Mittenaere who is currently pursuing a degree asa Dental Surgeon intends using her platform to promote dental hygiene. That's a new one, but I am certain the beautiful Parisian will do very well. I am not at surprised at this win. A well deserved one.

Miss Haiti, Raquel Pelissier was awarded the position of first runner-up while Miss Universe Colombia, Andrea Tovar walked away with the title of second runner up.

I had Andrea Tovar pegged for the either the title of Miss Universe or the position of first runner up,but I was blind sided by the charm and intelligence of Raquel Pelissier, Miss Haiti. Did not see that coming. Yes she is gorgeous, but we know that it takes much more than looks and she served us way more than face and body. Well done Raquel.

All and all, the show was packed with a lot excitement and glamour. I am happy with the results. The judges did a great job, moving away from what had become the Miss Universe norm - a top 15 full of Latinas. We saw more women of color shine this year, but the best won. If you ask me though, Mittenaere does have huge shoes to fill. Is she a Pia Wurtzbach? Only time will tell.

She was not my favorite for the crown by a long shot, but she slowly grew on me and warmed her way into my heart. Her elegance, carraige and poise is matchless. Years of failed attempts at the Miss Philippines pageant obviously served her well.

As I look at her year in review, I cannot help but marvel at the grace that has encapsulated her throughout the course of her reign. The delightful queen is set to crown her successor next month, January 31 and I wonder if we will get another true and bona fide beauty queen. I hold my breath...

Since making history as the representive of the Northern Territory at the Miss World Australia pageant, the former Sports and Recreation Officer has gone on to do big things, bagging her first gig as  the face of Melbourne Shopping Centre among other deals.

Maymuru who hails from Yirrkala, a small community consisting of the largest aboriginal population, is using  her platform to inpsire young people black and white. She looks forward to a time when she would be seen simply as a model - not an indigenous model. I say amen to that!

The stunner who isn't new to the pageant scene having recently represented Nigeria at the 15th edition of the Miss Earth pageant , was a clear favorite. Her experience obviously served her well. Hearty congratulations to the new queen!

Crowd favorite, Yaritza Reyes was awarded the position of first runner up while Miss World Indonesia, Natasha Mannuela walked away with the title of second runner up. Miss World Philippines, Catriona Gray whom most pageant crazed Finipinos thought would bag the world's most coveted beauty title, made the final cut, but mother luck did not smile on the gorgeous Filipina. Evelyn Njambi, Miss World Kenya made the final five as I was certain she would, but missed the crown by a mini shot as well. Not certain what the judges were thinking if you ask me. She is stunning! We must keep in mind though that this isn't simply about looks. As a matter of fact, the Miss World Organization does a better job with judging than Miss Universe which is more North and South America centric. Hopefully, this will change. Congratulations to the ladies!

There is no swimsuit competition at Miss World. Miss Universe, sure: More body than brains. But Miss World? She’s all about charity and humanitarianism and talent. Which may be why you had no idea there is a Miss World.
 Let alone that the global pageant — which is considered more prestigious than Miss Universe — is happening right now, on the Maryland fringe of the nation’s capital, with a crowning Sunday at the new MGM National Harbor casino.
 That’s why 117 women from around the world were gathered in the decidedly unglamorous Prince George’s Sports and Learning complex on Monday, in French braids and various shades of athleisure and face paint. There may be no bikini contest for Miss World — but there is a 60-meter dash.

They had already competed in a preliminary fitness test, and the top 24 were facing off in a series of physical challenges — running, long jump, shot put — to earn a berth in the pageant finals.
 A starting gun cracked. Miss Malta crossed the finish line, arms raised in triumph — and then promptly tripped over the raised edge of the track.
 In any other country, the moment would have been captured by dozens of cameras and posted on Twitter — the Internet loves a good beauty queen blooper. But aside from some Chinese pageant bloggers, barely anyone was there.
 
Compare to a year ago, when the 2015 Miss World America found herself living the life of an A-list celebrity in Sanya, a resort town in southern China, where she competed in last year’s pageant.
 Imagine, said Victoria Mendoza, what it’s like to be a member of One Direction or another red-hot pop group, where “people are banging on their tour bus screaming and crying and taking pictures. That was what it was.
 “I had people taking pictures of me in the elevator at midnight,” she said. “You can’t understand anything they’re saying — women and children, crying. Men crying!”
 Our planet, you see, can be roughly divided into Miss World turf and Miss Universe turf. The United States and Latin America? That’s where Miss Universe reigns. Donald Trump famously owned that 64-year-old pageant, before selling it at the messy start of his presidential campaign. It’s headquartered in New York, along with Miss USA, the stateside qualifying pageant. Both are broadcast live in the United States.

The 65-year-old Miss World is a British export. It’s hard to find in the United States — this year’s show will air Christmas Day, tape-delayed, on the E! cable channel. For years, its American contestant wasn’t even chosen through a pageant, but handpicked by a modeling agency. Miss World has produced few celebrities of any renown in the United States — compared with, say, Miss America, which brought us Gretchen Carlson and Vanessa Williams. True, Halle Berry and Lynda Carter passed through the Miss World system — but you didn’t know that, did you? The most recent American to win Miss World was Alexandria Mills in 2010. Name ring a bell? No?
 
But in parts of Europe and especially Asia, Miss World is everything.
 
“If you come from a pageant-crazy country like the Philippines, you’re a big deal. She’s set for life,” said Jeff Lee, a pageant coach who mostly works with Miss Universe contestants but coached Miss World Mexico this year. “The Chinese Miss World from 2007 did really well. You can see her as the face of Swarovski in every airport in China.” Miss World’s greatest success story is Aishwarya Rai, a Miss India who won the global pageant in 1992 and became a Bollywood superstar.

Julia Morley, the pageant’s chief executive and widow of founder Eric Morley, eliminated the swimsuit competition in 2014 and has tried to emphasize Miss World’s charitable mission. She said she is looking for contestants who are equally at ease doing a telethon in Iowa, charming donors at a cocktail party, and trekking to a mountaintop orphanage. “We need girls who are going to be not too spoiled,” she said.
 
The winners “tend to be more demure, they tend to be more classically elegant,” said Lee. Where Miss Universe has “a lot of aggressive stage presence . . . a lot more slits, a lot more figure-hugging,” Miss World is more of a big ol’ ball gown type of pageant. “I send most of my girls [to Miss World] in bedazzled” dresses, he said.

Lee summed it up: “Universe is that modern sushi that you get at Nobu. Miss World is filet of sole.”
 Miss World even eschews the stump-the-beauty-queen interview questions that generate so much buzz-worthy humiliation at other pageants. “They ask every year why you want to be Miss World,” Mendoza said. “That’s the million-dollar question.”
 The contestants show the judges videos highlighting their charity work — beauty and misery to the tunes of melancholy piano concertos. Miss Côte d’Ivoire worked to prevent grim-looking skin rashes in rural villages. Miss Brazil helped lepers. Miss Indonesia helped a village of trash scavengers build a new school.
 “This is quite a very tough one to take,” Morley said of Miss Kenya’s video about female genital mutilation, a topic championed by four contestants. “So if anyone can’t take it, I understand.”

This year’s controversy has centered around Miss Canada 2015, Anastasia Lin, who was denied a visa to the Sanya pageant because of her advocacy work for Chinese political prisoners. The pageant gave her a second chance this year, but she squabbled with organizers over whether they were trying to prevent her from attending a D.C. screening of a movie she stars in, which dramatizes Chinese human rights abuses.
 
Lin ultimately was allowed to attend the screening, and Morley chalked up the dispute to a misunderstanding — and not pressure from the Chinese sponsors of last year’s pageant. “She’s been treated kindly and well,” Morley said. “I don’t really want to whinge about her. It’s a shame that she feels some kind of anguish.”
This year, the pageant is “self-financed,” said Morley, who estimates it costs between $5 million and $6 million, largely funded by fees from license holders for the qualifying pageants. The new Miss World will win $100,000. Paperwork filed with the U.K.’s Charity Commission last year indicated that Miss World’s separate “Beauty With a Purpose” charity brought in roughly $250,000 and spent $86,000 on causes, but Morley said that doesn’t include the contestants’ individual fundraising and giving.

