly crowned Miss USA Kenya. Hi. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you? I'm doing great. Good to see you. How do you feel? You know just being a newly crowned queen? I definitely feel nervous. It's a lot of responsibility but I am definitely ready for whatever comes. Yeah and I'm super excited. Oh nice. Now I know you started modeling a while back. Did it ever you know hit you or did you actually have an agenda or a goal to become Miss Kenya USA? I did. I did not at first but I did meet this girl at Africa Fashion Week Seattle one time and she told me about Miss Kenya USA and I was like oh wow that looks really interesting so I told her you know when the what's it called the application is open please let me know and she did and I definitely applied. I think I was one of the first people to apply. Yeah so I was really excited for it but yeah I did not think I would win. Yeah at first I really did not think I would win but it took a lot of preparation. Yes but no no let me ask you because there are those few aspects that you are looking at you're like hmm I might not take this one home what are those aspects and is there something that you had to work on to probably get there? Yes there was the talent section so I was a bit nervous because I was first I wanted to sing but I had not sang in almost two years so I didn't want to choose that as my talent so I had to work for it I had to do a poem so I had to get some help from my friends and be like hey guys like you know I need help with this I do not know what I'm gonna do but luckily they helped me out and got it figured out but I also wanted to include my modelling into it so yeah and it went pretty great so far so yeah yeah I'm glad. Now you know people are asking themselves how did you get to the US at what point did you go there what did you go to do there I know you grew up in Embo but at some point that's when you left to the US please tell us how did you get there. So my mum actually ended up getting married and that's how we ended up going over there at first my mum was a bit hesitant about us going but she went there first to see how everything was and then she came back for us yeah. At what age were you then? I was 11 yeah. How long ago? That was about eight nine years ago yes yeah so. So I'm not sure if at the age of 11 you really experienced the culture shock did you and how was it? I did experience it it was very hectic for starters because when I moved over there I went to an all-white school yeah so I was the only black girl yes um I think there was it was not a big school but maybe 500 yes yeah so I was the only black girl it was very scary but how was the reception when you know you started school there? So actually a lot of people wanted to talk to me because they were like oh this is someone you know from a new place so they wanted to ask me like hey how's Africa how's Kenya? At first they thought that you know we have lions walking around everywhere and I used to tell them like no that's not how Kenya is I mean some parts that's how it is but not everywhere yeah and I had to kind of explain to them that yeah you know we have actually have buildings yeah they did not believe me they did not believe me yeah I actually had to show them photos and everything but other than that I experienced a little bit of bullying just because obviously I was the only black girl there although I thought about it I thought about you know hey yes I may be different but you know it's okay it's okay to be different it's okay to teach people that hey yes I'm you know I may look a bit different but I'm still a human being so treat me as such yeah but I try to avoid it a little bit in some cases but in some cases I was just like you know hey guys like no that's not right that's not what you do yeah wow yeah how was the conversation now with your mama at that time because I'm sure you'd go home and tell her you know what is going on what would she tell you so at the first three months I actually my mom had to come back to Kenya from Dubai while we were heading over there she had to come back to Kenya so I flew from Dubai to America by myself so I was there for three months alone yes I was alone for three months so during that time with school um I would not be able to talk to my mom on the phone so I would just talk to my stepdad and be like hey you know people are having people are treating me so differently what should I do at first I feel like he did not feel he did not know how to kind of navigate around that but um I kind of had to do it by myself in a way so I had to grow up really fast yeah yeah I get it now let's talk about you know you've been there what is one thing you miss the most about Kenya like I say the food definitely I miss the food I miss the fries because they taste a lot different here I feel like they taste better other than that I miss my family yeah because when we left Kenya um it was only my mom and my sister and I and we had to live there for multiple years for about two years without seeing any family so it was really difficult coming from a place that I'm surrounded by family I'm surrounded by you know friends um what's it called extended family as well it was really difficult to navigate around that but um I definitely miss them and let's see what else um other than the food family my friends yes it was hard to make friends at first yeah yeah but you know also some people really wanted to know you know Kenya and everything but some of them were not too accepting of that so it was difficult to navigate around friendships but I eventually no look at you now now let's talk about you know the career that you took um modeling because