Confidence is not a crown you are given. It is a skill you build.
Empowering young women to find their voice, know their value and take their place in the room.
Crown Confidence
From a personal journey to a collective movement.
Crown Confidence is a youth empowerment initiative founded by Ayanda G. Thabethe, created to equip young women with the confidence, communication skills and self-belief they need to navigate opportunities and build the future they envision for themselves. The initiative was born from Ayanda’s own journey.
From pursuing her dream of becoming Miss South Africa, to becoming Miss South Africa First Runner-Up in 2022, representing South Africa internationally at Miss Supranational, building a career in television and presenting, and stepping into the worlds of hosting, public speaking, content creation and entrepreneurship - Ayanda has experienced first-hand how much confidence, communication and self-belief can influence the opportunities available to you.
But she has also learned that confidence is rarely something that simply arrives. It is built through experience. Through preparation. Through being given the opportunity to speak. Through making mistakes and trying again. Through learning to walk into a room and believe that you belong there. Crown Confidence takes those lessons from Ayanda’s journey and transforms them into practical, accessible experiences for young women beyond the spotlight.
Through workshops, conversations, mentorship and interactive activities, the initiative creates spaces where girls can develop their voices, understand their value, strengthen their communication skills and begin to see themselves as capable of occupying spaces they may once have considered out of reach.
The focus extends beyond traditional ideas of confidence. Crown Confidence explores self-worth, public speaking, personal presentation, self-advocacy, leadership, career readiness, goal-setting and personal development - equipping young women with tools they can carry into classrooms, interviews, boardrooms, businesses and every space in between. Because confidence should not be something you are simply expected to have. It is something you can learn. Practise. Strengthen. And use. And when one young woman finds the confidence to use her voice, she creates the possibility for another to find hers too.
Our purpose
To help her see herself differently.
Purpose
Confidence, communication and self-belief
- Confidence
- Communication
- Self-advocacy
- Presentation
- Career readiness
Who we serve
Young women and girls
Crown Confidence is primarily designed for young women and girls navigating formative stages of their lives, particularly those preparing to enter new educational, professional and social environments.
The Crown Confidence framework
Practical tools for confidence and career readiness
Programme
Workshops
Interactive workshops designed to give young women practical confidence and communication tools they can immediately apply.
Programme
Conversations
Crown Confidence Conversations create intimate spaces where young women can hear honest stories from women who have navigated uncertainty, rejection, ambition, career-building and personal growth.
Programme
Partnerships
Crown Confidence is designed to partner with organisations that believe in the potential of young women.
Miss Cosmo South Africa 2026
Making visibility count
Today, Crown Confidence forms a central part of Ayanda’s platform as Miss Cosmo South Africa 2026, connecting her international visibility with her long-standing commitment to empowering young women.
Through Crown Confidence, Ayanda creates spaces where young women can build confidence, strengthen their communication skills, recognise their value and learn to use their voices. Through her involvement in Sustain Her, an established initiative led by the University of Johannesburg and Love Our City, that purpose extends into tangible community impact - addressing period poverty and textile waste while bringing Crown Confidence’s focus on empowerment and personal development into the experience.
Together, Miss Cosmo, Crown Confidence and Sustain Her represent three connected parts of the same vision: visibility, empowerment and action. Miss Cosmo provides the platform and reach to shine a light on important issues. Crown Confidence equips young women with the confidence and tools to navigate them. Sustain Her turns that purpose into practical support for girls and communities who need it. The goal is not simply to create girls who perform confidence for a moment. It is to help develop young women who genuinely possess it - and feel equipped to use their voices, pursue opportunity and shape their own futures.
Ayanda G. Thabethe
Founder, Crown Confidence
Crown Confidence & partners
Empowerment in action
Founded in 2025
Partnership with Love Our City
Social impact partner
Social impact partner
Get involved