by Sudarshan Chhotoray
In 2024, she appeared before the national stage amidst glaring lights competing with the teens with a rare confidence blended with a mystic smile, and thus Lavanya Das, who only a weeks before was just a pretty girl next door, became the country’s most beautiful teen-age beauty icon. Indeed, a surprise for her family, neighborhood, perhaps causing an element envy that a new star is from Odisha is now be shinning on the global stage.
This winsome pretty Girl of Bhubaneshwar, just 19, is a rare blending of brain with beauty. Apart from being a student of architect in the prestigious Kalinga Institute of Technology (KIT), she had already won a number of competitions, beauty pageants in India, before being finally groomed to participate and win the Miss Teen Icon International Pageant 2025, an international event scheduled on 18-26th May this year onwards at Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Lavanya, a much-more confidant for her age, is no stranger to the various including the Miss Teen Icon India crown, which she had wrested in 2024 amidst the fierce competition in New Delhi. In her mysterious smiling and attractive feature, she is keen to continue her studies having a desire to become a noted architect.
If a beauty pageant is a recognition of the nature’s bliss, for her the architecture is not just mortars or the construction blended with glass and steel, but a living space, where life blossoms. It is often stated that a beauty is not just vital statistics, but a blending of life with our physical existence. It was reasserted, when she was seen feeling at home with the young children leading a tough life with their parents facing poor eyesight or complete blindness. The existence of such children might not have been noticed in the majestic offices of the state capital, but Lavanya’s visit to the slum, where the children of the blind live in abject poverty, perhaps, might trigger the conscience of the power-that-be in Bhubaneshwar.
Lavanya’s visit to the slum in the state capital on Monday, 5 May, this year, has not only brought unprecedented joy among the children who have always been feeling ignored in the city, her visit is also expected to receive attention from the high and mighty of the state capital.
Beauty with a Mission- Lavanya is being groomed now in New Delhi by an organization, Glamanand, which is known for its expertise in blending the physical beauty with the much-needed humane face and social commitment. Her admirers are confident and she, indeed, is hopeful, to win the crown of the Teen Icon International in Cambodia, a land of the most beautiful women in Asia. She has already done very hard work, as well as adhering to the routine discipline of preparing for such a highly competitive international a beauty pageant.
Lavanya told this author that “Apart from undergoing tough training for personal grooming, communication skills, styling, outfits and catwalk since last six weeks in Delhi, I am reinventing the latent humane face of a young woman”. According to her, my participation in such events further strengthens my commitment to architecture, which cannot be evolved without having a humane element.
Further, she added that at least anyone seeking to participant in such an event has to undergo a six-month of hectic preparations. The task becomes much more challenging, when a participant has to keep pace with her studies while preparing to participate in any National or International beauty pageant.
According to the industry insiders the forthcoming this pageant in Cambodia is stated to be a tough International event. Lavanya has to face teen beauties across the continents. They too are preparing like a tigress to claim the crown.
In recent years, Bhubaneshwar has emerged as a fashion hub as well as the pretty girls have become much more aspiring than we have had a decade ago.
