Take Up Space: Zozibini Thunzi Becomes Miss Universe 2019

The red dust of the rolling hills of Tsolo in Sidwadweni, Eastern Cape, is not just soil to me; it is the geography where I learned that knowledge is the only currency that truly appreciates in value. "Take Up Space" is the unflinching chronicle of my journey from that quiet, studious girl in a small village to a global leader, mapping a path that was never paved with luck, but built with tactical precision and unwavering conviction.

This is not a traditional beauty memoir. It is a campaign.

The narrative begins in the shadows of the Eastern Cape, where my family taught me that if the world doesn't provide a door, you are expected to build your own. After moving to Cape Town to pursue my studies and career, I began to see the "industry of beauty" through a professional lens—not as a pageant contestant seeking validation, but as a strategist looking for a platform.

The climb was methodical. I recount the early, vital victory at Miss Mamelodi Sundowns, which served as my initial proving ground. I move through the brutal, necessary lesson of the 2017 Miss South Africa pageant, where a semifinal finish was not a defeat, but a data point—an analysis of what it truly takes to command a stage. Readers are taken behind the scenes into the "War Room," a cramped university dorm where my "Room 304 Management" and I engineered a movement that redefined what a pageant queen could be.

In 2019, I returned to the Miss South Africa stage not as a girl hoping to be chosen, but as a woman with a mandate. Winning the crown was the catalyst; it was the moment the "contestant" disappeared and the "representative" emerged.

Finally, I take the reader to the blinding, electric lights of the Miss Universe stage in Atlanta. This is the culmination of years of deliberate, intellectual labor—the moment I walked onto the global stage with natural hair, dark skin, and a voice that demanded to be heard.

Take Up Space is a blueprint for anyone who has ever been told they don't fit the mold. It is the story of how a girl from Tsolo transformed the landscape of the auditorium, inviting the entire world to sit at her table. The library is open, and the work has only just begun.