SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

Geor­gia-Lee Gill won the Miss World Trinidad and To­ba­go 2025 (MWTT) ti­tle on De­cem­ber 7 and is prepar­ing to rep­re­sent this coun­try at the 73rd Miss World pageant lat­er this year.

If she wins, the 24-year-old will be T&T’s sec­ond Miss World, fol­low­ing the first, Giselle LaRonde-West, in 1986.

But for Gill, win­ning the crown and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent T&T on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage did not hap­pen by chance. She said she en­tered the lo­cal leg of the com­pe­ti­tion af­ter months of in­tro­spec­tion and deep thought.

The Miss World TT de­scribed 2025 as one that shaped her with pa­tience, re­silience, courage, and the gift of last­ing friend­ships. It al­so re­vealed hid­den strengths and served as a teacher, she said.

“It was a year of trans­for­ma­tion that car­ried me through lessons, jour­neys, truths, and sur­pris­es that pushed me to shed an old ver­sion of my­self and step bold­ly in­to a new vi­sion. I once wres­tled with how to make the change, but in­stead of wait­ing for an­swers, I chose to con­front my weak­ness­es head-on, turn­ing them in­to my great­est strengths,” Gill re­vealed.

“With in­ten­tion, courage, and re­silience, I be­came a mod­el, con­tent cre­ator, brand am­bas­sador, role mod­el, a woman with a pas­sion project, a del­e­gate, a dancer, an ad­vo­cate and a proud Miss World TT rep­re­sen­ta­tive.”

Gill said, de­spite not know­ing what the fu­ture holds, she’s ex­cit­ed for her jour­ney ahead, rep­re­sent­ing T&T on the glob­al stage, car­ry­ing the vigour, en­er­gy, pas­sion and fire of her home­land. “Here’s to be­ing bold, brave and un­stop­pable. I asked for growth, op­por­tu­ni­ties and love.”

Gill has al­ready par­tic­i­pat­ed in a se­ries of pageant-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties and has been putting her best foot for­ward. Among them, her neu­ro­log­i­cal well­ness Beau­ty with a Pur­pose (BWAP) project—Am­pli­fy­ing Aware­ness for De­men­tia and Alzheimer’s and Ho­n­our­ing Care­givers—which she be­gan last No­vem­ber. It’s one of the top five projects. For Gill, the project is deeply per­son­al.

“De­men­tia isn’t just a di­ag­no­sis, it’s a qui­et heart­break that re­shapes fam­i­lies. To every care­giv­er hold­ing mem­o­ries, love, and pain, I see you: You are not alone,” she said.

Gill said that through car­ing for her grand­moth­er, she lived the hard­ships and com­plex emo­tions that in­for­mal care­givers face. “One of my most dif­fi­cult mo­ments is know­ing your loved one may not even recog­nise you, some­times see­ing you as a stranger. Yet from this pain came pur­pose. My grand­moth­er in­spired the cre­ation of my foun­da­tion—PA Foun­da­tion—that’s ded­i­cat­ed to the evo­lu­tion, ed­u­ca­tion and em­pow­er­ment of care­givers and youth across T&T.

“I came to re­alise that many fam­i­lies pro­vide care with­out pro­fes­sion­al sup­port, car­ry­ing heavy men­tal, phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and fi­nan­cial strain all by them­selves, and ac­cess to trained pro­fes­sion­al care re­mains lim­it­ed, mak­ing the jour­ney even more chal­leng­ing.

“My grand­moth­er’s fad­ing mem­o­ry re­flect­ed my own men­tal health strug­gles with dis­as­so­ci­a­tion and loss of iden­ti­ty. But her jour­ney re­mind­ed me that even in loss, we can find pur­pose, and that’s the ba­sis of my foun­da­tion, which was es­tab­lished in her ho­n­our. It’s a jour­ney that trans­formed in­to a mis­sion of ed­u­ca­tion, evo­lu­tion and em­pow­er­ment.”

Gill as­sured care­givers, who she said may of­ten feel alone in their jour­ney bat­tling anx­i­ety, de­pres­sion, sad­ness and even guilt, that she’s pro­vid­ed a safe space with the foun­da­tion, lo­cat­ed at the Ari­ma NALIS Li­brary. She has part­nered with Dr Rachael Williams, Nurse Stephanie Sug­rim, Ma­ia Labastide and the Alzheimer’s As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T, Dr Krys­tal-Jane Ve­rasam­my, and Dr Rishi Ra­moutar to en­sure those in­ter­est­ed get all the re­sources they need.

“Our mem­o­ries are one of the great­est gifts that we hold. It ties us to our past, grounds us to the present, and lights the way to our fu­ture, but to lose our mem­o­ry is to lose pieces of our­selves, and I think it is some­thing to be cher­ished. My grand­moth­er, who lives with Alzheimer’s, would agree.”

Aside from putting in the work to start her foun­da­tion, Gill al­so found the time to learn to play the steel­pan. On Jan­u­ary 5, she strut­ted in­to the Mu­si­cal In­stru­ments of Trinidad & To­ba­go Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (MITTCO) lo­cat­ed in e-Teck Di­a­mond Vale Busi­ness Park, Diego Mar­tin, and met with its founder and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor, Akua Lei­th, who ex­plained the in­stru­ment and then in­tro­duced her to it. She held pan sticks for the first time and al­so learned a few notes. Lei­th said Gill’s coach­ing will con­tin­ue. “It was an in­cred­i­ble ex­pe­ri­ence and a priv­i­lege to have met MD Akua Lei­th,” said Gill. “(The) na­tion­al in­stru­ment brings the melodies of her­itage, cul­ture and con­nec­tions.”

The Ari­ma na­tive said she is best in her el­e­ment when sur­round­ed by green­ery and na­ture.

“I feel most com­fort­able and peace­ful.”

Gill holds a Dou­ble Ma­jor in Bi­ol­o­gy and Bio­chem­istry from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, and while she said it wasn’t an easy study, she stressed, “Life is full of ups and downs, tri­als and tribu­la­tions, but you must keep walk­ing with con­fi­dence, dig­ni­ty and poise, and keep your head up high.”

Gill, who said she aims to mo­ti­vate girls, said that when life gets tough, she holds on­to a cher­ished me­men­to which keeps her go­ing—her moth­er’s en­gage­ment dress. “I reach for that dress in mo­ments of chal­lenge or un­cer­tain­ty, be­cause it grounds me, re­minds me of where I came from and is a strength that sur­rounds me.”