MANILA, Philippines - “I don’t believe it’s money that makes the world go round. It is the woman who makes the world go round. We are the ones who bear the children. The future of each nation lies in our hands,” says 2012 Mrs. Universe-Philippines Joy Castillo-Pasidis.
The Filipino cosmetic brand Ever Bilena, believing in the beauty and talent of the Filipino woman, is the event sponsor of the Mrs. Universe-Philippines.
Joy, who’s been married for seven years now, bagged the local crown after best exemplifying the beautiful and modest, yet empowered Filipina during the pageant. She, however didn’t bring home the Mrs. Universe crown during the tilt held recently in Russia. But Joy says she feels fulfilled.
“When I was younger, I thought that a beauty pageant was a stepping stone in reaching your dreams,” Joy says. Then she realized that the pageant goes beyond winning the crown. “For me, the contest is all about self discovery,” she shares. Ever Bilena prides itself for helping women discover more about themselves.
“Motherhood is one of the most amazing discoveries of being a woman,” Joy says.
She has joined fashion shows and pageants in the past, one of which was Mutya ng Pampanga. For her, joining a beauty pageant is also a way to inspire children to dream more and to make them realize that fairy tales do come true.
Joy says that her experience in the Mrs. Universe pageant was tough, exciting and very empowering. She adds that the competition itself was not the most important part of the pageant but the camaraderie she fostered with the other contestants.
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Meanwhile, in the 2012 Mutya ng Pilipinas, another pageant sponsored by Ever Bilena, Camille Guevara, a native of Porac, Pampanga, won the title Mutya ng Pilipinas-Asia Pacific International. She will be representing the Philippines in the Miss Intercontinental beauty contest in Spain this December.
Camille, 19, is a second year Tourism student at the Clark International College of Science and Technology in Pampanga. She started to join beauty pageants at the age of 15. She experienced losing in some of these pageants, but this did not deter her from pursuing her dream of becoming a beauty queen.
According to Camille, Mutya ng Pilipinas has helped boost her self-confidence and she believes that this opportunity will someday allow her to build a career for herself.
She says, “I want to continue my studies after the pageant.” She hopes to help promote the beauty of the country by joining the Department of Tourism projects in the future.
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