Beauty with a Purpose

SINCE she was young, Tatiana Kumar was constantly teased by her relatives as a “beauty queen”.
“My relatives would say ‘oh, look at Miss Malaysia here’, and I would have no idea what it is,” she said. However, this all became a reality when at the end of August, she was crowned as Miss Malaysia World 2016, beating 18 other contestants from around the nation.
The bubbly 18-year-old beauty, who was crowned with a diamond and ruby-studded crown by Ceres Jewellers, was surprised that she was chosen to represent Malaysia at the Miss World finals on Dec 8.
Her journey to achieving this title started when someone decided to tag her in a Facebook posting by Miss Malaysia World 2015 Brynn Zalina Lovett.
“In March this year, Brynn wrote a status on Facebook, asking who would be able to represent Malaysia this year – and someone tagged me on Facebook.
“I did not even know who tagged me ... but then I was approached by Brynn if I was interested in joining the competition,” she said.
Since she was waiting to graduate from a French school in Kuala Lumpur, Tatiana decided to take a leap of faith outside her comfort zone to join and tried for the pageant.
“I am quite shy and I do not really how to pose or to be a beauty queen – you need to fit a lot of criteria, and I am not sure if I fit the criteria.
“I did some research on beauty pageants and found out that it is not all about beauty only – it has to do with brains, knowing how to communicate and what is going on around the world,” she said. Based on her research, she learnt that participating in such a pageant would help her achieve one of her passions – helping underprivileged children.
“When I was doing research on the Miss World pageant, I found out that there is a lot of charity work involved. And this was a good thing, as I have always wanted to work with children and charity.
“So, I enrolled myself in this not just for the sake of beauty, but charity as well,” she told theSun.
Tatiana's goals coincidentally fit with Miss World’s slogan, “Beauty with a Purpose”.
Having won this title, she is now trying her best to prepare to face other contestants from around the world at the finals in Washington in December.
“I have the next few months to prepare. Whatever I have prepared myself for in Miss Malaysia World, I am taking this to the next level – including the catwalk, fitness, and talent act," she said.
Having studied traditional Indian dance and tap dancing while she was younger, Tatiana plans to wow the audience and judges at the international level with her tap dancing skills for the talent segment.
“However, this is also my main worry. From what I understand, some of the judges are tap dancers themselves – they will definitely have high expectations,” she said.
She also pointed out that the previous Miss Malaysia World had performed tap dancing in the finals as well, and she finds it difficult to emulate her performance.
“If there are a lot of contestants doing tap dancing, I will have to come up with something original ... fortunately, Brynn is around to advise me on how to prepare for this, physically and mentally,” Tatiana added.
Her moral support does not only come from her family members and Brynn, but also the other Miss Malaysia World contestants who had competed with her.
“Before this, my family and those involved with pageants had advised me to be wary of the girls in the pageant, as they will try to bring each other down in order to win the pageant.
“So, being in such a competitive event, I was expecting the worst ... but while staying with the others, it was not bad at all,” she said.
Instead, Tatiana managed to befriend the other contestants and had a great time going through the pageant with them, and there was no ill-feelings or jealousy amongst the girls.
“We still meet up, and we retained our chat group – they (the contestants) turn out to be among my biggest supporters,” she smiled.
Going through this pageant has indeed changed Tatiana's life – from spending most of her time studying at home as a student to being a social butterfly.
“When I was in school, I did not get to go out much ... but I get to meet a lot of people at events now,” she said, adding that her Instagram account followers have jumped ten-fold from 600 followers to 6,000 since she became Miss Malaysia World.
“And the numbers keep increasing daily.”
With this new-found popularity, Tatiana plans to use this to bring about the plight of underprivileged children in the country.
“It does not matter if I have won the title of Miss Malaysia World or not, nothing will change my passion for charity,” she said.
Noting that she has visited and seen HIV children as well as Rohingya refugee children and her plans to help them, Tatiana says that more will be done in the near future.
“And with this title, I plan to use this to my advantage ... being a public figure, it is easier to bring about awareness about such charities,” she added.
TRIVIA
WHAT MOVIES DO YOU ENJOY WATCHING? Anything comical as well as very cheesy romantic movies. I enjoy The Notebook starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
CURRENT MUSIC PLAYLIST: Any songs by 21 Pilots.
FAVOURITE FOOD: Sushi.
INSPIRATION: My second sister Talyssa.
COFFEE OR TEA: Tea definitely. Either green tea or chamomile tea.