After incredible stints of South Africa in Miss Universe, especially in the last three years, all eyes are on the national organization of Miss South Africa to see who will be the next in line to follow in the footsteps of beauty queens like Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, Tamaryn Green and Zozibini Tunzi.

There seems to be an interesting similarity between Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters and Zozibini Tunzi’s journeys where they participated in Miss South Africa 2017 and while Demi won, Zozibini placed as the semi-finalist. Afterwards, Demi won Miss Universe 2017 crown while Zozibini returned in Miss South Africa 2019 won the national contest, and went on to win Miss Universe 2019 as well.

This year, another Miss South Africa 2017 semi-finalist is trying her luck again and she is none other than Olin-Shae De La Cruz. The 26-year-old South-African beauty queen competed in Miss South Africa 2017 and amazed everyone with her stunning beauty and perseverance. Before that, Olin entered Miss Earth South Africa 2013 where she again placed in the semi-finals.

Born in Wynberg, a suburb of the city oof Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, Olin is the only daughter of Dennis and Karin Papillon Ford. She went to Wynberg Girls’ Primary School and later went to Westerford High School where she matriculated. While in high school she was a part-time student at Waterfront Theatre School and after matriculating she enrolled there full-time majoring in Dance and Musical Theatre.

Olin-Shae then enrolled at City Varsity School of Media and Creative Arts where she studied Journalism; while there she also did Digital Video Course as well as a Television Presenting Course. She later enrolled at Boston Media House where she studied a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Media Operations Management.

While in school Olin-Shae also took up hip hop dancing and participated in competitions nationwide including dancing at The Artscape Theatre. In 2012 she was a lead dancer in the Cape Town Carnival held in Long Street and in 2013 she was part of the opening act in the carnival with the African Queen, that year's edition of the Cape Town Carnival was held in Green Point. She was signed and represented by Y Models which is now known as Contact Model Management. After this, she entered pageantry and began her career here.

After Miss South Africa 2017, she joined Disney Cruise Line and travelled the world working as a Youth Counselor. Olin-Shae is also a co-director at Swishep Marketing Agency. With her achievements inside and outside of the pageant world, Olin seems like a strong contender to follow in the footsteps of Zozibini Tunzi and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters.