Many people know Katarina Rodriguez from her modeling career and as a contestant for Asia’s Next Top Model Season 2. Her Beauty Queen days had started in Binibining Pilipinas in 2017 where she bagged the title for Miss Intercontinental Philippines. She then represented the Philippines in Miss Intercontinental pageant held in Egypt where she got 1st runner-up, Miss Media Popularity Award and 1st runner-up in Best in National Costume.
From there, Katarina jumped to Miss World in hopes of pushing for her advocacies through the pageant.
Katarina, 26, is a model, athlete and DJ. She has always been a loyal advocate of HIV awareness through the Red Whistle and Save Sexy. They are local collaborative platforms that aims to educate and support those who are living with HIV and AIDS. During a Miss World Philippines event held in El Nido Palawan, Katarina was very vocal about how everyone should join the cause of educating everyone about the disease. She says that everyone should be able to understand it and diminish the norms.
Though considered as a front-runner when the competition started, Katarina had remained humble throughout her journey. She won special awards like the Miss Blue Water Day Spa, Miss Cosmo Skin and Best in Long Gown where she wore a Francis Libiran Creation. She was on top of the polls along with Alyssa Muhlach Alvarez who got the Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas 2018 title.
You can watch her winning answer below:
Video via GMA News
“I’d like to think that one should live by example. And I actually would like to admit that I was one of those before. Until I learned more about what beauty pageants are about. One thing I can tell you is that you may think it’s very competitive but it’s not. You understand beauty pageants when you know that it is actually not competitive against other women. It’s actually competitive towards yourself. And in a sense, it’s all about woman empowerment. And you can feel that in this group of girls. Each girl knows that we are all individually beautiful”.
Katarina is set to compete at the international Miss World pageant on December in China.
