Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach defended Bb. Pilipinas aspirant Malyn Bocar Bergamo after being bashed online because of her weight.
Pia posted her photo with this caption: “To this girl who auditioned for Bb PILIPINAS 2016 and was mocked online. I just wanna say that you are beautiful. Beauty comes in different shapes and sizes. You go girl!”
Pia’s post quickly went viral, with more than 60,000 likes and 7,000 shares as of posting time. Most of the netizens agreed with her.
“Confidently beautiful with a courageous heart,” said one fan. “It’s time to stand up for what true beauty is and it’s what you have here in your hearts!” Other comments were not as positive. “The bathing suit is not flattering,” wrote one user. “She’s so pretty, but need to be slim,” said another.
The 23-year-old aspiring beauty queen from marikina City immediately replied after reading Pia’s post. She wrote:
“They Laugh at me because I’m different, I laugh at them because they all the same!
“Okay, first of all I am very proud and thankful for the beautiful encouragement that Ms. Universe Pia Wurtzbach has mentioned on her status! Coming from a Ms. Universe, there will never be doubts at all that we are both confidently beautiful, hahah!
“And I think all women are beautiful! We should all feel beautiful!! For all the comments, negatively and positively stated, my humble thanks to all of you! No need to worry much coz right now I am into a harder move of trimming down to get back to my old body structure! Well,Probably next year will be the right timing for me to audition to this search!
“Lastly, I would like to leave in your minds that being beautiful is being innocently and purely happy of our everyday life! I am always inspired by my mom’s advice that whenever I join any beauty pageants she would always tell me not to aim for the win but to play happily and gleefully! Thank you! God Bless Everyone. Love lots!!!”
In an interview with ABS-CBN, Bergamo said her audition for Bb. Pilipinas 2016 was out of curiosity. “I wanted to see how the screening process worked,” she added.