Filipino beauty queen Pia Wurtzbach: Life after Miss Universe

Gulf News

It’s been five years since Pia Wurtzbach won the Miss Universe 2015 title — becoming the third Filipina woman at the time to wear the sash. But there’s one tough lesson she had to learn the hard way when the cameras switched off.  Read the full story: https://bit.ly/2W7psHj  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  #PiaWurtzbach #Filipino #Philippines

Transcript

00:00This year kind of forced me to think about what really makes me happy.

00:04And I think I'm slowly learning the answer.

00:11You know, the thing I wish somebody told me was that

00:14after you win, you gotta work twice as hard to stay relevant.

00:18The peak is the win, and then the rain.

00:21And then after that, usually, like, you gotta work twice as hard

00:24to keep yourself up there, to keep yourself relevant and in the public eye.

00:29I don't do any, like, weird gimmicks to make myself, you know,

00:32to make people talk about me.

00:34But I continue with the work.

00:35So I still do, you know, activities like this where I get invited abroad.

00:39The work continues, basically.

00:42And yeah, I mean, this was my dream.

00:45And, you know, it's not difficult.

00:48If you love what you do, it's not difficult.

00:50I would like to have my own business.

00:53Right now, I am a brand ambassador and an endorser for so many brands

00:57back in the Philippines and also regional in Southeast Asia.

01:01But I don't have any of my own yet.

01:03But I've started already, a little bit.

01:05I have a milk tea business back home.

01:07I've also collaborated with a makeup line that's on sale here in Dubai, actually.

01:12It's called Tevian.

01:13So I've been trying my hand at entrepreneurship.

01:16I enjoy being in front of the camera and doing shoots and being glammed up.

01:20But I also wanna, like, learn how to do business.

01:23I wanna learn something new.

01:25I don't know if I'm gonna be an expert at it.

01:27I definitely did not go to school for it.

01:29I'm just learning through experience.

01:31But, you know, that's how it is.

01:33I wasn't a beauty queen right away.

01:35I failed a few times before I got there.

01:37So I know it's gonna be a rough ride if I wanna get into business.

01:41But it's something that I'm really interested in.

01:44I was there in Thailand when she won.

01:46I was actually, like, almost in the front row.

01:52It's so nice to see it from the audience point of view.

01:56Because I've been there as a contestant.

01:59I've been there as a judge.

02:00But it was my first time to be there as an audience member,

02:03where I'm literally there just to experience it.

02:06I don't have any responsibility to judge the girls,

02:09to write anything down, to be too critical.

02:12I'm just there to enjoy.

02:13And people would say to me before, like,

02:15oh, she's threatened because, you know,

02:19she doesn't want another Filipina from the Philippines to win.

02:22But once you're there, like, all of that goes out of the window

02:25because you just wanna raise the flag.

02:27You just want the Philippines to win.

02:29Everybody's so happy.

02:30How can you be the, like, the bitter one, right?

02:34Like, why would you wanna, like, ruin the party?

02:36I understand where they're coming from,

02:38especially if you don't know much about it,

02:40if you don't know what really goes on.

02:43Like, surface level, you only know that there's a contest on TV.

02:48They all look beautiful.

02:50Whoever is the best wins.

02:51But they don't really know what happens before that or after that.

02:55You only see the crowning nice moment during the show.

02:58But it's actually years of training

03:01before that girl gets to wear that sash on that stage.

03:05And these girls have a story to tell.

03:07They come from different walks of life.

03:09Some of them come from really humble beginnings.

03:12Each girl has a different story, and it's so interesting.

03:16Some come from professional careers.

03:18Some are lawyers.

03:19Some are doctors.

03:20Some come from the military.

03:22Some come from really broken families.

03:24Some come from conflicted areas.

03:28So, like, how?

03:29How do you get there?

03:32Coming, you know, going through all of these challenges.

03:34I'm really happy that pageants nowadays,

03:36especially Miss Universe, have more Q&A rounds.

03:39When, as before, there was only one question, and then that's it.

03:43But nowadays, there's so many interview questions

03:46because it's about getting to know the girl

03:48rather than picking the most beautiful one.

03:51So it's all about the whole package.

03:53It's really more than just a beauty contest now.

03:56Girls have a story to share, have a story to tell,

04:00have advocacies to push for,

04:03and try to find out what they also do after the ring

04:07because the work starts after the crown is put on their head.

04:10So what we see on TV is that a girl gets crowned,

04:13credits roll, and then that's it.

04:15You feel like, oh, yeah, she's done now.

04:17She goes home, and she's probably doing a modeling gig now.

04:20No.

04:21The work starts after the crown is placed on your head.

04:25And it's a responsibility because you can get replaced.

04:29There's so many people who want to be in your position.

04:31When I was training for Miss Universe or for Miss Philippines,

04:36we worked with so many different charities.

04:38So, of course, at the beginning, I didn't know much about it.

04:41I didn't know what I was doing.

04:42I didn't even know what advocacy I wanted to get involved in.

04:46I didn't know what I wanted to talk about, what I wanted to stand up for.

04:49But because I was exposed to so much of it,

04:51then I thought, wait a minute, I enjoy doing this and this,

04:55and these are the stuff that I really care about.

04:57So once you're exposed to it,

04:58and you kind of know which ones really resonate to you,

05:01it becomes easy.

05:03You gotta be able to connect to it on a personal level.

05:06Like for me, I have friends and lost friends because of HIV.

05:12And so it's close to my heart

05:15because it's not just something that I said during my final answer at Miss Universe.

05:19It's actually that something happened close to home.

05:23Or when I talk about mental health awareness,

05:26I've also gone through depression and anxiety myself,

05:31and people really close to me.

05:32So I relate to it.

05:34I have experiences.

05:36That's why I'm able to speak about it.

05:38It becomes easier when you have personal experiences.

05:41It's a nice feeling to know that I've helped out in my own way,

05:45in my little way.

05:46If I need to, I love doing repacking of relief goods.

05:50Like I just love being busy.

05:51I love being on the ground.

05:53You know, I love fundraising.

05:55I love raising awareness.

05:56I love speaking.

05:57So it's...

05:59And knowing that you're doing something good,

06:01you know, and you might change somebody's life,

06:04or at least help somebody.

06:05It's such a nice feeling.

06:07It makes me more proud to walk,

06:11to go home knowing that I've helped a family or somebody

06:16more than finishing a photo shoot.

06:18My New Year's resolution for 2021 is to

06:22not forget all the lessons that I learned this year.

06:25As much as we didn't like this year,

06:27I think it taught us so many lessons.

06:29Like not taking the little things for granted anymore,

06:33and going back to basics,

06:34and really just detaching yourself from distractions.

06:39I'm such a workaholic,

06:40and I've been working like every day straight.

06:43I didn't even know what a weekend was before.

06:46And so I realized I've been missing birthdays.

06:48I've been missing weddings.

06:49I've been missing real life experiences.

06:52And so years have passed after Miss Universe,

06:54and I barely have any real life experiences

06:57because I'm always at work.

06:58And then I realized that's not a way to live.

07:00I need to balance it.

07:03I need to have a balance.

07:04I need to spend more time with my loved ones,

07:06and spend more time with my family,

07:08do the things that make me happy,

07:10rather than just burying my mind or myself at work.

07:14So next year, I wanna,

07:17of course, I wanna continue all the projects

07:19that have been put on hold because of the pandemic.

07:22But I also wanna reconnect with people.

07:24I wanna reconnect with myself.

07:27And yeah, I feel like this year

07:32kind of forced me to think about

07:34what really makes me happy.

07:36And I think I'm slowly learning the answer.

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