Jason Harris
Mrs. Universe Australia provides a platform for the country’s most beautiful, confident, and honourable women to compete for the Mrs. Universe Australia title. Mrs. Universe Australia is a unique organization that provides a platform where all women are represented and supported. The Mrs. Universe Australia finalist must be between the age of 18 to 55, have a family, have her own career, and be involved with a significant cause in favour of other people. The Mrs. Universe pageant is not just open to married women, it’s also open to divorced or widowed women. The idea that unites them is the motto “against violence” which in different years covers different causes. Past finalists have gone on to use their platforms to advocate for significant world issues as well as build successful careers.
After passing regional screenings, 10 finalists were selected to compete for the Mrs. Universe Australia 2022 title. Below is the list of candidates:
Lili Cao
Lili Cao is a 42-year-old entrepreneur who hails from Greenvalley – she was originally born in Nha Trang Vietnam, and she’s a self-employed lash beautician. She speaks English and Vietnamese, she’s a mother to three beautiful children, she loves running businesses, she loves the outdoors, and enjoys all kinds of sports. She’s very friendly and she loves to be part of the community to contribute in a humanitarian way or work with people to be their best as much as possible. She also strongly believes that the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Rukeshma Lata
Rukeshma Lata is a proactive woman that comfortably juggles between her career, her two teenagers, community involvement, and being a socialite. She’s a fashionista and always have been since she was a child. Her passion for fashion has led her to many ramp walks as a model and through joining pageants, she wants to make a difference in the world through social justice causes such as inequality and discrimination. She grew up in Fiji and then moved to New Zealand before coming to Australia in 1998. Coming from a family where volunteering your time for the community was a natural thing to do – As soon as she arrived in Australia, she started the same here. She’s a volunteer for Rural Fire Service with Macarthur Catering, Middleton Grange Station, and her love for cooking and having her own page called Cook’s Creations is where she inspires many people about healthy cooking and ethnic foods. In fact, this is what led her to join the catering team at RFS. Supporting child orphanages is something she’s also passionate about as it gives her so much satisfaction to show empathy and kindness towards the less fortunate. She supports girls and boys orphanages in Fiji and Nepal and she’s happy that her children have taken on the role of ambassadors for these orphanages and support them through clothes, stationery, and money.
Joanna Gunay
Joanna Gunay is a 33-year-old, proud wife and mother of 2 beautiful children. She was born in the Philippines and raised here in Sydney, Australia. Joanna is a graduate from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor in Oral Health – she’s currently working in an Orthodontic practice in Castle Hill. Her passions include health, fitness, and well-being, and she loves to spend time outdoors being active. During her reign as Miss Philippines-Australia in 2012, Joanna represented the Australian-Filipino community through various social and charity events both here in Australia and in the Philippines. She started modelling after being scouted by an agency and since then has worked with different photographers, she has also walked the runway for various well-renowned designers. It is her advocacy to promote awareness of the plight of women and children suffering domestic violence and help create change. She believes that true beauty exudes from within and would like to use this platform to inspire and empower other women to value their self-worth.
Patricia Singh
Patricia Singh is a 33-year-old Fiji Indian living in Sydney, Australia. She’s a proud mum of two and she’s a nurse who’s currently finishing up her laboratory skills studies – she’s also got an account and leadership background. Patricia is a makeup artist as well which is her personal hobby apart from doing charity work for her beloved Fiji at Fiji blind school and other non-profit organisations in Sydney. She loves supporting charity events and her platform is advocating domestic violence as well as its effects on mental health. She’s very privileged to be part of Mrs. Universe Australia – meeting new challenges and getting support from her director and her lovely queen sisters.
Monique Cantalejo Rivera
Monique Cantalejo Rivera, with an inspiring story of struggle and success, is an accomplished entrepreneur, wife to Engineer Joven V. Rivera, and a loving mom to Nicoh Jovelyn and Johan Patrick as well as an ardent advocate of children’s welfare and protection and volunteer charity worker through Onessimo Foundation. She is not a newbie in pageant competition having participated in Eat Bulaga’s Beautiful Girl in 2002 and won as Dream Girl 2nd runner-up. She also holds the title of Mrs. South East Asia a few years back before becoming Mrs. Universe Philippines Laguna 2021. Aside from her family, her greatest motivation in joining pageants is not the allure of fame that goes with the crown, but the platform it gives and the bridge it builds between her and the generous people and corporate sponsors willing to lend a helping hand and those children in difficult and vulnerable situations.
Vannet Meas
Vannet Meas is a 39-year-old hard-working mother of two beautiful girls. She comes from a Cambodian/Chinese background and she has a degree in Fashion Design and Aged care. Her passion at the moment is caring for the elderly and those with a disability. She decided to follow her heart and work as a Disability Support Worker to support herself and her family. She can speak Khmer, Thai, and English. She’s proud to be part of Mrs. Universe Australia 2022 and she would like to encourage others to fulfill their dreams and to believe that if you put your mind to it you can achieve your goals in life. She wants to set a good example for her children to follow and empower other women like herself and let them know that no matter what we have been through we can come out stronger and better. In her free time, she loves travelling and going on adventures, and spending quality with her family.
Yelitza Martinez
Christine Escalante
City of Manila’s Christine Escalante is a proud mother of three beautiful children. Also, a successful lady who owns several firms such as Custech Contact Center Philippines (a BPO), GVHR Trading, and Construction to name a few. A multi-faceted and talented queen, she is also a freelance commercial model and movie actress under Star Magic and current host of ATC International at TV 31. A philanthropist at heart, Chrizzie as she is fondly called, is an active officer of different socio-civic organizations such as VP of Wanita Filipina, an organization that aims to empower women, President of League of Empowered Women in the Philippines that aims to support domestic women in their mental, spiritual and emotional needs and lady queen of WCEA or World Council of Educators Association, which is a charity organization for professionals, helping children, the elderly and people with disability.
Debasrita Mukherjee
36-year-old Debasrita Mukherjee is a mother of a 10-year-old gymnast, a wife, and the dutiful daughter of two beautiful souls, who has taught her great life lessons. She feels life is too short to be good at one thing. Hence, she’s an HR professional working for an esteemed organisation in Sydney. She’s also a Bollywood, Indian classical, and belly dancer as well as a plus-size model and an influencer. She’s an advocate of mental health awareness as well and she strongly stands for women’s rights, empowering them and creating domestic violence awareness.
Susan (Sue) Turner
Susan (Sue) Turner came from a wonderful family with a mother who was a head nurse and a beauty queen. When Sue was only seven years old, she won the little miss MS multiple sclerosis pageant; this started her journey towards her passion as a beauty queen. From there, she worked tirelessly with her mother in many charities. Some of the charities she supports include Domestic violence association Sydney, MS multiple sclerosis, Child’s vision Australia, Breast cancer foundation, Wesley Mission, Salvation Army, Cystic fibrosis foundation, Starlight foundation, and Destiny Rescue. She is the director of Crimes Against Humanity Missing Persons Australia and has worked alongside the justice system to help prevent criminal activities. Sue is a global mentor within the pageant industry to all beauty queens worldwide as a featured public figure influencer. She has also won many awards as a beauty queen including Mrs. Global World International, Mrs. Earth Air Australia 2017, Mrs. International Global Australia 2018, Mrs. International Global Australia 2018, Humanitarian International 2018, Woman of the World 2018, and AGSA’s International Beauty Queen of the year 2019. Sue is currently the CEO of GEQ (Global Elite Queens) magazine and Global Elite Media Group and her vision is to give voice to those who inspire to become the best they can be in their industry.
Jason Harris
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