I see you've always had passion in this what is the biggest stage you'd say you've been so far I would say the biggest stage would be Miss Kenya USA and also LA Fashion Week first of all yeah those are the two biggest stages I have been yeah getting this crown that you have today what is going to change definitely um bringing awareness to my platform which is mental health with an emphasis on special needs so bringing awareness to people with disabilities um showing Kenyans that you know it's okay don't treat someone who has a disability differently treat them like as a human being like it's okay just because they have that disability does not mean that they're to be shunned away you know from society and things like that yeah I know this initiative is very close to your heart because you have a sister who has a condition how is your relationship with her and especially now because you know you aspire to dismantle and inspire people in that direction my relationship with her is phenomenal I would say um actually she lost her speech when she was about three and a half years old she was about to be actually it was three weeks before her fourth birthday so it was very difficult because I mean she was my little sister we used to laugh together play together you know she was a little bit of a bully though but she was super sweet at times but after her losing her speech it was very difficult it was in a way kind of meeting a new person um and kind of learning how she is you know it was very difficult because I did not understand I was so young my mom didn't explain everything to me because I mean I was very very soft so if anything if someone was to tell me like hey someone died I would literally cry for months and months but um for her it was very disartening um it broke my heart I would say because it was like losing my best friend but she was there she was there but it's like she wasn't her in a way so it was it was hard let's say but I have over the years I have learned to you know understand her interact with her in other ways she uses an iPad actually to communicate because she cannot do sign language so I mean I think that would be something that would be really cool to even integrate in the school systems here because I don't think some of them have have that most especially in those special needs schools I don't think they do so yeah being someone who has dealt you know with um a person who is close to you with this condition or disability rather what are some of the special cares that you'd probably point out that you feel they need probably someone who is watching can you know use them to their family members who are probably in the same situation um the special things that I would I would say for starters patients yes it requires a lot of patience um sometimes you would definitely feel like you're so irritated like you know this the child is not doing the something that you want them to do um and you will feel frustrated you will feel very frustrated but I would say a lot of patience and a lot um a good team behind you support system um one thing I would say my mom was really strong really really strong to have our family behind her you know but other than patience I would say just love it takes a lot of love it takes a lot of love to give out to children with special needs persons with disabilities as well it really does but if you if you're open minded as well um it's something that you know would really help out yeah yeah it definitely would yes what is the biggest lesson you've learnt from your parents that you know you apply in life today um a biggest lesson that I have learnt from my mother um definitely gratitude yes a lot of gratitude for each opportunity for my sister I mean if it weren't for her I most likely would have never competed for Miss Kenya USA or even taken my modeling so seriously um because of her I really took it really took it to heart to push on that you know to go for it and be like hey I need to get to a space where I need to be able to speak about uh special needs and mental health because a lot of people suffer you know from it and most especially in Kenya it's it's a topic that's kind of a taboo yeah um and from our experiences here as well it was it was pretty hard yeah okay now we are of course looking forward to seeing what you're going to do on this project and of course we're there to support you as well thank you so much for talking to us what are we expecting to see now that you're in Kenya for the next couple of weeks what are we expecting to see from you so in the next couple of weeks I do have other interviews um I'll be on 10 of 10 on Friday so that would be cool um also I will be I will be going to the organizations that I'm working with and actually experience it first hand see what they need um and I actually do have a GoFundMe page as well um it will be up and running by this evening yes um just needs a little bit of technical difficulties but yeah we'll get that fixed yeah it will be live yeah it will be on my Instagram page yes right please tell you know our people where they should find you on social media um so on social media you can find me on Instagram Shalene Kage Reki um and on Facebook you can also find me there Shalene Kage Reki as well and TikTok Shasha Kage yes all right thank you so much uh for talking to us and making time to come through and you know just uh uh celebrating with you your milestone of being a beauty queen congratulations once again thank you all right guys that is Shalene Kage Reki the newly crowned Miss Kenya USA right here on buzz it stars thank you so much for watching until next time my good name is miss kifingi kipira spm bhai