Introducing New Zealand's first Bachelorette - Lesina Nahkid-Schuster
TVNZ has revealed New Zealand's first Bachelorette and we're pleased to introduce Lesina Nahkid-Schuster.
It's a win for diversity with Lesina being of Pacific Islands, Caribbean, Lebanese and German heritage.
Lesina's father George is Samoan/German and although retired now, was a teacher at Mt Albert Grammar for over 20 years. Her Mother Dr Camille Nahkid is Trinidad & Tobago/Lebanese and is an Associate Professor at the AUT School of Social Sciences and Public Policy. She has done extensive research into Māori and Pasifika educational achievement; family and community among Pasifika youth; factors impacting on migrant resettlement; and culturally relevant research methodologies. In 2018 she was awarded a Member of New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ethnic communities and education.
Lesina is the eldest of her 2 siblings - her brother Alesano works with refugees, interviewing and helping them with entry into New Zealand & her sister Shani has recently graduated from Columbia University with a Masters in Sociology and Education.
Her whole family are fully supportive and really excited for her Bachelorette journey.
32 year old Lesina is an Auckland based Doctor and is now at a stage in her life where she’s ready to find love and her own fairy-tale story.
That's right peeps! She's a Doctor!
After focusing heavily on her career at medical school and then jumping straight into the workforce, Lesina put romance on the backburner.
“I’m so excited to be New Zealand’s very first Bachelorette, what an incredible honour!
The journey to finding love can be nerve-racking and hard at times, but it is also rewarding and absolutely worth it, so I’m really looking forward to potentially meeting someone – my person” Lesina said.
She’s hoping to meet someone driven, nice, kind and who’s not bad around the kitchen as ‘she can’t cook’. Through tears, laughter and romance, Lesina is ready to take New Zealand on her journey, in the hopes of finding her very own man to take home to the family!
Q&A with Lesina Nahkid-Schuster
Why did you want to be NZ’s first Bachelorette?
Well, I was at a stage in my life when I was definitely looking for my someone, and this came along kind of perfectly and I thought why not! NZ’s such a great place to do it as I think we’ve got such a bunch of great guys.
Tell us about your background
I was born in the States, my parents were actually travelling to come to New Zealand, but it was too late, so they had me over there! I moved here when I was one and I’ve been here ever since. I grew up in Auckland, went to school here and studied medicine at Auckland University.
Tell us about your dating history
I was in a really long-term relationship through all of med school, for like seven years and that ended. After that I’ve had boyfriends and I’ve dated, but nothing super serious. I’ve been single now for a while.
What are you looking forward to as the Bachelorette?
I’m really looking forward to potentially meeting someone – my person! And I’m looking forward to the journey of it – meeting a whole bunch of guys I wouldn’t normally have met in my everyday life.
Do you have any dating no-gos?
I don’t really have any hard deal breakers, the only one I can think of would be if someone absolutely did not want kids, because I want kids eventually. It doesn’t have to be tomorrow, but at some point! So, if someone really didn’t want kids that would be a deal breaker for me.
What would you like to find from this journey?
I would like to find love – I’d love to find love, that would be the main goal and I think learn a bit about myself as well actually along the way. Things that I’ve always known that I need to work on in relationships – perhaps implementing those!
Do you believe in love at first sight?
I believe in something at first sight! Like, I don’t know if you’ll be like ‘oh my god I love that person’, but I think when you meet your person, there’ll be something different and you’ll notice that.
The Bachelorette New Zealand premieres on Monday the 27th of January on TV2