Rediscover Your Self-Confidence

​Author: Rolene Strauss
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
I found reading this book a good way to kick-start my New Year. I must admit at first I found the task of reading over 300 pages of a self-help book quite daunting but, as I read further, I got clarity. There’s no need to rush here. This is about you reawakening your true self, finding joy and fulfilment in a frenetic world. If you’re overwhelmed, anxious, riddled with self-doubts and guilt, Rolene Strauss’s  

Rediscover Your Self-confidence, in one way or another, will help you rediscover your essence and become self-assured.  I see her Seven Steps as essential building blocks to achieving success, whatever that maybe to you, and reaching your goals. I truly enjoyed the author’s way of writing, her personal story, her insights and the very practical advice she gives to the reader.  
Upon reading her journey my eyes were wide open to the reality that we all suffer from low self-esteem at some point/s in our lives. Even those women we hold in high regard, like the author of this book who is a former Miss World, do grapple with insecurities. I guess that’s what makes us human after all.  The tools and techniques she shares will go a long way in assisting you deal with uncertainties, and transform the negative mindset that’s ultimately detrimental to your well-being.
Rolene is a miracle baby, a test tube baby born in 1992 through a new in vitro technique. She grew up a happy child in the small-town of Volksrust in the corner of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. Her father is a doctor and her mother took the role of being a homemaker even though she had graduated at the top of her class in nursing. Her brother Johann is 18 months younger than she. Her childhood was carefree with weekends spent climbing mountains and trees, and milking cows barefoot. She started modelling classes while still at primary school, even though a tomboy, she really enjoyed them. It was late in year 2000 when she met the then reigning Miss South Africa, Jo-Ann Strauss, that a dream was born. At age 15 she became self-conscious and ashamed of her body. She had reached 1.77 metres tall, was teased by other girls at school and rumours of her having an eating disorder did the rounds.
Modelling was still all fun and games to her when in 2006 she came 3rd in the Ford Model Look competition, and won the Elite Model Look South Africa. This win meant she was given a place at the international Elite Model Look 2008 finals in Prague. She ended up in the top 15 (out of 50 girls) in the world. So at the age of 16 she was awarded a contract with Elite Model Management.  She was invited by Elite to go and work at their head office in Paris for three months. Before leaving she had to meet with a model agent in Pretoria to take measurements of her waist, hips and bust. This was the beginning of a change: no more confident, small-town girl. She was told for her to be an international model, some weight needed to come off her hips. “I never truly realised it then, but looking back on my career it was from that day on that I found myself constantly measured by the measuring tape called Perfect,” she says. Her time in Paris was disastrous. Her leg got infected and was painful. She was all alone in Germany for a modelling job when she had to undergo surgery. Back in Paris, her leg started swelling again and that’s when she realised the infection was back with a vengeance. She was emotionally drained and her confidence was in shreds. This was her first major emotional breakdown, at just 16 she found herself walking through the streets of Paris crying without realising it.
She would have a second one as Miss South Africa 2014 when she was alone in Johannesburg and felt so much public scrutiny and humiliation. “The third one should have been in that final year of my studies, but I knew I couldn’t afford to breakdown then. I had a baby. I had a husband. I had my studies. So, I never really allowed myself to feel,” she confesses.
In search of self-discovery, she took a break from medicine and went on a life changing journey that has led to an online educational platform with transformational online courses and, this book. The progress of rediscovering her self-confidence began when she started her masters’ degree in philosophy and management coaching at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. She’s now a successful transformational coach with a passion to empower women to be confident, in control of their own lives, and courageously chase their dreams. A graduated medical doctor, wife and mother of two boys. ​