{"id":487741,"date":"2026-06-07T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487741\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T16:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T16:02:10","slug":"kildare-woman-steps-out-of-comfort-zone-for-ms-bikini-ireland-final-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/487741\/","title":{"rendered":"Kildare woman steps out of comfort zone for Ms Bikini Ireland final\u00a0 – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMAGINE you\u2019re a young woman who has suffered with social anxiety for as long as you can remember \u2013 so much so, it took you three extra years to graduate DCU because of so many absences.<\/p>\n

So, in order to confront this finally and full on, you decide to walk on stage in a bikini in a room full of strangers and accept their judgement.<\/p>\n

This is the brave, admirable story of Guste Kasetaite (25) from Kildare town who is the county\u2019s representative in Ms Bikini Ireland on 21 June.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in Dublin but I\u2019ve been in Kildare town for six years now,\u201d said Guste.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had worked part-time in Kildare Village while finishing college, but it\u2019s full-time now for the summer, and I\u2019ve finally graduated this year from DCU in Applied Languages and Translation Services,\u201d she said proudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had suffered social anxiety for as long as I can remember, and going into college I realise how much it was stopping from going out, getting paranoid, afraid to go to the shops even.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m 25 and only graduating now, because I had to take three years out of college because of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I decided to grab the bull by the horns, decided 2026 would be the year I do all the things that frighten me, so I entered Ms Bikini Ireland, got engaged (to Matthew) and I\u2019ve started learning to drive \u2026 my parents are over the moon! she laughed.<\/p>\n

\"Guste\"Guste<\/p>\n

So how did she get involved in the contest, the Kildare Nationalist asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a girl on Instagram who had entered and it looked so glamorous, so I decided to enter and it just sort of went from there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI entered in January and they accepted me in February, and they started doing workshops where they take professional shots of you in a bikini.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe competition final is on 21 June at a venue yet to be announced with a total of 40 finalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe workshops leading up to this include runway walking, social media advice, learning about taking photos and videos, as well as fitness advice in the gym,\u201d she revealed.<\/p>\n

And how do you deal with your anxieties now?<\/p>\n

\u201cI take deep breaths before doing new things now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"GusteGuste with new fianc\u00e9 Matthew Plotniak.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince this I\u2019ve been discovered by photographers and have begun doing some modelling, so my social anxiety is at an all-time low.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week in the good weather we did a photoshoot on a beach, and the plan is to continue with the modelling for now, and hopefully someday walk a runway, or appear in a magazine. That\u2019s my dream,\u201d said Guste.<\/p>\n

And your advice to others?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy advice is don\u2019t be afraid to come out of your comfort zone, and don\u2019t be afraid to try new things because the outcome can be amazing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IMAGINE you\u2019re a young woman who has suffered with social anxiety for as long as you can remember…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-487741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}