A Punjabi-origin beauty queen will represent Malaysia at the Miss Universe contest on January 30 in the Philippines.
20-year-old model Kiranmeet Jassal was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia 2016 in January last year. Besides the main title, she was also crowned Miss My Dentist Winning Smile.
Youngest in a family of four, Kiran is studying dentistry which she plans to defer for some time in order to keep up with her Miss Universe duties.
Kiran’s elder sister, Ranmeet- a doctor by profession, is also a model and former beauty pageant winner. Her mother Ranjit is a lawyer, and was the winner of Mrs Malaysia World 2015.
According to reports in Malaysian media, the Jassal sisters grew up admiring and idolising beauty queens, Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai and Miss Universe 1994 Sushmita Sen.
"Their stories resonated strongly with me because they did something else with their lives other than just being a beauty queen, especially with Sushmita Sen as she did a lot of charity work outside of Miss Universe," said Kiran.
