Back to reality for beauty queen Tanya

Twenty-three-year-old Tanya Gomes says she hasn’t changed one bit since her entry into the Miss TT Universe contest back in 2001. She was then part of the 11 delegates that sought to represent us at the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico. But for many onlookers that night, Gomes was certainly unforgettable.

She represented the Woodbrook area, but was born in St James, “the city that never sleeps”, she claims proudly. “What happened was I represented the community that I worked in at the time,” she explained. “I’m on the entertainment committee at Island People on Tragarete Road, which is plenty, plenty work, but I enjoy it.” She resides in Belmont with her parents, brothers and sisters. Her mother runs a small shop in the area, and it’s not uncommon to see the young Gomes helping out from time to time. Recalling her pageant experience, she cites her mother as the “instigator”; had it not been for mom, TT would never have gotten to know her. “My mother said she would put me out if I didn’t go up!” Gomes laughed uproariously. “The thing is, Mummy was flipping through the paper and saw the ad and said, ‘Let us enter.’ I was like, ‘Us? What? There’s an us here?’ Then she said she would put me out of the house if I didn’t do it...I knew she had to be joking! I mean, oh gorm, she carried me for nine months and thing... but I realised it was her dream, really.

“She wanted to enter a competition herself when she was younger, but at that point in time she couldn’t do that, so I guess she saw it in me to possibly bring home the crown. (Mom was so upset that I didn’t make the final six, she walked out of the show and spent the rest of the evening at the poolside). But instead I brought home more attitude than ever! (Laughs) So you could say I did it for her, but I also did it for myself  too because I realised that I could actually learn something, even though I went into it kinda ‘lablash’.” Lablash or not, Gomes was selected from 123 hopefuls and got to parade before the country in a gown designed by Claudia Pegus. Incidentally, the gown has since been bought by a visitor to the island of Mustique, where it was on show. “I only heard about it the other day,” she said, happily. “I remember Claudia was telling me that for somebody to fit into it, they would have to be like a pin. Right now my weight is good at just 107 pounds, I’m trying not to cross 110.”

If you think that being a former pageant contestant has jaded her, think again. Gomes has made it a point of “keeping it real”, not changing her naturally boisterous and loquacious personality to suit anyone. Even in her youth as a primary school pupil at Mucurapo Girls RC to Belmont Junior Secondary and Corpus Christi College, Gomes sensed she was different.  “After college I decided I didn’t like school anymore. (Laughs) You had to go through that school phase to get your education, and when you do exams, you’re supposed to be done. I just wasn’t in a rush to go back to school, I’m not really a book person per se.

“I’m more of a funny, outrageous, adventurous and loud person... everything that does not consist of beauty queen material. (More laughter) I would have been the most boisterous, rebellious and miserable beauty queen ever... but I would be unique. “Being a beauty queen is hard work and maintenance and in true spirit, I can’t change for anyone, really. You see, pageants tend to change you, with all the adjustments you have to make; I’d probably do all the don’ts instead of the dos. “But it was an education, as I had the opportunity to learn from the best in the business, like Allyson Brown, who was our choreographer and Adrian Raymond, our delegate development co-ordinator. Really, they are two of the most challenging and intelligent persons you will ever come across.”

She may be out of the limelight in terms of competitions, but her face has been popping up here and there. Gomes was featured in the Peter C Lewis’ video for “Tay Lay Lay” a couple of years ago and she graced a Malta Carib billboard as well. However, she doesn’t miss the spotlight. When asked what she would do if she had the opportunity to enter another pageant, her answer was firm. “I don’t think so. Beauty pageants are not for me. Being a beauty queen takes a lot of discipline and patience... and taking a lot of b...s... and I don’t have patience for b...s... I won’t say it’s a pretensive business, because remember, you only have that title for a certain amount of time and people will remember you as ‘Miss x-y-z’, but then, what happens after? I did the show proving that I can do it and finish it, comparing it to military training. People remember me as I am, here, now. I even got a few marriage proposals along the way, but that’s not me. I would want someone who is romantic and can sweep me off my feet.

“Having a crown on my head to prove I’m beautiful and that yes, I’m going to represent Trinidad and Tobago and I’ll probably make it, is not for me. I can’t do it like that. If I had won, I’d probably be able to relate to it. I didn’t even place in the final six, so I don’t even know what that feels like. But being picked out of 123 alone made me feel damn good about myself. But I’m not beauty queen material. I’ll model, I’ll do ads and so, but I won’t go down that road again. I want to be able to dress ‘down’ in a pair of jeans and chill.”

At the moment, Gomes is busy working with her best friend on their new production company called Dice Entertainment Productions (Their slogan is “We’re on a Roll”). Their company is all about putting on events: they do the planning, co-ordinating, PR, advertising, selection of venues and more, taking the stress off the client. Within the next five to ten years she hopes that the company will have grown to full strength. Already, they have done two events in St Lucia, looking at a regional base, as the local market is already saturated. They worked with two Miami-based promoters (in St Lucia) in October and December last year; first with hip-hop artistes from Bad Boy entertainment and with Khia (My Neck, My Back) in December.

For the month of April they will return to St Lucia for another gig,  then to Antigua. For the summer they plan an international fashion show, featuring both local and international fashion designers, including ENYCE. Plans are to also have representatives from the New York-based Urban City Magazine, to cover the show. All in all, Gomes leads a pretty busy life. She did confess that there is someone special that she is close to and she would love to have at least three children someday. Still, she’s thankful for her pageant experience, because it taught her one thing in particular. “That I am already important,” she said with a grin. “I don’t regret the training and it’s something I learned a lot from and can carry from day to day. Even the little things, like learning to walk a little straighter (even though I still have my ‘boyish’ mentality). Plus in this life, you can’t be fussy, fussy every day. I have my days when I dress like a total scrub. When people see me in town, they’re shocked. “Some days it’s no make-up, the hair ain’t combed, the jeans ‘dutty’ and my mouth open big, big. You can’t really silence me, that’s how I am. I must tell everybody around me how I feel, but it’s all said with love.”