Miss Teen Africa

Miss Teen Africa is an annual international beauty and cultural pageant for young women aged 14 to 19 of African origin. Established in the United Kingdom, the pageant was created to provide a platform for African teenagers in the diaspora to celebrate and promote African culture, identity, and youth empowerment. It is regarded as one of the first pageant platforms of its kind dedicated specifically to African teens in the UK diaspora.

In 2018, the organisation entered a two year developmental hiatus to establish an international franchise structure. This expansion model enabled participating countries outside the United Kingdom to organise national competitions and select official delegates. By 2020, the Miss Teen Africa franchise had expanded to more than 15 African countries, including Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa.

In the 2025 edition, the pageant introduced the PreTeen Africa category for the first time, broadening its platform to include younger participants. Moso Ditirwa^[1] of Botswana became the inaugural PreTeen Africa titleholder. The same year, Leyla Shongwe^[1] was crowned Miss Teen Africa 2025 in South Africa.

Miss Teen Africa (MTA) was founded in 2014 in the UK by Yomi Adegoke as a result of the need to promote African culture in the diaspora and to seek opportunities for young women of African Heritage worldwide.

In 2015, the maiden edition of MTA was launched and was won by Monique Narh^[2] who represented Ghana with other 15 delegates from around the UK. With the success of the first event which was sold out, the show began to attract many more contestant and prominent names in the media, entertainment as well as dignitaries from the UK and African Government.

In 2016, the title of Miss Teen Africa UK was passed on to Sangwani Harawa^[3] from Malawi and 2017 saw the rise of Amirah Akpan^[4] who became the first Nigerian to win the title.

In 2018, the pageant did not hold due to increased demands from contestants and stakeholders all over Africa. And in 2019 the organisation announced the launch of its first-ever franchise that will give more countries the opportunity to send their representative to compete at the grand finale. And in 2020 the pageant was officially postponed to 2021 in line with the WHO health and safety protocol to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020 the first ever Miss Teen Africa Zambia^[5] was held in Lusaka under the Miss Teen Africa franchise and Mwaka Halwindii was crowned the first Queen selected to represent Zambia. So far the Miss Teen Africa franchise is now in over 15 countries including Uganda, Nigeria, Namibia, Botswana^[6] and Zambia^[7]

The competition consists of introduction round, national costume, sport wear, question answer round, and evening gown.

The Miss Teen Africa Foundation is a non-profit organisation which serves as the charity arm of the Miss Teen Africa pageant.^[8] The Foundation was established in 2017 in order to further empower more women and enable the Miss Teen Africa titleholders to act as goodwill ambassador.

• www.missteenafrica.com