by DANIELLE GAY

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Miss Australia’s Maria Thattil On How She Prepared For Miss Universe, Speaking Out About Racism & What’s Next

“I actually quit my corporate job back in November 2020, once I became Miss Universe Australia. At the time, I was working in my corporate career full time and I was calling all my work on social media and digital a reverse side hustle. I was afraid to acknowledge it as what I wanted to do, but since quitting, I’m a writer, speaker and a creative.”

Maria Thattil Former Miss Australia 

“I ended up placing in the top 10 in the world [at Miss Universe] and the lesson that I learned was how important resilience and self belief are when you’re doing anything. Just because something hasn’t been done before, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

“In the lead up [to Miss Universe], I had a lot of racism, and a lot of criticism, based on the fact that I was a woman of colour representing Australia.  [I’ve realised] fighting anger with anger is not fruitful. My voice is a lot more impactful when I can take what happened to me and use it as a teachable moment. I can speak to people with compassion and try to understand why people think the way they think.”