MANILA, Philippines — Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee revealed that she’s in favor of Miss Universe Organization’s lifting of age limit in the pageant.
In an exclusive interview with Philstar.com, Michelle said she’s an advocate for creating a more inclusive world.
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“Well of course, I'm all for it. I'm also an advocate of to create a more inclusive world and with that comes, when the lifting of the age happens, I'm so happy because women should not feel that they have a shelf life to fulfill their dreams and Miss Universe is an amazing platform,” she said.
“For them to lift that age limit, I feel like it opens doors for so many women to showcase what they have, their platforms and their advocacies as well,” she added.
Michelle is among this year's winners of PeopleAsia's Women of Style and Substance. Other winners include actresses Sharon Cuneta and Dolly de Leon, volleyball star Alyssa Valdez, and MediaQuest President and Chief Executive Officer Jane Jimenez-Basas.
Starting next year, the organization said “every adult woman in the world will be eligible to compete to be Miss Universe.”
It announced in an Instagram story the removal of all age restrictions across all Miss Universe and associated pageants, which will apply in 2024.
Previously, the organization only allowed women between the ages of 18 and 28 to compete in the beauty pageant.
According to the Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) website, Miss Universe R’Bonney Gabriel, 29, made the announcement during Tanner Fletcher’s spring 2024 New York Fashion Week show on Tuesday called “Beauty Pageant.”
“What I love about Miss Universe is that they are always out first in line, looking for ways they can be more inclusive and better live up to the platform that they’ve designed for us. It’s a bold group of women in charge over here and you know what, a lot of people tend to follow what we do – it’s nice to be a standard-bearer, and I’m proud that we get to do this,” Gabriel told WWD.
The Miss Universe 2023 competition will be held on November 18 this year in El Salvador. — Video by Deni Bernardo, editing by Martin Ramos
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