The 95th edition of Miss Netherlands which ended on Sunday created history after it crowned the first-ever transgender winner
Rikki Valerie Kolle, a 22-year-old Dutch-Moluccan model became the first-ever transgender woman to win the coveted Miss Netherlands beauty pageant
Rikki posted a string of photos and the video of the historic moment on social media. She captioned the post, “I did it! It’s unreal but I can call myself Miss Netherlands 2023. It was an educational and wonderful process, my year can no longer be broken. I’m so proud and happy, I can’t describe it. I’ve made my community proud and shown that it can be done. And yes, I’m a trans woman and I want to share my story, but I’m also Rikkie and that’s what counts for me. I did this on my own strength and enjoyed every moment.”
Rikki Valerie Kolle is a Dutch-Moluccan model and actress from the city of Breda. She earlier participated in Holland’s Next Top Model
The runner-up for this year’s Miss Netherlands was Nathalie Mogbelzada from Amsterdam. The pageant also gave the title of Miss Congeniality to Habiba Mostafa and the title of Miss Social Media to Lou Dirchs
With the historic win on Sunday, Rikki is now set to compete in the 72nd edition of the prestigious Miss Universe in El Salvador later this year. Rikki is the second transgender woman to compete in the global beauty pageant after Angela Ponce who won the crown of Miss Spain in 2018. The historic competition allowed transgender women to participate in 2012
Angela Ponce is a 32-year-old model and actress from the city of Seville in Spain. She created history by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to win the crown of Miss Spain in 2018. She then went on to create another record by being the first transgender woman to participate in Miss Universe later in 2018
Earlier this year, Miss Transqueen India also hosted the sixth edition of the beauty pageant for transgender women in the country. The competition is hosted in New Delhi
This year, Arshi Ghosh was crowned as Miss Transqueen 2023, while Ella Dev and Victoria Taying came as first and second runner-ups. Arshi is a 24-year-old transgender woman from Kolkata. She participated in the competition along with 14 other trans women from across the country
The 72nd edition of Miss Universe will be hosted by El Salvador, the same was announced at the final of 71st edition earlier this year. Last time El Salvador hosted the historic pageant in 1975. The current Miss Universe is R’Bonney Gabriel who won last year’s Miss United States