Rikkie Valerie Kollé, Miss Netherlands 2023, can nonetheless hardly imagine she received her nation’s annual pageant.
She spent all day on Saturday getting ready for and having fun with each second of the ceremony that night time, which was attended by the reigning Miss Universe, the American R’Bonney Gabriel.
The present, which began at 8 p.m., flew by, “and two and a half hours later I was Miss Netherlands,” Ms. Kollé, 22, mentioned in a telephone interview on Tuesday, including that her victory “had finally sunk in.”
Ms. Kollé’s win is historic: She is the primary trans girl to win the pageant within the Netherlands, and he or she would be the second overtly trans girl to compete in a Miss Universe competitors when she represents her nation in El Salvador later this 12 months.
As the primary trans girl to be named Miss Netherlands, Ms. Kollé mentioned she hoped to be there for her group and assist younger queer folks, in addition to increase consciousness of the lengthy ready instances for transgender well being care within the Netherlands.
“I’m going to be an open book,” she mentioned. In February, a publish on her Instagram account outlined her experiences as a baby and her therapies as a youngster in addition to an replace about her gender-transition surgical procedure.
But being an open ebook on social media comes with lots of hate, too, and avoiding on-line negativity could be tough. Ms. Kollé mentioned she had confronted lots of on-line abuse and insults since successful the pageant, as had a few of her shut members of the family, together with her mom and sister.
Ms. Kollé shouldn’t be the primary Dutch trans girl to achieve the Miss Netherlands finals. Solange Dekker, a finalist from final 12 months’s competitors who took residence the title of Miss Social Media, went on to grow to be the primary Dutch Miss International Queen 2023 final month, an annual pageant for trans girls.
When she goes to El Salvador, Ms. Kollé would be the second trans girl to partake in a Miss Universe competitors. Spain’s Angela Ponce, additionally a trans girl, was a finalist in 2018.
“We’re really looking for the most beautiful woman in the Netherlands,” mentioned Monica van Ee, a member of the jury who selected Ms. Kollé this weekend. She can also be the nationwide director of Miss Netherlands.
She mentioned that whereas nationwide and worldwide media had been to speak about Ms. Kollé’s victory, lots of people had despatched upsetting and threatening messages attacking Ms. Kollé.
Anne Jakrajutatip, the proprietor of the guardian firm of Miss Universe who’s a trans girl herself, celebrated Ms. Kollé’s win in an announcement.
“My Miss Universe superfan conversion was sitting in the front row while Angela Ponce, the first trans Miss Universe Spain, walked the runway for the first time,” Ms. Jakrajutatip mentioned, including that she was completely happy to make an announcement that “trans women are women — and we are here to celebrate women.”
Ms. Kollé, who’s from the southern Dutch metropolis of Breda, has modeled since she was a youngster. She mentioned she selected to use to grow to be Miss Netherlands as a result of pageants supplied her an opportunity to inform her story.
As a mannequin, she mentioned, “you’re a bit of a clothes hanger. Otherwise you mostly have to be quiet.” But on the planet of pageantry, she mentioned, “it’s also important that you have something to say.”
Ms. van Ee, Miss Netherlands’s nationwide director, mentioned that over the past decade or so, the pageant had modernized. Now, moms, divorced girls and trans girls can take part, she mentioned. “I took over Miss Netherlands because I wanted to make women stronger,” Ms. van Ee mentioned. “I want to inspire young girls.”
She mentioned she had been shocked by the variety of unfavorable responses from women and men.
The excellent winner of a Miss Netherlands competitors will need to have a powerful presence and make heads flip when she walks right into a room. She additionally wants a message that may encourage others, Ms. van Ee mentioned. “Beauty comes from the inside,” she mentioned.
She mentioned that Ms. Kollé had been the strongest contender. “Throughout the whole process, she was the most beautiful woman,” Ms. van Ee mentioned.
“I was chosen for who I am and my story,” Ms. Kollé mentioned, “and not because I’m a trans woman.”
Source: www.nytimes.com