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Angelique Manto says experience as an 'insecure' pageant first-timer is her 'highest point' in life

By JUSTINE PUNZALAN Published Feb 23, 2023 9:39 pm Updated Feb 23, 2023 10:12 pm

Years-long training and an undying will to win are some of the things that make up a beauty queen's success. For Miss Universe Philippines (MUPH) 2023 candidate Angelique Manto, insecurities also play a vital role.

Angelique has been one of the crowd's favorites in the upcoming MUPH 2023 pageant, making headlines when she submitted her application last Feb. 13.

Prior to being announced as one of the pageant's 40 candidates last Saturday, Angelique was known for being a UAAP courtside reporter for the University of Santo Tomas back in 2017. In 2014, she was crowned Miss Pampanga, Mutya Ning Kapampangan and Mutya Ning Lubao.

Although she's been proving that confidence is queen through and through, the MUPH candidate admits to still having insecurities. It was pageantry, she said, that taught her how to find the beauty in them.

Angelique revealed this to PhilSTAR L!fe and other members of the press who attended the launch of Lazada's LazBeauty Room at SM Megamall Fashion Hall on Feb. 21.

The 25-year-old beauty queen began, "I've had my moments when I wasn't my best, my confidence wasn't at its peak. You would see me on Instagram, showing my skin, very confident, and being a hubadera of some sort, but I wasn't always like that."

"I think it's funny because right now, I'm in pageant, but the first lowest point in my life was when I joined my first pageant at 15 where I had to battle with college girls and I'm an insecure high school girl," she continued.

Angelique recalled being shy about her body "because I was chubby back then," she said. Because of that, she would have a hard time detaching herself from people's perception that her body is "not what [they] deem of a beauty queen," with her stretch marks and "thick bosom."

Despite feeling anxious because her figure does not live up to pageant standards, Angelique finished her race in the competition, with the coveted crown.

"That night, I won," she said. "So going back to that pageant life has a funny way of telling you something, making you realize that you should not be defined by their standards, and you can tell them more about different facets of yourself beyond physical beauty," she added.

"I feel at that moment that it was my lowest, but I also realized that this is a wake-up situation for me that to be at my lowest is a realization of my highest point," Angelique continued.

"So if I would go back, I would tell myself to not stick to the standards of other people because there will be a time when you wake up, they will be celebrating you for who you are."

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In her Instagram post announcing her application for MUPH 2023, Angelique said that her father has been one of her biggest supporters—even carrying her in his wheelchair when she won Miss Pampanga—up until he "took his last breath" eight years ago.

Apart from her supportive family, the beauty queen revealed she gained her confidence from knowing that Filipinos with the same skin tone as hers are now being acknowledged by various makeup brands.

"Back then there wasn't really any foundation available for our color, for morenas, for that range of color," Angelique said at the LazBeauty Room media launch.

"Since they're mostly Western brands, they weren't really catering to Southeast Asian colors. Some would say, take this color, it will oxidize, it might turn darker, it might fit you, but then again it's not gonna happen 'cause it's still light on our skin," she recounted.

"Now, they are a lot of local brands that cater to morena skin, kayumanggi, all skin tone, all shades. We're very happy because now, we can enjoy makeup, explore without the fear of 'Oh, it's not gonna look good on me, it's not gonna fit my color, it's not the right shade for me.'"

All these gave the beauty queen the confidence and grace to be proud of her insecurities and to tell naysayers, "You cannot tell me bad things about myself or my flaws because I treat them as uniquely mine or what defines me."

Looking back, Angelique has this for advice for all Filipinos struggling with insecurities: "I just want you to know that there is enough space for everyone, whatever beauty you have. I think that's the very essence of what Filipina beauty is, knowing that there is space for each and every person with their own unique identities that make them beautiful."