India’s Manushi Chillar is crowned Miss World during the beauty pageant held in Sanya in southern China’s Hainan province on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017. (Color China Photo via AP) CHINA OUT
INDIA ruled this year’s Miss World competition. Manushi Chhillar was crowned by Miss World 2016 Stephanie Del Valle during the pageant held Nov. 18 in Sanya, China.
The 21-year-old model, who bested 117 other candidates, took to Instagram on Saturday evening to express her gratitude after winning the title.
“Thank you everyone for your love, support and well wishes. This one’s for #India. #missworld #MissWorld2017 #ManushiChhillar @missindiaorg,” she said in her post.
The last time India won the title was in 2000, courtesdy of Priyanka Chopra. Chopra, in her Twitter account, congratulated Chhillar and said, “And we have a successor!
Congratulations @ManushiChhillar on becoming #MissWorld2017… cherish and learn, and most importantly enjoy it. Bravo.” Completing Chhillar court were Stephanie Hill of England (first runner-up) and Andrea Meza of Mexico (second runner-up).
The Philippines’ Laura Lehmann advanced to the top 40 after since she was part of the winning group during the “Head-to-Head” challenge. The 21-year-old model and host belonged to Group 17 along with the candidates from Myanmar, Serbia, Lesotho, Thailand, and Turkey.
They were given one question which was, “Cyberbullying is one of the greatest problems facing young people today. How would you help solve this?” Lehmann’s answer was, “You know, I really like this question because I think it’s a topic that all of us can relate to because as a beauty queen 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’s 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 we can do is 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 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.”
Although she failed in her bid for the crown, Lehmann received a special award for being one of the five winners of “Beauty with a Purpose” along with representatives from South Africa, Indonesia, India, and Vietnam. Lehmann’s advocacy is to set up milk bank for the maternity ward of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila.
The “Beauty with a Purpose” helps the candidates to raise funds for their chosen beneficiary. Lehmann wanted to provide milk pasteurizer, ultra low freezer, and mechanical breast pumps to help indigent and premature babies.
“Before I got into TV, into hosting, and into pageants, I was on track to become a doctor. And it’s funny because even though my life is so different now and even though it’s turned 180 degrees round, somehow I ended up where I supposed to be,” Lehmann said in the YouTube video as she introduced her advocacy.