By Hermes Joy Tunac
In two months time, Catriona Gray is set to compete against 71 contestants worldwide for the Miss Universe 2018 crown. But before her ultimate goal of bringing honor to the country by hopefully winning the title, she proves that she is more than just a beautiful face with these five facts about PeopleAsia’s “Women of Style & Substance” 2018 Awardee.
She loved school as a kid
“I was a bit of a nerd. I took two Science and two Math subjects (per grade level). I loved numbers from a very young age. I feel like my mom led me there because instead of giving me Game Boy and PlayStations and a TV, she gave me educational software on our family computer for Math and stuff. By the time I went to school, I already knew the fundamentals and as a child when you have that confidence you can only get better.” (She also has a Music Theory diploma from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and can mentally rearrange a tune note per note)
She expresses herself well in writing
“I write my thoughts many times. I wasn’t the life of a party but when it came to writing and also identifying certain songs, movies, or Broadway shows that are really connected, I would always be able to pick them. I feel like I have that innate sense of being able to connect on a human level, being able to empathize, being able to understand where people are coming from, to put myself in someone’s shoes.”
She’s living on her own since she was 18
While she grew up very close to her parents, Catriona has been living on her own in Manila since she was 18. “I don’t have the habit of asking money from my parents,” she says. At one point, when her parents settled for a while in the Philippines, “I was the primary breadwinner.”
She is passionate in attaining what she wants
“I really invest myself into everything I do, which also means that I need to decide everything I do. When I was younger, my mom would tell me, ‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. If you have your first shot, give it all on your first shot.’ You don’t want to keep going back and back and back because you didn’t give everything that first time,”
She believes that beauty contests don’t represent a person’s intelligence
“I think that Q&A only shows someone’s spontaneity in speaking and not necessarily her intelligence. That’s why I like sit-down interviews and stuff because at least people can see who a girl is.”
(Photography by Dix Perez | Makeup by Ria Aquino for MAC | Hair by Ruel Papa | Styling by Luis Espiritu Jr. |Shot on location at the Grand Hyatt Manila)
