Rikkie Valerie Kollé has won the Overlook Netherlands crown, and she will turn out to be the second overtly transgender female to participate in the Miss out on Universe pageant.
“I DID IT !!!!!” Kollé, 22, wrote in an Instagram post after she was crowned in the pageant on Saturday, July 9. “Yes I’m trans and I want to share my story but I’m also Rikkie and that is what matters to me. I did this on my very own strength and loved every single moment.”
Later down in the caption, she wrote: “Wherever you are in the earth, I want to be there for you and be the example that I skipped as a very little me.”
She finished off her Instagram publish with crafting, “On to several far more adventures, let’s get @missuniverse ready. So psyched!!!”
Kollé, a Dutch-Moluccan design and actress, hails from the city of Breda in the south of the Netherlands. She formerly competed on the Tv set sequence “Holland’s Subsequent Best Model.”
“This finalist has radiated in the course of the display and has also built the best progress in the method,” the Overlook Netherlands 2023 jury said about Kollé, in accordance to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “She has a solid story with a apparent mission. The jury is persuaded that the organization will love functioning with this younger female.”
Kollé’s predecessor, Ona Moody, crowned her with a tiara on stage at the AFAS Theatre in Leusden, Netherlands.
The Overlook Universe pageant initial began to allow transgender participation in 2012, and the first openly transgender woman competed in 2018.
Despite the fact that no transgender female has won the Pass up Universe title still, much more transgender gals are beginning to enter the preliminary pageants, with Daniela Arroyo González set to compete for the Miss Puerto Rico title subsequent thirty day period.
Kollé, who underwent gender-affirming surgical procedures this previous January, wrote in an Instagram post following the process that she modified her name from Rik to Rikkie when she was just eleven years aged.
Kollé now aspires to serve as representation and a purpose design for young ladies and the queer group, according to her finalist website page. She hopes to inspire men and women to embrace their real selves, even in the encounter of rejection from their families and others about them.
She also stated that though she understands all as well perfectly “what it is like to really feel alone,” she is “stronger in my sneakers currently than at any time ahead of.”
The Skip Universe 2023 level of competition will be held in El Salvador later on this yr.
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