Osmel Sousa had a dream that was born out of an obsession with beauty. He longed to create a world that was filled with beauty of every kind. Like many artists, his desire to be surrounded by beauty was to somehow erase the ugliness and pain that he witnessed and internalized as a child.As a boy, he remembers spending all of his time drawing. He would draw rows of women – always women – and then pick out the best and draw them again with all sorts of dresses that he would clip on and off. In essence, he was designing a fashion show. One day his mother saw him and forbade him from ever doing it again. She couldn’t stand the thought that he was making silly little "paper dolls".He suffered from learning disabilities that went undiagnosed until he was an adult, so he constantly struggled with his studies. But, instead of sitting in class and feeling frustrated, he would use that time to draw images of women, constantly trying to create what he viewed as the perfect, most angelic face.Tragically, Sousa’s parents did not share in his appreciation for beauty nor did they support their son’s remarkable artistic talents. In fact, they were so disturbed by his behavior and personal interests, that when he was still just a young child, they forced him to undergo hormonal treatments to try to deepen his voice, in order to make him more "masculine".Sousa’s parents did not stop there. Because they perceived his developing sexual orientation as such a threat, when he was just 13 years old, they sent him away from his home in Cuba to live with his grandmother in Venezuela.   After graduating from high school, in his newly adopted country of Venezuela, he studied acting, but quickly realized that he was not cut out to be an actor.He then briefly held jobs as an advertising draftsman and art designer for the two large television networks in Venezuela. Although, these jobs were a dead end for him artistically, fate stepped in while he was working for one of the television networks.It was there that Sousa would meet Lupita Ferrer, who eventually became a famous actress. She convinced him to take a chance and move to the sprawling metropolis of Caracus.Little did he know that because of this move, his paper dolls would finally come to life… Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about the life of Osmel Sousa.This week everything is 10% inside of Pageant Planet’s Shop when you use the coupon code PODCAST. Shop through 100s of items ranging from hairspray to shoes to earrings to bags and much more!Because you are interested in this episode you might also be interested in reading, Beauty Pageant Statistics and 101 Tips for First Time Pageant Contestants.