It was a sunny Monday morning in December when I greeted the beauty queen, who had recently returned home from the Miss Universe 2019 pageant finals in Atlanta, USA, at our photography studio. It was during that time between Christmas and New Year when most people were away on holiday, yet Shweta arrived bright and bubbly, not complaining one bit about having to work. I asked her where she gets her energy from and she says, “This is just me! I’d call myself an outgoing introvert. If you put me in a room with two other people who aren’t talking, I’ll be the person who’ll make sure that all of us start a conversation. I feed off a person’s positive vibe and run with it.”
DREAM BIG
It’s been 56 years since the Miss Universe Malaysia Organization (MUMO) was established and along the way, there have been many amazing women holding the title such as Datuk Yasmin Yusoff (1978), Datin Elaine Daly (2003), Andrea Fonseka (2004) and Deborah Henry (2011), among other notable names. For the 23-year-old of Punjabi descent, joining a beauty pageant has always been a dream of hers.
“I grew up watching Miss Universe on national TV and remember loving the Q&A segment cos I loved to see the way people think. But actually joining a beauty pageant myself was unexpected,” shares Shweta. “Coming from an Indian family, I never knew that they’d be open to it as I had always assumed that they don’t welcome these kinds of things. I had self-doubts but it was my grandmother who ultimately gave me that push.”
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