By Wong Khung Ming
Not All Rainbows and Butterflies
Having watched the reality show of Miss Universe Malaysia 2012, the contestants made being glamorous and beautiful seemed so easy and effortless. This year, my friend joined the competition and has made it to become one of the finalists.
I went up to her, jokingly telling her how great it must have been to have people make you beautiful all the time. She suddenly became very defensive, giving me insights of life as a beauty contestant which totally changed my view. ALL the effort in making the show a success, I suddenly feel the contentment of being a medical student!
The girls begin their day at 5am in the morning as they rush to shower, dress up and get their hair and make-up done. On certain occasions where make-up artist and hairstylist are brought in, getting ready could take up to HOURS – (which makes sense as there are 17 girls in line). The promotion video for Miss Universe Malaysia 2013 which lasted for a mere 30 seconds, took a total of 12 hours to shoot (including make-up time) !
The amount of effort put into each shoot is so tremendous; every small detail has to be PERFECT! For example, while shooting, the competitors’ ‘baby hair’ has to be carefully gelled down to ensure no stray hairs can be seen on camera as the lightings are so detailed; and not to mention the amount of retakes! Thus, even a scene that lasts one second can take around one hour to film!
Since most events, shootings and challenges only finish by 12midnight, the competitors will only get to sleep at 2am as they have to clean up before bed – No clogged pores!
Their hectic schedule means they barely have any free time. And even if they do, it will be spent at the gym working out that perfect figure. This is not surprising as body image is so crucial for all beauty competitors. This also means that their diet is tightly restricted with meals consisting of a low fat and low calorie diet. Such a gruelling schedule combined with the tough diet led to some health troubles with the girls as they had constipation in the first few days of the competition due to trouble adjusting with the lifestyle. Even though most competitors were not used to the hectic schedule they knew all these were preparing them for things to come.
Difficulties of the Inexperienced and Short
As this is the first time my friend has entered a beauty pageant, she did not really know what to expect from the competition. She thought she could balance both her life as a medical student as well as a MUM competitor but it turns out to be really hectic for her. Nearly every weekend she has to rush back to KL after classes to attend events/shootings while her friends and coursemates spend the weekend relaxing or studying.
She also encountered many challenges in the competition. She had to go up against competitors who were more experienced in this field and thus knew more catwalk techniques while she had problems balancing alone. Talking to people and in front of the camera was difficult even for an outspoken person like her as being outspoken and loud is considerably different from saying and doing the right things, especially on TV. Living with so many other strangers with different character and personalities also posed a problem at first as everyone wasn’t used to it.
One of the more interesting aspects of this year’s MUM was that they started accepting shorter candidates into the competition. It might seem as an improvement to an industry that only accepts individuals of 170cm and above but even so, shorter participants are at a disadvantage as most designer clothes are made to fit those who are taller and thus it can be difficult for them to fit into it and make the clothes look good even with heels on. But what is most important when faced with this problem is to maintain your confidence and to try your best as quoted from finalist Trisha Kuck, “I accept being short as my shortcoming; I regret that I cannot improve it but I carry the confidence that I represent the majority of Malaysian woman with an average height of 153.3cm.”
8TV is airing the 5-episode reality show, The Next Miss Universe Malaysia 2013 every Sunday, 10.30pm.
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