Don’t get carried away from the dream of being Miss World PR

The desire to become queen and represent Puerto Rico made 17 young people wait for a year for the celebration of the Miss World pageant in Puerto Rico. Despite the challenges faced by the COVID-19 pandemic, these girls bet on their dream and decided to move forward participating in this competition, the final will be held on April 24, at the Hotel Fairmont El San Juan, in a special broadcast that will be broadcast, at 8:00 pm, by TeleOnce.

These young women were supposed to be part of the pageant last year, but due to the global health situation, the event was canceled until this year. “Originally it was a group of 20, but due to the pandemic, this group of persevering girls stayed. I have to give credit to our director Ana Avilés who has been in charge of holding the virtual workshops so that they can continue, “said Wilnelia Mercè, local franchise holder and Miss World 1975.

One of the peculiarities of this contest is that it holds five mini competitions to choose several of the finalists. This year, these events have had to be done through the virtual mode, Mercè said.

The first mini-competition that took place was sports, where the winner was the young woman from the town of Santa Isabel, Andreína Vega Rosa, as announced today at a press conference. The winners of the remaining four mini competitions (beauty with purpose, top model, talent and best body) will be announced on the day of the preliminaries, the date will be announced soon.

Mercè said the young women have barely seen each other in person, being the first time last Sunday when they were finally able to share with distance during a photo shoot. This year, the final night of the event will be called “Festival of Beauty and Purpose”, to emphasize the raison d’être of this event that seeks to raise awareness among young people about the importance of helping society.

“In this contest we choose these girls who beyond their physical beauty show the world their human quality, their empathy for the noblest causes and possess a great heart. In Miss World, the girl who is the winner she becomes an ambassador for an endless number of causes sponsored by the organization, which in turn will lead her to visit multiple countries around the world to participate in charitable events, ”Mercè reiterated.

He added that this year’s winner will be in charge of hosting the international event, which will be held in Puerto Rico on December 16, according to Puerto Rican Stephanie De la Vall, who was Miss World in 2016, being the second Puerto Rican to wear this crown.

“We are glad that this year we will have time to prepare well for the winner who will be our world representative and the hostess. So the young woman who wins we want her to have all the knowledge of the wonderful places of Puerto Rico and to be a girl who can projecting herself on the world, ”added Mercè, who this year celebrates 45 years of wearing the first Miss World crown for Puerto Rico.

The former queen shared that during the final night of the event – which will be hosted by Fernando Allende – the ten semifinalists will be announced. Five of them will be chosen in the mini-competitions and the other five through interviews with the jury.

Wilnelia Mercè said they are currently evaluating whether the final will be held with or without an audience. If so, it would be only the relatives of the candidates and it would be done by strict invitation.

Among the awards the winner will receive this year is a scholarship from Ana G. Méndez University to carry out a master’s degree. The new sovereign would be crowned by the outgoing queen, Daniella Rodríguez, who won the local pageant in 2019.

Mercè was hopeful that, among the 17 participants, would be the next Miss International World, who would be crowned on the island. “We have a lot of chances because there are very pretty, well-groomed girls and we will have time for the audience to identify with the girl,” he concluded.