Tara Teng (born August 16, 1988) is a Canadian former pageant winner. She was named

Miss Canada Miss Canada is a beauty pageant for young women in Canada. It was founded in Hamilton in 1946. No title was awarded from 1993 through 2008. The trademark was purchased in 2009 by a Québec organization who produces the pageant under the name t ...

in 2011 and Miss World Canada in 2012. During her title reigns she was an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

for human rights and spoke about

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

Early life and education

Teng is the daughter of a Chinese Singaporean church pastor father and a European Canadian mother, and she was raised as a Christian. She was homeschooled until the age of 15. She received a Bachelor of Education from Trinity Western University (TWU). Teng spent four months studying at TWU's

Laurentian Leadership Centre , mottoeng = A Mighty Fortress Is Our God , established = Trinity Junior College (1962–1972), Trinity Western College (1972–1985), Trinity Western University (1986–present) , type = Privat ...

(LLC) in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, participating in the Laurentian Leadership Program. While in Ottawa, she had a year-long internship with

Joy Smith Joy Ann Smith (born February 20, 1947) is a Canadian politician. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1999 and 2003, and was in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. Education and business career Smith was born ...

, Member of Parliament (MP) for

Kildonan—St. Paul Kildonan—St. Paul is a federal electoral district in the Winnipeg Capital Region of Manitoba, Canada. It has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. Geography It consists of the far northern end of Winnipeg and the rura ...

in Winnipeg, who had been working to implement laws to reduce the demand for prostitution in Canada and on improving awareness about

Pageants

In 2010 Teng won the

Miss BC World Courage Productions runs the Miss BC pageant, including the Mrs. BC, Miss Teen BC, and Miss Charity BC titles. It was founded in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality), Langley in 2002 by Darren Storsley. The final pageant night is t ...

contest and the pageant's online People's Choice Award. In 2011, she was crowned Miss Canada. She won the Miss World Canada pageant in 2012, and represented Canada at the 2012 Miss World pageant, although she did not place as a finalist in the Beauty with a Purpose segment of the competition or as a top 30 quarter-finalist.

Activism

In Canada

Teng was inspired to begin working against human trafficking when, at age 16, she moved to suburban Vancouver and met a neighbour whose daughter had been lost to human trafficking when she was 14 and prostituted by the girl's then-boyfriend. In October 2010, Teng met with Canada's Prime Minister,

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

, to discuss human trafficking. In November 2011, Joy Smith and Bruce Stanton, Assistant Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, hosted a reception in Teng's honour, at which she gave a speech to Senators and MPs about human trafficking. Teng participated in "Buying Sex is Not a Sport", a campaign during the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

. After participating in Toronto's second annual Freedom Walk in March 2011, she organized the Freedom Week campaign in the

Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Canadia ...

, British Columbia with Todd Hauptman. That August, she participated in the Ignite the Road to Justice Mission Tour, beginning in Vancouver. The tour continued across the country eastwards. Teng participated in an anti-human trafficking task force in her hometown of Langley, British Columbia, producing a report on measures the community could do to tackle it. In April 2012, Teng and Hauptman presented Langley Township with an "action plan" and asked the township to accept the plan's first two stages, dealing with prevention and education. Teng partnered with World Vision International to give speeches at events raising funds for International Justice Mission, which rescues children from

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

In Asia

In June 2011, Teng visited towns and slums in Cambodia and Thailand where families had sold their daughters to sexual slavery. These included

Patpong Patpong ( th, พัฒน์พงศ์, , ) is an entertainment district in Bangkok's Bang Rak District, Thailand, catering mainly, though not exclusively, to foreign tourists and expatriates. While Patpong is internationally known as a red lig ...

, Thailand where she partnered with Rahab Ministries Thailand to spend time with female human trafficking survivors. In

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

, Thailand, Teng spoke to an audience of 40,000 people at the

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Freedom Concert in support of MTV EXIT, a campaign to end human trafficking and exploitation. The Cambodia trip was supported by the

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...

Traffic Jam and World Orphans. In February 2012, Teng was a

keynote A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

speaker at the Freedom and Honor Conference in Seoul. Later in the year, she travelled to Sri Lanka. There, she visited World Vision's development programs in

Thanamalvila Divisional Secretariat Thanamalvila Divisional Secretariat (also spelled Thanamalwila) is a Divisional Secretariat of Moneragala District, of Uva Province, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, ...

and Bogawantalawa to help fundraising efforts.

Post-pageant life

Teng currently works as a life and style blogger and is the B.C. director of the Joy Smith Foundation, an organization which serves to combat human trafficking and help survivors. She also works as a spiritual embodiment coach in Vancouver working within the 'Deconstructing Faith movement'. Her book, ''Your Body is a Revolution: Healing Our Relationships with Our Bodies, Each Other and the Earth'' will be published in 2023.

Honours

In 2011, ''

Chatelaine Chatelaine may refer to: * Chatelaine (chain), a set of short chains on a belt worn by women and men for carrying keys, thimble and/or sewing kit, etc. *Chatelaine (horse), a racehorse * ''Chatelaine'' (magazine), an English-language Canadian wom ...

'' named her one of Canada's "Hot 20 Under 30" women. In 2012 she was one of 30 Langley residents to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. That same year the

Foundation recognised her work in human rights by giving her its International Freedom Award, and she was added to the

Catalyst Conference The Catalyst Conference (or simply Catalyst) is a series of leadership conferences focused on a new generation of church leaders. About Catalyst Catalyst was conceived as a next-generation leaders conference in 1999 by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joine ...

's Young Influencers List.

Personal life

Teng married husband Chris Yamauchi in May 2013. They had two children together. In November 2019, she announced that her marriage had ended and she had been living as a single mother for a full year. Since her divorce, Teng has

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

. She left mainstream Christianity due to the scrutiny she faced as an Asian bisexual woman. (Teng misidentified herself as an Asian American to '' HuffPost''.) In November 2021, she announced that she and her boyfriend Anthony Lively are expecting a child in 2022.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teng, Tara 1988 births Living people Canadian human rights activists Women human rights activists Canadian women's rights activists Miss Canada winners Miss World Canada winners Miss World 2012 delegates Canadian beauty pageant winners Canadian beauty pageant contestants People from Langley, British Columbia (city) People from Powell River, British Columbia Trinity Western University alumni Canadian people of Chinese descent Canadian people of Singaporean descent Canadian LGBT people Canadian former Christians Bisexual women