Morley decided to bring the pageant to Washington because, she said, the city exemplified “something more achievable for a woman to be able to realize more for herself.” Getting more exposure for Miss World in the United States was a goal, too. But in an era when beauty pageants have lost their cultural relevance, that could be a challenge.
Jory Rivera, a pageant blogger from the Philippines, said he was “quite surprised” by how dead things seemed at the Gaylord Hotel, which is housing the contestants. A health convention down the hall seemed livelier than the pageant media day, which drew a handful of news outlets, mostly foreign.
Still, he had work to do. “The minute you publish a photo of Miss Philippines, you go viral,” he said. An instant later, Catriona Gray, Miss Philippines herself, appeared in the hallway wearing an Audrey Hepburn-esque pink cocktail dress.
 “Cat!” he yelled.

“Hi, Jory. I’ll see you later,” said Gray.
 
“Oh my God, I have to take a photo of that dress,” he said as she vanished into a conference room.
 
Drawing somewhat less attention than Gray was Audra Mari — our very own Miss World America 2016. The North Dakota native admitted she knew little about Miss World before she entered. While her official platform is Habitat for Humanity, she’s now burning up with another cause: “I want, no matter what happens, for Miss World to have more of a name here,” she said.
 
If this were the interview competition, she would have nailed it.
 
“I don’t think that Miss World is a pageant,” she went on. “I feel like it really represents the modern woman.” A quick hug for the reporter, and then she dashed off. She had a relay race to run.

Any of these ladies could easily walk away with the crown. If this will happen still remains to be seen. What do you guys thing? Checkout these lovelies.

The Miss World Organization has enlisted top custom embroiderers to the British Royals and the Royal Armed Forces, Hand and Lock, to help design this year's sash.

According to the Miss World organization, "The sash is hand made. The text is embroidered with the applique technique using an Irish embroidery machine, this is hand guided and the base of the text is a metallic blue fabric with a silver metalic boarder. The ground fabric of the sash is a powder blue silk dupion, which is scattered with frost-like Swarovski crystals, hand sewn, in and around the letters to give a high sparkly effect. Finally, the sash is finished with a boarder of silver oak leaf lace and silver chain with a crystal snowflake charm to reflect the winter season"

The grand finale of the Miss World pageant is scheduled for December 18 at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland

Acs, a student of Textile and Clothing Management is an avid traveler and has travelled to over 50 countries and chronichled her travels. First runner-up position was awarded to 22 year old Nurse, Doresa Halilaj and Physics student, Sabine Graf walked away with the title of Second runner-up.

Photo courtesy of Miss Universe Germany/Johanna Acs

One cannot deny that the pageant officionado certainly has an eye for beauty. He has been credited with thw success of Venezuelan beauty queens on the world pageant. 24 delegates will battle for the platform of Miss Venezuela.

It is still unclear why the Pharmaculturist and Business Strategist beauty made this move, but we wish her much luck.

Kenosi,  a student of  beat 11 other contestants to emerge the fairest of them all.  Miss Botswana 2015 Seneo Mabengano was on hand to crown her successorsor. The postion of 1st runner-up was awarded to Bonnie Kamono while Phatsimo Baoagi walked away with the title of 2nd runner-up Miss Botswana

Camilla Devik who was awarded the position of  Miss International Norway 2016 and will represent Norway at the grand finale in Tokyo October 2016. The position of First runner up was awarded to Yasmin Osee Aakre.

Joanna Joseph's story is truly an inspirational one. The Model and Miss Malaysia Earth 2016 hopeful  transformed herself from a chubby kid into a stunner

The representative from Selangor who is currently pursuing a TESL Diploma states that she was bullied for being overweight. She took the bull by the horn and swapped unhealthy eating for a healthy lifestyle. The beauty queen now encourages and motivates others.  Watch out for Joseph at the grand finale Miss Malaysia Earth 2016 slated for Sunday, the 7th August at the Syeun Hotel Grand Ballroom in  Ipoh, Malaysia

Miss Miami Beach representative, Genesis Davila, 23, who was crowned Miss Florida USA 2017 Saturday July 16, barely a week after has victory has been dethroned.

This development comes on the heels of accusations leveled against the Puerto Rican beauty who flouted pageant rules by enlisted the services of professional make-up stylists. Grant Gravitt, Miss Florida USA executive producer confirmed his decision to Miami ABC affiliate, WPLG, “We have a zero-tolerance policy on rules. Whether it's something major or minor, it's all about keeping an equal and level playing field. Unfortunately our title holder sought an unfair competitive advantage, and that's just not acceptable in our system." 

