Miss Universe wants to help
2005-06-01 11:56
Bangkok - Natalie Glebova remembers being teased in school because of her Russian accent when she first arrived in Canada, but now as the newly-crowned Miss Universe she hopes to be a role model for immigrants all over the world.
The dark-haired, green-eyed 23-year-old beat snatched the coveted crown on Tuesday in an 81-woman pageant watched by as many as one billion people in more than 170 countries.
Representing the North American nation on the world stage was the last thing on her mind 11 years ago when she arrived in Toronto.
"We came with nothing, just our clothes and our bags, and started a new life in Canada," said Glebova just hours after the outgoing Miss Universe, Jennifer Hawkins of Australia, crowned her successor at a glittering gala in Bangkok.
Embracing the unknown
Born and raised in Tuapse in Russia, Glebova said she recalls "being really scared of the unknown" upon arrival in Canada.
Initially it was difficult and teenagers can be cruel sometimes, she said.
"It was difficult for the first few years until I really perfected my language and started believing in myself more."
She quickly thrived in her new ethnically diverse surroundings in Toronto. She says now she wouldn't change her lilting Eastern European accent for the world.
"We are so multicultural," the exhausted beauty queen said as she lounged in a hotel suite in jeans and a lilac sleeveless top, her Miss Universe sash carefully folded on a nearby table.
"Everybody is from somewhere else, either their parents or themselves. That's what Canada is all about."
Immigration a chance to start afresh
Part of what motivates her for her upcoming year as Miss Universe is the aim to help those with similar immigrant backgrounds, but who may have more difficulty adjusting from one culture to another.
Immigration "gives people an opportunity to start a new life just like my family", she said.
"I think it's great that countries are open-minded enough to let somebody who was not born in their country represent their country," she said.
Natalie's mother Anna Glebova, who abandoned her job as a Russian language teacher to become a computer software engineer in Canada, said the family moved in part to provide better opportunities for their daughter.
"I was pressuring her a lot," Anna Glebova said. "English lessons at three years old, piano lessons at six, extra mathematics classes."
Enduring her mother's intense educational regimen seems to have paid off handsomely for Natalie, quipped her father Vladimir Slezin, a former merchant mariner who also recast himself in the computer sciences.
"Now, for us, it's just a constant feeling of happiness," he said.
Glebova said her courageous parents "took a leap of faith by coming to a new country.
"It's like the American dream, I suppose. The Canadian dream."