Critical Beauty

  Ashley Melendez of Puerto Rico has been crowned Miss Global 2023 in Cambodia during the pageant’s tenth edition on January 18. She is the first woman from the island country to win the crown. Melendez had competed in Miss Earth Puerto Rico 2023 where she placed second and won the title of Miss Global Puerto Rico 2023. 1st Runner-Up - Haylani Kuruppu, Samoa 2nd Runner-Up - Chonnikarn Supittayaporn 3rd Runner-Up - Pearl Hung, Philippines 4th Runner-Up - Doan Thu Thuy, Vietnam Congratulations to the top 5!

Madison Marsh , Miss Colorado, has been crowned Miss America 2024 in Orlando, Florida on January 14. The 22-year-old beauty makes history by being the first active duty Air Force pilot to compete in the pageant and now the first of her kind to win the title. Her platform is pancreatic cancer awareness. I featured her three days ago. 🤗 Her court includes: 1st runner-up - Texas - Ellie Breaux 2nd runner-up - Indiana - Cydney Bridges 3rd runner-up - Kentucky - Mallory Hudson 4th runner-up - Rhode Island - Caroline Parente Completing the top 11 are the contestants from North Carolina, Kansas, Maryland, Florida, New York and Arkansas. This is the first edition of Miss America under the new directorship of Robin Fleming. The show was streamed live for free for the global audience. I thought the production was fast-paced, the opening number was entertaining, and the overall stage presentation was well executed. It is always heart-warming to see past titleholders gracing the stage (from 1964

  This group chat was conducted via Zoom on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 9:30 PM EST. My guests include Ed Dominguez (formerly of Global Beauties and license holder of Miss World Panama), Wilfredo Lopez (runway coach and mentor), Brian Javier (pageant blogger and national director of Miss Grand US Virgin Islands) and Lenka Vomocil (Mrs. National Universe 2022 and social media manager).

Looking back at the group chats that I hosted in 2023, I didn’t realize that I had conducted ten of them! There were so many interesting topics covered, and so many amazing conversation among my guests and me. I created a short compilation of some of the highlights from 2023 to give new and future subscribers and viewers a taste of what to expect from this channel, besides a critical analysis of pageants.  

And the winner is... Miss Drama. Runners-up are Miss Money and Miss Narcissist.         2023  pageantry can be described easily in one word: self-conscious . Virtually anyone involved in pageantry has experienced some level of uneasiness caused by uncertainty or skepticism. All of a sudden, being conscious of one's appearance and behavior has been replaced by being conscious of what others may think of you. This phenomenon best describes the two most powerful and influential pageant bosses - Nawat Itsaragrisil , the president of Miss Grand International, and Anne Jakrajutatip , the owner of Miss Universe. Once very good friends, the couple has been competing with each other for grand and universal attention ever since the two split. They would do anything to extend their sphere of influence and pump up their power either by selling merchandise, exploiting the Israel-Palestine conflict or delaying debt payment. Both have strong personalities, both think outside the box, but also bot