On October 7, Katarina Rodriguez added another title under her belt as she was crowned Miss World Philippines 2018. In case you didn't know, the 26-year-old model was one of Cosmo's 8 Sexiest Models, finished third on Asia's Next Top Model in 2014, and also represented the Philippines in the Miss Intercontinental pageant in 2017.
During the question and answer portion, Katarina was asked, "Some feminists believe that beauty pageants are a form of women exploitation, what can you do to change their opinion?"
She answered, "One should live by example and not by opinion, and I would like to admit I was one of those before until I learned more about what beauty pageants are about. One thing I can tell you is that you may think this is very competitive, but in fact, you'll understand beauty pageants when you know that it is actually not competitive towards the other women, it's competitive towards yourself, and it's all about women empowerment, and you can feel that in this group of girls, each girl knows that we are all individually beautiful." (ABS-CBN)
That's one way to look at it. Congratulations, Katarina!
The night's winners also included Alyssa Muhlach Alvarez (Miss Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas), Maureen Montagne (Miss Eco International Philippines), Kimi Mugford (Miss Multinational Philippines), Chanel Morales (1st Princess) and Pearl Hung (2nd Princess).
This story originally appeared on Cosmo.ph.
* Minor edits have been made by the Femalenetwork.com editors.
