How Megan Young continues to conquer the ‘World’

Megan Young

Megan Young, the country’s first and only Miss World titleholder, will be the first to tell you that appearances can be deceiving.

“The crown I won in 2013 may have given me more confidence, but I still get nervous during interviews,” she discloses. “It probably doesn’t show, but deep inside, there are times na nanginginig pa rin ako (I still get nervous), because you don’t want to get caught saying the wrong things.”

“I really don’t know why it took the Philippines a long time to win Miss World,” she muses. “In my case, it was probably the right timing and strategy. It isn’t as easy as it looks, and those questions are hard to answer. I mean, do we really get asked these questions on a daily basis?

Like studying for an exam

“Let’s be real. Nakakaawa ang contestants because they don’t have any idea what they’re going to get asked—will it be about politics, education, or something involving everyday life? It’s like studying for an exam.

“So, when I competed for Miss World, I was happy that the questions were more ‘realistic’—about who you are as a person or how you approach certain situations, rather than, say, ‘What is the essence of being a woman?’

“There’s nothing wrong with questions like that—it’s just that, they don’t really show a contestant’s personality, especially if she isn’t as natural of a speaker as the others are, or if she’s afraid to stand in front of people.”

Unfiltered candor

Up close and personal, it’s this unfiltered candor that sets Megan apart from other beauty queens, whose “derivative” answers sometimes make them look as bland and boring as they’re beautiful.

Like, when a bell started ringing during our one-on-one chat with her, Megan looked around when somebody quipped: “Parang simbahan.” Then, we playfully teased her, “Si Mik (Mikael Daez, her boyfriend of seven years) na lang ang kulang.” And she retorted, “Good segue (laughs)!”

Megan was in high spirits despite the fact that she came straight from taping her scenes for her GMA 7 drama series “The Stepdaughters” (which she topbills with Mikael), to the Cosmo Skin launch at Raffles Makati. She showed us a photo of her taking a “power nap” while waiting for the event to start, saying, “Wala pa akong tulog. I just slept on a chair.”

Fascinating

This is precisely why it’s fascinating to see the 28-year-old actress “in action.”

Her answers don’t sound “manufactured”—whether she’s explaining what she thinks are former Miss World 2016 finalist Catriona Gray’s chances as the country’s bet to the Miss Universe 2018 pageant, discussing with convincing zest why she’s endorsing Cosmo Skin, or detailing the unique attributes needed to do well in the Mr. World pageant (“It’s a very intense competition, where the hunky contestants look like James Bond. They engage in a lot of manly sports and even train with the British Marines”).

Winning a beauty title has changed her for the better, Megan enthuses: “It helped me mature a lot. I know I’ve become more aware of my surroundings and the people I associate myself with—and that isn’t a bad thing.

“But, I acknowledge that it has also made me more careful and responsible with the things I do and the decisions I make in life.”

Megan says she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with contestants “hopscotching” from one pageant to another.

She explains, “Some of the girls I competed with at Miss World previously competed in other international pageants, like Miss Universe and Miss International.”

More platforms

“It only means that there are more platforms available for them to explore and conquer. I don’t want to discourage them from pursuing their dreams.

“Catriona [Gray] has a good shot at winning Miss Universe because she’s such a strong competitor. What’s great about her is that she knows what she wants and, even more importantly, she knows what she’s doing. It’s easier when a girl knows the path she wants to take so she can make decisions for herself. That’s one quality that’ll make her win the crown.”

Speaking of crucial decisions, why did it take Megan a long time to admit that she and Mikael were a couple?

A lot of factors

“We got together in 2011, but there were a lot of factors we had to consider,” she replies. “I was with ABS-CBN then, while he was with GMA 7, doing auditions.

“When Mik was cast as the lead actor in one of his first shows (‘Sana ay Ikaw na Nga’), they were like, ‘You can’t have a girlfriend or you can just hide the fact that you have one’—because they were building up his love team with Andrea [Torres].

“So, I said OK, and it worked for us. Kaya nada-dyahe talaga ako when people would ask me what I was doing for Valentine, because I was like, ‘Do you really want to know?’

“The reason why we’re still together after all these years is because, while it’s true that Mik and I are in show biz, we’re not [show biz].

“When it’s work, we’re super connected to what we need to do, but away from our work area, we’re disconnected from it all.

“We’re a go-with-the-flow kind of people. When traveling, he’s the type of guy who would grab a backpack and go. He brought that spontaneity out of me. We might finally go to Europe this year—that’s what we’re saving up for.

“As for those talks about marriage, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Yes, we’re of age, and we talk about it, but that isn’t in our immediate plans yet.

“But this much I can say, we’re not into ‘engrande’ and big gestures, so that’s something you guys can expect from us in the future. We like things simple and uncomplicated.”