Pageantry Review – Filipino beauty queen hopes to inspire other women

One of the most inspiring stories of 2020 was about an ordinary woman with extraordinary attributes and special aspirations who went on to conquer the universe in the middle of a global pandemic.

While the rest of us struggled in 2020, this empowered woman was busy turning the year we all grew to hate into her springboard to success.

Lorevie Rexie Lianko Carrascal decided to use a beauty pageant to be her platform in advocating gender equality, women empowerment and self-love. On Nov. 20, 2020, she was crowned Miss BeingShe Universe Grand Winner 2020 at Sofitel,The Palm in Dubai.

The grand winner of BeingShe Universe 2020 is determined to enjoy her two-year reign as she empowers her fellow women and carries on with her duties and responsibilities as its reigning queen.

She has a line-up of activities for the year which includes being a goodwill ambassador and spokesperson, a Netflix Originals Project, and several charity work projects for the town who once called her “ugly”, proving her naysayers and critics that the true definition of beauty is possessing a beautiful mind, a pure heart, exemplified in a life lived beautifully.

Born on Jan. 13, 1991, Lorevie was born in Pasay City. She is currently based in Dubai. Her parents are Nestor and Ginalou Lianko. She has two siblings Lovely Ressie and Loureanth Resty. This beauty queen doesn’t smoke and hates the smell of cigarettes. She doesn’ eat pork, white rice, crab (allergy) and drink liquor.

During her early years, Lorevie experienced bullying and discrimination for being chubby and “ugly”.

She grew up in a small, provincial town in Albay, Philippines where make-up artists refused to do her hair and make-up preferring to do her sister’s instead because to them, Lorevie is plain while her sister is beautiful.

There was one incident where she saved up her salary to fulfill her dream of having her hair and make-up done by the top make-up artist at that time only to be rejected because the latter thought “it is difficult to make her look pretty”.

She joined two pageants, one during her highschool years and one in her collegiate years where she placed first runner-up in both competitions.

Her determination and fighting spirit to give beauty a much deeper meaning was lovingly supported by her doting grandfather who always made sure to remind her that what others thought of her is insignificant by reassuring her with a loving nickname everyone still calls her to this day, Beauty.

Instead of being embittered by all the call names thrown at her by her peers and neighbors, she focused on developing herself and poured her time doing worthwhile activities such as being active in her community’s church choir, being a leader in her school, reading books to enrich both her vocabulary and life and consistently graduating Valedictorian since primary school.

She went on to pass the cultural exchange program in Fredericksburg, Texas U.S.A. and completed her bachelor’s degree in Tourism, majoring in Travel Management at the University of Sto. Tomas.

She worked as Head Category Analyst in one of Albay’s biggest mall chains, handling all the marketing and sales strategic plans. She hoped to broaden her horizon and briefly worked in the country’s capital as Front Desk Officer at V.I.P Suite Hotel.

Up until the BeingShe Universe pageant, Lorevie had been working behind-the-scenes as corporate administrator.

When an opportunity presented itself to Lorevie to work for the human resources department for a real-estate company in Dubai, she joined the 2.2 million Filipino hopefuls who work overseas in order to provide for her family’s growing needs and dreams.

As a modern-day woman, Lorevie balances her career and tending her family from across the miles to the best of her ability.

During the lockdown, Lorevie busied herself with sharing self-love tips on her YouTube Channel when she came across the Miss BeingShe Universe pageant campaign and decided to give it a try and the rest as they say, just fell into place as though it were written in the stars.

Lorevie went on to win the title of Miss BeingShe Universe 2020 as well as the Confident Award. The prestigious pageant was attended by the who’s who of Dubai, H.E. Roy Fernandes, Maher Al Khaja – the Michael Jackson of Dubai, Dorsai Khaghani, H.H. Sheikh Juma Bin Maktoum Al Maktoum and Dr. Antonio Rubel.

At 29, Lorevie is set to achieve more as her life goals and priorities become much clearer to her, as she continues to work on the kind of life she wants for herself and her family and as she fully embodies the true meaning of being an empowered woman, inspiring many along the way.

When asked what kind of charity work she is interested in doing, the loving mother of one said: “I am looking for an orphanage to sponsor. It has been my dream since I was a young girl to build one.”

She also wants to encourage her fellow women to be clear with what they want from life and from others.

“To my dearest fellow women out there, we all have our reasons as to why we do what we do. As a daughter, sister, wife and mother, our reasons are always going to be highly likely for other people;

“We sacrifice a lot for the people we love and care entrusted to our care. But please let us not forget to value and take good care of ourselves too. We can still move forward and have bigger dreams and goals in life while supporting the dreams and goals of our spouse and children;

“And to all the women out there who aspire to shine their brightest and inspire others, always start it with yourself. I always believe that you cannot give advice or inspire anyone better than having or sharing your own experiences.”