Is the tide turning for petite beauty contestants now that diminutive women like Karisa Sukamto (Singapore) and Tara Teng (Canada) have won their countries' respective Miss World crowns?

As an endorsement of Miss Sukamto's impressive performance and her hope to allow petite Singaporeans to compete internationally, Ms Beverly Tan has become the licence holder for Singapore's first pageant for petite women.

The first round of auditions for the Miss Dreamgirl Sg 2012 pageant was held last week and attracted about 20 hopefuls.

Ms Tan, a 30-year-old socialite and pageant investor who has been involved with Miss Singapore World and Mrs Singapore, told The New Paper: "I've witnessed many instances where very pretty local women were rejected at pageants because they didn't meet the height requirement.

"I want to to give them a chance to be in the limelight and to compete in an arena where apples are compared to apples."

Local women who want a shot at this crown have to be below 1.6m and weigh less than 50kg.

Auditions still open

Auditions are still open and the next session will be held at The Blarney restaurant at The Sail @Marina Bay on Sept 8 from 1pm to 7pm.

Contestants will have to go through an interview round and perform for a short talent segment.

The local finals will be held in November.

Ms Tan added that she has already spoken to other pageant organisers in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, and they are all on board and will be holding the pageant in their respective countries.

The winner of Miss Dreamgirl Sg 2012 - who will walk away with $10,000 worth of cash and prizes - and the other South-east Asian winners will compete internationally at one of the Petite World pageants next year.

Said Miss Tan: "Society is rapidly changing, and what I want is for women to have a role model they can identify with.

"More Asian women are on the petite side, so I hope they'll be happy for a pageant winner that they can finally relate to."

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