Maureen Wroblewitz is the New Filipino Icon: She Screams Global

Maureen Wroblewitz is 1st Filipina as
Asia's Next Top Model

She's just 19, reportedly short at 5'6 for a model and somewhat shy, but Maureen Wroblewitz stood tall among all her fellow top models at Asia's Next Top Model competition cycle 5. What struck me as highly admirable about her is her mental toughness and her composure. She may look like this frail, beautiful girl but deep within her, she has an admirable, even noble spirit that screams Iconic.

Just like other Filipinos like her, Wroblewitz was bullied. Some models from other countries were threatened by her and wanted her out of their world.

One of them, an Indonesian by the name of Clara Tan, even confronted her and to her face, told her that she does not deserve to be on the Top Six. I watched that episode and her response to Ms. Tan's and even to that Malaysian girl's comments was totally amazing. (That Malaysian girl's name escaped me--Chikin Gomez? Ah, yes, Shikin Gomez. She's a product of an intermarriage, probably of an Indian and a Caucasian? Frankly, she looks like one of the walkers in Malate)

 " That's your opinion but you are not the one who decides on that" was a comment that you expect from a mature person. It was respectful. It was direct. And it directly addresses the issue head-on. If one hears that from a beautiful fairy-like face like Wroblewitz, you expect that face to turn into Satania the minute she spews that out. No. No change of face. She could be a bitch but she's a bitch that you'll love because you'll feel the honesty and you'll even feel guilty for thinking bad about her.

Many Filipinos living or working in other countries experienced the same thing. Some just shrugged it off. Others, well, they say their piece. I perfectly get it when this Clara Tan felt insecure before Wroblewitz and who would not? Wroblewitz looks the part of a top model while Clara, to be perfectly honest, is ordinary. Her face looks like an ordinary girl in some backwater Filipino community, and I think, even in Indonesia where she hails from, would agree with me that there are far more beautiful and more model-looking girls than her.

YU Tsai nailed it when he told Maureen that during photoshoots, he's like a chef training a cook. His "perfect little nodge" helped Wroblewitz improve her craft. Every Filipino working abroad would surely identify with that. When a Filipino is abroad, either working or studying, he is like a sponge. We immerse ourselves in our environment that's why I dare say, we, Filipinos are the most resilient, and an expert in survival techniques. We survive in every environment, be it as hot as the Sahara and as cold as Alaska, you'll find a Filipino working and sweating it out and competing among the rest of the world.

Sadly though, a part of why foreigners have this low regard about us, is probably their disbelief on why our country remains as violent as an African country and as poor as a Southern American one. Because when you meet a Filipino, you'll find none of the violent behavior the world sees every single day reported in several global news channels and none of the worrying poor financial handling that worsens poverty incidence in this country.

When you meet a Filipino, you meet somebody who is a globalist, someone who knows his place in the world and tries to at least make that part of the world, as beautiful and as amazing as he wants it. We are a beautiful race. We are an amazing people. Unfortunately, those who lead us do not deserve us. Inspite of our intelligence and most of us have great minds, we fail in creating a political and economic system that would benefit all of us and would eradicate the problems that make us the poor man of Asia.

I hope Wroblewitz make the right choices and see herself as a global treasure rather than a local one. The world deserves her. We don't. I hope Wroblewitz would not succumb to the glitter of easy money from our local tinseltown and instead, work hard to become an international icon.

I look at some of our actresses and some of them, and that includes Liza Soberano, deserves a spot in the international movie scene instead of them spending their precious youth and time doing those cheesy commercials and slapstick noontime shows. As I said, Liza, like Maureen, are gems who deserve global exposure. We must support these girls to carve an international career rather than just "settle down" and "become another Anne Curtis".

Just take a look at what happened to Georgina Wilson, Solenn Heufsaff, and Sarah Lahbati. They were so tied with local modelling work that, time just came and went pass them, and eventually they decided to just marry and raise their own families. Nothing wrong with that except that the world lost that chance of knowing them and probably, the world would have been different, even better, with having these girls walk the runway.

Give Wroblewitz the support to attract Hollywood. Her face screams global.