Nadine Ann Thomas may seem like a typical beauty queen, but there is more to the 23-year-old beauty than meets the eye.
She can kick your butt, for one. Born and bred in Subang Jaya, the event and talent coordinator of Indian-Chinese-English descent started learning taekwondo at seven and got her black belt at 17. She even had a brief stint as a taekwondo teacher at Shah Alam.
"I’ve never injured myself during a fight, but I have injured someone else," she said with a laugh. She gave a girlfriend a broken jaw once during a sparring competition. "One of her teeth came out!"
Looking at the slender beauty now, one would never have guessed that she used to be a chubby teenager. "I was tall and gawky and I had bad acne," she recalled. In fact, her acne only cleared in the last two years after she started taking better care of her skin. But the awkward phase turned out to be a "good thing" because it kept her grounded and not look at things so frivolously. She lost the baby fat naturally as she grew up and also through exercise and martial arts.
So what made this one-time "ugly duckling" audition for Miss Malaysia?
According to Nadine, it had never crossed her mind to join a beauty pageant as a child, but this year’s tagline: "hip, urban, relevant and real" caught her attention. However, she went to the 'screen test' without expectations.
But despite winning the coveted Miss Universe Malaysia 2010 title, Nadine does not think she is any different from other contestants. "As clichéd as this sounds, everyone has her own strengths." But she believes it is her strong sense of purpose – to fight for young women and to guide them – that generated a great desire to win. "I put my heart and soul into the competition," she said.
The self-proclaimed feminist also expressed her thoughts on gender inequality.
"It is an Asian thing to look down on women – that they can’t handle stress or high pressure. Men and women are equal, but we are built to be different. Men may be stronger physically, but women have stronger emotional strength."
But what is a feminist doing in a beauty pageant? "Pageants are only silly if you make them silly," she replied curtly.
"People get the word feminist very wrong. They tend to relate it to ‘butch’ and ‘hairy armpits’. I love make up and I love doing my hair, but I will not let someone else tell me what I’m worth," she said. "Being a feminist is simply fighting for my right as a woman, fighting for equality in all aspects of life."
"I’m a feminist and if a guy can’t take that, he shouldn’t be with me."
She described her ideal man as intellectually compatible, understanding, someone who can make her laugh and someone she can be completely comfortable with. However, the beauty queen is currently single and "not looking".
Nadine is currently preparing for the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas this August.
While Miss USA contestants recently made headlines for posing in sexy lingerie, Nadine said she would never pose for provocative shots like that because she doesn’t think it is necessary. She is also a private person. "Sexy is fine, but not slutty."
The witty Miss Universe Malaysia also clearly detests the stereotype that pretty girls are dumb. "I think whoever said that is quite dumb," she said.
"Some pretty girls act stupid because they think that’s what they should be. But when a pretty girl says something really witty and makes you laugh, you never forget her," she said pointedly.
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