Get to know Miss Earth 2022, Mina Sue Choi, the first Korean to win the crown
Korea's Mina Sue Choi has been crowned Miss Earth 2022.
Mina bested 85 other beauty queens to win the crown in the pageant's coronation night held at the Cove Manila in Okada Manila on the night of Nov. 29.
Read on to find out more about the first Korean woman to win the Miss Earth crown:
Wanderlust since birth
Being Miss Earth definitely requires one to be a jet setter, and the 24-year-old is no stranger to traveling and being immersed in cultures unlike her own.
"To most people in the world, the question 'So, where are you from?' is straightforward," she shared with Miss Earth.
"For me, however, this conversational item requires a bit more thought because my itinerant upbringing has allowed me to put down roots in so many different places."
Though she has no Australian accent during paegants, she was born in Sydney, Australia and attended public Korean schools. From there, she went on to live in Vancouver, Canada, the US, China, then back to Korea.
She is now currently a Communications Student at the University of Illinois.
Free spirited traveler
As evident from her action-packed Instagram account and travels all over the world, it's no wonder that Mina turned out to be a gorgeous free spirit with a serious case of wanderlust.
She also mentioned that the wildest thing she's ever done was book a ticket to Bali without informing her parents: "It was my first time traveling alone to an unfamiliar place, but I recall feeling very adventurous, lost, yet curious."
"Despite the long flight hours and delays, it was worth the risk. Not to mention, Bali was absolutely beautiful."
Based on her Instagram, she's also a big fan of posing in photo booths—either alone or with friends.
A history-making first for Korea
Mina first competed and won the first-runner-up crown in Miss Korea 2021.
Since then, she's been hard at work to make her country proud and take home the first victory for Korea on international beauty pageants such as Miss Universe, Miss International, and Miss World.
With her momentous crowning, she now blazes the trail as not only the country's first queen to win Miss Earth but the other four big international stage pageants.
Meanwhile, other "elemental queens" also received the nod during the Nov. 29 coronation night such as Australia's Sheridan Mortlock (Miss Earth Air), Palestine's Nadeen Ayoub (Miss Earth Water), and Colombia's Andrea Aguilera (Miss Earth Fire).
