From garbage dump to throne: Meet Anna, Thailand’s most beautiful woman

Anna Sueangam-iam, 23, won the title at the pageant of Thailand’s most beautiful women at Iconsiam shopping malls’ True Icon Hall at 8.40pm.

The show started with 29 beauties sashaying on the stage before 18 were voted out and the five most beautiful chosen for the final round.

Eventually, Anna beat her competitors and won the crown, surrounded by runners-up Nicolene Limsnukan, Kanyalak Nookaew, Suchata Chuangsri and Renita Veronica Pagano.

When asked what she would do to boost the morale of people suffering across the world, Anna said: “You’re not the only ones facing despair. I used to be in despair too. We learn from our troubles to adapt and survive. I would call on all of you to have confidence in yourselves and rise to fight again. If I can, so can you.”

Despite winning the crown, Anna came in sixth with just 3.2 per cent of the public votes on the Miss Universe Thailand website. The fourth runner-up Renita led the list with 28.1 per cent and the first runner-up Nicolene came in second with 25.2 per cent.

Though the new Miss Thailand Universe goes by the name “Anna”, she does not have a foreign parent like Renita, Nicolene and several other “favourites”.

In an interview with Komchadluek Online earlier, Anna said that the general speculation was that she would not win the crown because she is not “luk khrueng” (half Thai).

“Yes, I saw such comments. Some members of my team showed them to me, but I didn’t feel anything. I think I will do my best. I think being luk khrueng or not is not the main criteria to being chosen as Miss Thailand Universe,” she said in response to the speculation.

Born on November 10, 1998, Anna completed a bachelor’s in arts with honours from Kasetsart University.

Hardship was not unfamiliar to this beauty queen. As a child, she played with toys her parents, who worked as garbage collectors for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, found in the trash.

However, her beauty was also recognised in other pageants. In 2018, she was crowned Miss Mobile Thailand 2018 and won the second runners-up title in the 2020 Miss Beautiful Thailand pageant. Yet, she was also dubbed “Miss Garbage” due to her parent’s profession.