Miss World 2013 Megan Young | Profile | Photos | Video

It's barely a week before beautiful Filipino-American TV host and actress Megan Young will come back to the Philippines on October 11 for her return-trip after winning the much coveted Miss World 2013 crown.

She is the first woman from the Philippines to ever win in the said pageant, recently held in Bali, Indonesia. Much to the dismay of critics who almost instantly threw unfriendly remarks at her.

Don't let her mixed ethnicity and her surname fool you. She's as Filipino as puto and bibingka (local rice cakes). In fact, while being interviewed as she won the Ms. World title, the 23-year old Megan Young spoke fluently in Filipino dialect. She said:

"I would just be myself in everything that I do, to share what I know and to educate people on what they can do to help is what I'll do. Salamat. Salamat talaga sa mga kababayan kong mga Pilipino. (Thanks. I really want to thank all my Filipino countrymen)."

But ultimately it was her reply to the question-and-answer question that clinched her victory. She stated:

"Miss World for me treasures the core value of humanity and that guides her into understanding people, why they act the way that they do, how they're living their lives and I will use these core values in my understanding not only in helping others but to show other people how they can understand others, to help others so that as one, together, we shall help society."

While there are some quarters who are protesting against Megan's remarkable achievement, I want to remind her critics (and social media trolls like Devina DeDiva) that Filipina beauty queens have a long track record of winning international pageants. Among them include: two (2) Ms. Universe titles (Gloria Diaz, 1969 and Margie Moran, 1973), four (4) Ms. International winners (Gemma Cruz-Araneta, 1964; Aurora Pijuan, 1970; Melanie Marquez, 1979; Lara Quigaman, 2005), one (1) Ms. Earth crown (Karla Henry, 2008) and one (1) win for Ms.Supranational (Mutya Datul, 2013).

This victory makes the Philippines a "grandslam winner" of major international beauty contests!

In photo below, she poses with former Pinay beauty pageant winners Venus Raj and Shamcey Supsup.

Meanwhile, this win also breaks the alleged curse by Peachy Veneracion in 1977 when said declared that "no Filipina shall be crowned Miss World". She was forced by the Philippines government to back out of the said pageant after apartheid-run South Africa sent two delegates (of black and white ethnicity) to the famed contest.  Remember that this was done during Martial Law when the Marcos dictatorship was also cautious of criticism against its fascist rule.

That being said, history truly smacks of poetic justice for letting a multi-racial Asian win this year!

Here's a tidbit profile about her. She was born on February 27, 1990 in Alexandria, Virginia, to an American father and a Filipino mother. At the age of then, their family moved to Olongapo City in Zambales (where the former US naval base is located). She finished high school at the Regional Science High School 3 at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Our featured American-Pinay tisay was first noticed when she landed in the top six finalists of the GMA-7's reality TV talent search StarStruck. The said station gave her a break by featuring her in various shows for two years, after which she transferred to its rival ABS-CBN with her younger sister Lauren (also an actress).In 2013, before joining beauty contests, she has been featured in programs by the upstart station TV5.

Aside from acting, she moonlights as a model (in below photo, as cover girl for Rogue and Circuit magazines)

More photos of our dear Filipina beauty (click to enlarge):

Sources: Inquirer, Rappler, Facebook fan pages