The 67th Miss World pageant will happen on November 18, 2017, at the Sanya City Arena, in Sanya City, China. Before the main program, a few pre-pageant challenges took place, where Miss World Philippines 2017 Laura Lehmann won and made the cut to become part of the top 40. [via Philstar.com]
In the Head to Head challenge, contestants were divided into 20 groups. Each group had its own episode, where the contestants had the chance to introduce themselves and talk about their advocacies and goals. To conclude the episodes, each contestant was asked one question. After the episodes were posted online, netizens had the chance to vote for their favorite candidate. The candidate with the most votes, likes, or follows in each group would automatically advance to the top 40.
Philippines was the winner in Group 17, beating Myanmar, Serbia, Lesotho, Thailand, and Turkey.
The question for the group was about cyberbullying: “Cyberbullying is one of the greatest problems facing young people today. How would you help solve this?”
Laura answered, “I actually really like this question because I think it’s a topic that all of us can relate to because as beauty queens, you know, we do get bashed online. There’s a lot of negative comments, especially when the competition gets tough. So I think it’s a question that we understand. But we also know that it’s something that is very hard to avoid because sometimes we can’t really control what other people say or what other people think. But I think the best thing we can do is [to] use our platform and use our voices because the whole world is watching us. So whenever we see someone being bullied online, I think that we can’t be passive bystanders. We have to do something about it, we have to point it out, and we have to remind them that trolls and bashers aren’t allowed on our Facebook pages. And it’s our job to just post things that are positive rather than negative or something that condemns other people.”
Laura also made it in the top five of the Beauty with a Purpose challenge, where contestants each showed a video about their advocacies. In her video, Laura shared that she wants to set up a five-year plan with the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Manila. Her focus is on the maternity ward, where she plans to build the first milk bank for the medical center. The milk bank will address the issue of mothers who can’t produce enough milk for their newborns. She wants to provide the pasteurizer, ultra-low freezer to store the milk, and mechanical breast pumps.
The winners of the Beauty with a Purpose challenge get a grant for their chosen beneficiaries.
Good luck tonight, Laura!