Catching Up With Michelle

The last time you saw one of Namibia’s most celebrated women was most likely at the recent Miss Namibia pageant where she hosted the sparkly eventwhich was attended by many of her counterparts from previous years.

I was privileged enough to meet the ageless Michelle McLean-Bailey at her temporary residence at a Windhoek hotel last weekend. Looking cool and sporting quintessenntial safari chic clothes, complete with a cowboy hat, McLean-Bailey was a sight for sore eyes as she welcomed me on the terrace where she was having breakfast.

We met up right before she was due to drive to the airport to pick up a few university students from the USA whom she brought to Namibia on a cultural exchange in order to share ideas with Namibian people.

They are leadership students from Miami of the Nyah Project, a USA non-profit in partnership with the Michelle McLean Children Trust.

They will be traveling around the country from Okonjima Nature Reserve to Swakop visiting schools, especially the Michelle McLean Children Trust.

McLean-Bailey will also be visiting the Queen of Oukwanyama with the non-profit Inspire Transformation, also a USA nonprofit in partnership with the MMCT, to train community leaders in gender-based violence.

Kicking off our casual chat, McLean-Bailey tells me about her latest work with Rotary International in collaboration with The Down Town Boca Raton Rotary Club in Florida and The Michelle McLean Children Trust with Namibian Rotary clubs.

This collaboration is aimed at ultimately raising funds for a few projects in Namibia. “There’s a pre-school at Aries that we’re going to help with equipment – the visually impaired. We’re going to help them with Braille machines which are very expensive and then with Michelle McLean Primary school, we’re going to do a library,” she says.

A former beauty queen who has continued to rebrand herself throughout the years, McLean-Bailey went from TV presenting on M-Net between 1995 and 2003 to creating a whole new brand that’s characterised mainly by her philantrophic endeavours as well as her passion for motivating others. “I do women’s functions and conferences, and my husband and I do corporates,” she says of the main groups that she works with.

At the moment, she is interested in giving talks that are meant to help people of all ages and backgrounds deal with stress. “Our talk is about five principles. It’s very easy to do in your life, it doesn’t take up much of your time and it sounds really silly because it’s so simple,” she says. These principles are: gratitude, reframing a situation, looking after your diet, articulating the right words to yourself and to others as well as teamwork.”

McLean-Bailey has been living with her husband, sports personality and former Manchester United footballer Gary Bailey in Miami, Florida for over three years now. “The prerequisite to moving there was that I could come back to Namibia at least twice a year,” she says, adding that their new home is “the best of both worlds”.

Apart from working hard, the couple make sure to incorporate balance by enjoying some leisurely time on the beautiful Florida beaches. “We have got some of the most beautiful beaches in Florida. We swim. There’s a lot to do in Florida. Lots of concerts. My husband and I went to a Pink Floyd concert a few days ago,” she shares.

For younger women who want to use the Miss Namibia platform to do bigger, better things in their lives and careers, McLean-Bailey advises there’s much more to pageants than beauty. “Gone are the days of beauty queens being just ornaments and reflecting beauty, I think there’s more to it.”

McLean-Bailey recently reunited with former Miss Universe 1992 contestants who participated with her at the pageant where she ultimately walked away with the crown.

“They’re all accomplished, they’ve done amazing things in their lives,” she says of the group. Looking back, she admits that having access to the powerful medium of social media would have taken her even further in her work with both titles. “I could have leveraged much more for Michelle McLean Children Trust,” she says while adding that the current crop of Miss Namibia winners have a good understanding of social media and its power.

She hopes for the current Miss Namibia title holder to use this to her advantage. “I really hope that she understands the power of social media. She’s a lovely lady, she’s going to be a fantastic role model and I really think she’s going to go very far.”

Throughout our interview, McLean-Bailey makes numerous statements about women’s empowerment and the need to arm all women with the realisation that they can do anything they put their minds to.

She has nothing but good words about former Miss Namibia title holders whom she met at the recent crowning ceremony in Windhoek.

She calls her relationship with fellow predecessors “a sisterhood”, something that she’s also proud to share with many former Miss Universe title holders.

“The power that women have collectively, if we really put our minds and hearts together, we can do so much, the sisterhood is wonderful.

That’s why I love doing women’s conferences and seeing likeminded women doing incredible things,” she says.

Together with her husband, their motivational talk ‘Success Under Pressure’ is aimed at helping people deal with pressure and stress.

For the women especially she says, the need to go from being oppressed, to being “a woman who can change the world” is a message that she wishes to share with as many women as she possibly can.

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