In this edition of People NOW, we speak with Chanita Seedaket Craythorne, Mrs. World 2025 and Brand & Media Coordinator at Save the Children Thailand, about competing in the pageant and the invisible struggles of being a mother.
Thailand has a new Mrs. World winner, and she’s using the moment to talk about something that rarely gets the spotlight: mothers’ mental health.
Chanita Seedaket Craythorne was recently crowned Mrs. World, an international beauty competition for married women. Chanita is the second Thai winner since the pageant’s inception in 1984. The pageant positions itself as a platform that values leadership, advocacy, and community impact alongside presentation.
For Chanita, that framing mattered. She said she didn’t even realize this kind of competition existed until a friend suggested she compete.
“The first thing that went into my mind was that I was like, ‘Is there such thing? Is there such a name called Mrs. Thailand World and Mrs. World?’”
After looking it up, she said the idea clicked.
“And then I researched, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s something for married women!’ I didn’t know that.”
She contrasted Mrs. World with the pageant image many people carry around.
“Because when you talk about pageantry, you think about young girls, still in university and trying to find her path. But then, for Mrs. World, it’s for someone like me, someone who’s married, who has kids, or even someone who is divorced or a single mom.”
Chanita also described pageantry as far outside her comfort zone, even with a professional background that spans multiple sectors.
“Pageantry is something so outside of my comfort zone. I mean, I’ve been a government official, I’ve been in the private sector, I’ve been in politics, and now I’m in an NGO.”
When asked what got her through the process, she pointed to the less glamorous skills. “There will be a mentor, but actually there’s a lot to do with self-discipline and being resilient.”
On stage, contestants were asked what superpower they would choose. Chanita said she was limited to one word, but decided to hold her ground anyway.
“We were asked only one word for superpower, and one word is not enough, so I said, ‘happy mothers.’”
She described it as the core reason she entered pageantry in the first place.
“I came in wanting to say to the world that, ‘Mothers, you need to be happy.’ Mothers, you need to realize if you are truly happy or not. You need time for yourself.”
She emphasized that the message is also for the people around mothers.
“And the people surrounding you also need to realize that mothers are also human beings, too, and that we do need the time off. We do need the time to go to the gym, to go and have a nice coffee, to watch series and have our own time, not just to sacrifice everything for other people.”
Chanita was candid about her own experience with postpartum depression, including the gap between what she expected to feel and what actually happened after giving birth.
“Someone said to me that, ‘You know, when you first see your baby, you’ll feel that connection, unconditional love,’ but I didn’t feel that at all.”
She also described how difficult breastfeeding felt for her.
“Nobody told me how difficult it was to breastfeed.”
She said she told her husband and received support that helped her cope, but stressed that many women don’t have the same support systems. She referenced a commonly cited statistic about maternal mental health.
“There are actually other women, there’s one in four mothers who are experiencing postpartum depression that they might know, they might not know it. And I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware that this is something real. Access to mental health facilities and services will need to be available for people.”
Chanita also spoke about a project she worked on called Happy Mom Check, which uses the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as a screening tool.
“I’ve worked with Bangkok Mental Health Hospital to come up with a set of surveys, which we use the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.”
She described the goal in plain terms.
“Basically, to make sure that mothers can actually check their mental temperature.”
After winning Mrs. World, she said she expanded access through her website, so mothers in different countries can use the tool and find local support information.“Now, I’ve rolled it out to my website, where mothers around the world can do the same thing, and then if you need help, then these are the numbers that you need to phone in certain countries.”
Beyond advocacy and pageantry, she has also stepped into creative storytelling. She recently released a music video titled “Mirror Moon,” which carries the same themes of resilience and self-worth that define her platform.
“I’ve worked with a composer as well as a producer, and I wanted people to feel the way that I feel,” she said. “The fact that regardless of how you look or the experiences or the obstacles that you’re encountering, there’s always the light at the horizon, and in this case, it is the reflection of the moon.”
She described the moon as imperfect, yet luminous.
“Even though it doesn’t look perfect, you can always shine. You know, the moon can always shine, and you can always shine as well.”
For her, the message is simple: “How you can get knocked down and get back up again, resilience.”
Later, asked what she’d tell women still figuring out confidence and purpose, Chanita kept it blunt.
“Be the one who makes the choice, and not be chosen.”
She framed it as a numbers game: doing nothing guarantees no results.
“If you don’t start, the percentage of success will be zero. But if you actually start doing something, the percentage might be 1%, or it could be 100%, like myself.”
And she tied it back to the message she’s now known for.
“In my case, ‘happy mothers’ is much bigger than myself. ‘Happy mothers’ is the only thing that keeps me going.”
Paul Rujopakarn