HotmailMiss Universe on modeling, plastic surgery
Post-win, Dayana Mendoza says she’s still ‘floating on emotion’
 Richard Drew / AP Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza, 22, says that since winning, "I still don't have my feet on the ground. It's like I'm floating on emotion." |
 | Slideshow |
 | Miss Universe 2009 Venezuela's Stefania Fernandez, 18, makes history, beating 82 competitors to win Miss Universe for her country's second consecutive victory. more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | more photos |
| Slideshow |
 | Beauty queen scandals They may be beautiful, but the competition can get ugly. From blackmail to sabotage, check out the underside of the pageant circuit. more photos |
 |
 7-year-old dubbed ‘young Picasso’ Dec. 5: Like many kids his age, Kieron Williamson likes to draw and paint – but that’s about where the comparisons end. NBC’s Amy Robach speaks with the talented young painter and his family. |
Dayana Mendoza put a promising modeling career on hold to go for — and win — the Miss Universe crown.
"Being a model is just great. You show a brand, a beautiful dress," said the 22-year-old Venezuelan. "But being Miss Venezuela and Miss Universe, you have the opportunity to go all over the world and have contact with the people and show yourself, and that's what I really wanted."
After years of strutting along catwalks and learning to speak three languages, Mendoza's savvy in front of cameras and an audience paid off at last week's pageant.
"I had been working as a model since I was 15, traveling in various countries around the world, but I felt I needed more," Mendoza said.
She spoke with The Associated Press this week in New York, where for the next year she'll share an apartment with Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, and be the public face of a global campaign against HIV and AIDS.
Since winning, she said, "I still don't have my feet on the ground. It's like I'm floating on emotion."
Mendoza is the fifth Miss Universe from Venezuela, where beauty competitions are something of a national sport — the pageants hard-fought, and the contestants widely dissected by the public and the media. (The last winner from the South American nation, Alicia Machado in 1996, found herself in a swirl of controversy soon after when she put on a few pounds).
Mendoza said she has no dietary secret for keeping a pageant-winning figure because she never had to worry about what she eats.
"I have an accelerated metabolism, thank God. And thanks to my mother, from whom I inherited it," she said. "Just drink a lot of water, go to the gym and eat healthy. That's the best thing."
As for plastic surgery, which is common in Venezuela and said to be a fixture on the beauty pageant circuit there, Mendoza said that's a personal decision.
"The problem is when you start to have surgeries to look like someone else," she said.
Did she go undergo surgery in preparation for the contest?
"Asking me that is like asking a woman her age," Mendoza said.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BEAUTY PAGEANTS |
 Beauty pageants Section Front |
| Add Beauty pageants headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links
Resource guide