Next Stop: World

When it comes to seizing the day and charting your own path, model and now mentor Monika Sta Maria proves that it just takes that one leap of faith. By Joash Kong.

It was a sunny morning, but nothing was sunnier than the atmosphere of our exclusive shoot with Asia’s Next Top Model (AsNTM) Season 3 runner-up Monika Sta Maria. Comfortably ensconced within the four walls of our photographer’s house, Monika looks completely at home as she gets gold glitter applied to her eyelids while the hairstylist gently coaxes her hair into relaxed waves, jumping into the random conversations abound with enthusiasm — a far cry from the “fake, beauty pageant” persona the competitors on the show gave her.

“It was such an experience that it made me really reflect on life,” Monika recalls her time on AsNTM Season 3 with a laugh, “Because I really wanted to win! It really pushed me beyond being comfortable. I was done with trying to control or think of where I thought I should go; I didn’t care anymore. I wanted to do what I wanted to do, go to different countries and just be fearless, because I have nothing to lose.”

It ’s no secret that AsNTM is no walk in the park — no competition is. Of course, the shows (and its franchises) have far deviated from being purely a modelling competition — it is reality TV, after all. The contestants are deprived of anything that would keep them to themselves, cameras are around all the time and of course, drama is in the air. That is enough to plague the strongest of performers, such as Monika who earned consistent praise for her performance on the show. So what made her decide to come back for another round?

“When Season 6 came along, I was initially hesitant and wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through that experience again; it ’s very stressful. It ’s a difficult competition, but you know what? Not everybody gets a second chance to be on the show again, so I thought, ‘I ’m just gonna be fearless,’” the half Malaysian, half-Filipina model explained.