Kirsten Mate Maher has been working as the Rose of Tralee for about six months now, with the search currently on for new roses to join in 2019.
While the 21-year-old is enjoying her role, she admits that she’s not totally into the celebrity status.
“I’m not sure if I would like to stay in the spotlight. I find it hard, it’s overwhelming to think that amount of people are looking at you, so I try not to think about it at all,” she explained.
Former Roses such as Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin and Maria Walsh continued to work in the spotlight after their wins but Kirsten feels there are other things she’d like to do.
“I like the idea of going to college and I haven’t got the chance to do that yet, to do normal college stuff,” she told the Mirror.
Having said this, Kirsten admits she is exploring all her options.
“If something else comes about, I don’t know. I would be silly to turn down opportunities just to go college – I could go anytime. But at the moment it’s tunnel vision towards college but if something else gets in the way, I can defer for another year.”
However, she also admitted she would love to take part in Dancing with the Stars.
“If an opportunity arose like that, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes. It would be fantastic.”
Shortly after her win in August Kirsten was subject to racist abuse, something she says she doesn’t focus on.
“I don’t particularly like to dwell on it. It went in one ear and out the other for me but I suppose a lot of people don’t get that.
“When you focus on the positives – I’ve travelled, I went over to India which really made me realise that although we do have problems over here, we’re very lucky.”
