MANILA, Philippines — Starting next year, pageant organizers said “every adult woman in the world will be eligible to compete to be Miss Universe.”
The Miss Universe Organization announced yesterday 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.
She further recalled her answer to the question-and-answer portion of the pageant early this year. “I answered an onstage question: ‘If you were going to make any changes to the organization’s rules, what would they be?’ I said to raise the age limit. When I competed, the age limit was 28, and I was 28 at the time. So, my answer was that I think we should change this – a woman’s ability to compete at Miss Universe, or anything in life, shouldn’t be defined by her age. Age should just be a number,” she said.
The Miss Universe 2023 competition will be held on Nov. 18 this year in El Salvador.