Paula Pérez attends us from the Aurika hotel in Bombay, the city chosen to celebrate the Miss World 2024 contest today. Despite having been awake for more than 16 hours, after an intense day of tests and activities, the young candidate from Spain shines on the screen . Considered this year the most beautiful woman in the country, this 28-year-old Valencian doctor demonstrates that the contest goes beyond physical beauty.
What have you done in Mumbai in the weeks leading up to the contest?
I arrived in Delhi on February 14 and stayed there for a week. Then they transferred us to Bombay, to the Aurika hotel, where I share a room with another candidate. During these days we have carried out the preliminary competitions. They are very intense days in which they study us and give us various tests. For example, there are interviews, public speaking activities, sports, talent. In this way they analyze our behavior, the skills and concerns of each one. I always say, jokingly, that it's a bit The Hunger Games.
Because of the competition?
No, because they study us. Precisely, regarding the competition, I am having a very good experience. In the national contest there was more competition, but here, what I am enjoying the most is precisely meeting these incredible women, from different countries and with very powerful stories. They are very prepared, intelligent girls, above all good people, and we are sharing a lot about our cultures. I am writing a diary where I write down, for each one of them, a cultural anecdote from their land.
What, in your opinion, is the jury looking for in a Miss World?
In the end they are looking for an ambassador of social work who travels to different countries and is the visible face of the Miss World organization, which is basically a humanitarian organization that collaborates with organizations that work with sick children, for example, the Global Gift. Therefore, candidates must have a good level of public speaking, languages and preferably a career with a social background.
But, the reality is that the physique matters.
Of course, it is very important. The physique is an instrument of beauty. Here we have to be groomed, put on makeup and they look for very pretty girls but there is no canon to meet, so to speak, nor specific measures. They are not necessarily going to choose the one that people consider physically most beautiful. They put many other things into value.
And you are a doctor, what led you to run for Miss World?
I loved medical school, but I felt that it turned off my more creative side. I realized that if I wanted to combine medicine with other studies I had to work, so I visited a modeling agency that was next to my house. They hired me and I did several modeling jobs. It's a world with such creative people: makeup artists, stylists, agencies. One day I went to the workshop of a designer I knew from the modeling world and he told me about the contest. I investigated it and saw that it was not so focused on the physical, but that they were looking for an ambassador for social work and that attracted me, because I had always been interested in giving voice to the importance of mental health.
What is your message about mental health?
We must talk about suicide prevention strategies, the need to increase access to psychologists in the health system; and in the educational part, give children and young people – highly exposed on social networks – the tools to manage and be able to talk without taboos about their mental health.
In this sense, how has the competition affected you?
It affected me more when I won the national championship. I've always been rather shy, and suddenly I felt very exposed. That made me very anxious and, in fact, I spent a week needing to stay in bed.
What is the best advice you have been given?
My mother embroidered the phrase "Believe in your dreams" on a canvas for me, and when I was little I took it literally because I didn't understand what it meant. She thought "I'm going to dream something and in the morning it will come true." Years passed and the phrase stuck in my head, and in the end I realized that when I have a dream I pursue it, even if it goes against the current. And my mother taught me that.
What is beauty for you?
Beauty is something that comes from within. Yes, the physique is an instrument of beauty, obviously it is part of this contest, but you can now be the most beautiful model in the world and if you treat people badly you will not have any charm. When you are a teenager, you compare yourself and think that you have to have a certain face. We all go through having our acne phase, being swollen. But in the end beauty is an internal feeling. When you have confidence in yourself and project it, you feel more attractive. We have to value ourselves, because no one will do it for us. For me, this entire contest has been a path of self-discovery and has given me a lot of self-confidence.
What is the first thing you will do if you win the contest?
Call my mother. Last year she had health problems, she went through a major battle and she is slowly coming out of it. For her this is like a celebration because she is just being discharged from the hospital on the day of the gala.