I agree, she breached the rules and she must pay for it. This is indeed an unfortunate development as I had her pegged as a favorite for the Miss USA 2017 crown. First runner-up, Linette De Los Santos, is now Miss Florida USA 2017 and will represent Florida at the grand finale of the Miss USA pageant.

What do you guys think about this and what are your thoughts regarding the new queen?

The search is on again for the next Miss Haiti. Meet the finalists vying for the title of  Miss Haiti 2016. The grand coronation is slated for Friday, July 29. Winners will represent Haiti at Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International and Reina Hispanoamericana pageants.

In its History, Haiti has only placed once at the Miss Universe and Miss World pageant in 1975. Gerthie David walked away with the title of first runner-up, Miss Universe and Joelle Apollon placed 5th runner - up at the Miss World. Will one of these ladies break the jinx?

The grand finale was held Sunday, July 24 at the Grand Ball room, Melia

Second runner up Miss Nicaragua 2016, Virginia Chow will represent Nicaragua at the Miss United Continents 2016 pageant.

I had her pegged to win the title of Miss Nicaragua. Alas, that was not to be. I believe better things will happen for this stunning young woman who was recently nominated Queen of China Association of Nicaragua. Things can only get better from here on out.

The Sheffield native who succeeded Nena France, was crowned Saturday, July 23 at The Riverfront Newport. She will represent Great Britain at the Miss Universe pageant in January 2017.

From L-R: Ashlie White Barrett-Miss French Connections Event; Latoya Spence-Miss Tresseme; Chevaneese Brown-Miss Neutrogena,; Gillian Parague-Miss Winchester Medical,; Allison Johnson-Miss Amelia Morgandy; Milinda Smith-Miss Deja Resort; Kara Kia-Miss Parma Car Detailing; Kimberley McDowell-Miss Mystic Mountain; Soyini Phillips-Miss WatALand; Karole Ann McPherson-Miss Exclusiv Vodka; Melissa Tate-Miss Tropical Bliss; Whitney Levy-Miss S&G Road Servicing; Abigail Stewart-Miss Evergrow Garden Center; Shanique Singh-Miss Maxie Department Store and Renae Wilson-Miss Optical Solutions.

The new queen has certainly got huge shoes to fill. Her predecessor, Aniporn trailblaized her way into the hearts of fans around the world. She was a favorite for the Miss Universe 2015 crown, but fell short of that dream by walking away as a finalist as well at winning the award for Best National costume.

First and second runner up positions were awarded to Adcharee Buakhiao
and Lapatthida Kongraphan respectively. Buakhiao will represent Thailand at the Miss Earth 2016 pageant.

As the country progresses through this all important rehabilitation, the strategy is to highlight the gorgeous women of Sierra Leone as well as its culture. The winners of Miss Sierra Leone 2016 will vie for the Miss Universe, Miss Earth, Miss International and Miss Tourism Queen 2016 titles.

The ladies also displayed their individual talents where they were judged by creativity, showmanship and skills. The grand finale is slated for July 24
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The grand finale was held Tuesday night, July 19 at the Southport Threatre and Covention Center in Southport, UK. Thousands of hopefuls from around the world were narrowed to 46 finalists who went head to head in a bid to win the supreme title of Mr World.

Fernando Alvarez, 21 from Puerto Rico was award the position of First runner-up while Aldo Esparza Ramirez, 26 from Mexico walked away with the sexond runner-up position.

Top 5 semi-final positions were awarded to Mexico’s Aldo Esparza Ramírez, Fernando Álvarez of Puerto Rico, Kenya’s Kevin Owiti, Brazil’s Lucan Montandon and the representative of El Salvador, David Arias.

Special Awards
Tristan Cameron, 28, Scotland: Extreme Challenge
​Chris Bramell, 23, England: Sports Challenge.
​Rohit Khandelwal, 26, India: Multimedia Award
Zhousheng Chang, 23 : Fashion & Style Challenge
Rafal Jonkisz, Poland: Talent Award.

The show was hosted by Miss World 2013, Megan Young and former Mr England Jordan Williams.

The first runner up position was awarded to  Oczella Eszter while  Dukai Babett walked award with the title of of second runner up.

Top 5 Miss World Hungary 2016: Dukai Babett, Oczella Eszter, Gelencsér Tímea, Somossy Barbara, Szigligeti Ivett.

Special Awards: Miss World Hungary 2016 Audience Award went to Dézsányi Bianka