The new owner of the Miss Universe organisation wants to bring about much needed change to an establishment seen by many as outdated, and use her platform to empower women
For the first time in more than seven decades, the Miss Universe organisation, known for its annual beauty pageant Miss Universe, is owned by a woman. And its new owner wants to bring about much-needed change.
Thai media mogul and transgender woman Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip is the founder and CEO of JKN Global Group, which purchased the Miss Universe organisation in October 2022 for US$20 million.
“Pregnant women, married women, divorced women—they are allowed to be in the competition,” says Jakrajutatip of the competition rules she has amended so far. “And of course, we allow trans women to come into the competition,” she adds; the competition was opened up to transgender women in 2012.
However, an age of limit of 28 for contestants remains, something that the recently crowned winner of Miss Universe 2022 wants to see change. “I would like to see an age increase because I am 28 years old and that is the oldest age to compete,” said R’Bonney Gabriel, who became the oldest Miss Universe winner to date. "As a woman, I believe age does not define us .”
Ultimately, Jakrajutatip wants to imbue the Miss Universe events, which also include Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, with meaning and to move away from the objectification of women to a celebration of leadership, particularly “transformational leadership”, she says. She hopes that the winners of the competitions under her reign will be women to look up to, as Jakrajutatip herself also hopes to be.
“I [will] go up on stage and talk, and all the women will look up to me as the mother of the universe. They help me as a role model and of course, I hope to behave as a role model for them. I live my life to become the iconic woman,” she says.
Transformation and leadership are characteristics that Jakrajutatip is intimately familiar with. Born Andrew, she says that as early as five she knew she had been born in the wrong body. Bullied at school by her peers, sexually abused by a teacher, and never accepted by society, she says that her life has been full of obstacles that she has had to overcome. “Forty years ago, it was extremely difficult. Gender equality—we did not understand that,” says the 44-year-old. “I had to learn a lot of life lessons. It took me a lot of years to turn those life lessons into power. You have to turn pain into power, and that’s called transformation.”
