"Fame or Shame?: Digging into Janina San Miguel's unexpected rise to fame"

One question. Yes, it took only one question and Janina San Miguel, the 17 year-old beauty who grabbed the Ms. World title in the recently concluded Bb. Pilipinas pageant, is now a household name and ultimately gaining celebrity status. And to revive the humor and awe, I think it would be necessary if we recapture again the moment when the Philippines met Ms. Janina San Miguel, the beautiful lady that has taken our country by storm.....

Paolo Bediones: Janina, how are you?

Janina San Miguel: I’m fine.
Paolo Bediones: Alright, so you won two of the major awards - Best in Long Gown, Best in Swimsuit, do you feel any pressure right now?
Janina San Miguel: No, I don’t feel any pressure right now. *smiles*
Paolo Bediones: Confident! Alright! Please choose a name of the judge.
Paolo Bediones: We have Miss Vivienne Tan.
Vivienne Tan: Good Evening.
Janina San Miguel: Good Evening.
Vivienne Tan: The question is, what role did your family play to you as candidate to Binibining Pilinas? Janina San Miguel: Well, my family’s role for me is so important b’coz there was the wa- they’re, they was the one who’s… very… Hahahaha… Oh I’m so sorry, Ahhmm… My pamily… My family… Oh my god… I’m… Ok, I’m so sorry… I… I told you that I’m so confident… Eto, Ahhmm, Wait… Hahahaha, Ahmmm, Sorry guys because this was really my first pageant ever b’coz I’m only 17 years old and ahahaha I, I did not expect that I came from, I came from one of the taft 10. Hmmm, so… but I said that my family is the most important persons in my life. Thank you.

"Beauty with no brains". "Too dumb for an international competition". "The judges were more foolish for letting her win". These are only some of the unreasonable comments I found posted on you tube.com while watching the video clip showcasing Janina's famous lines. Poor girl, I thought. Those remarks from judgmental people are undoubtedly directed to this young girl who just forgot how to have grace under pressure. It's quite easy to throw nasty remarks on this person because we are not trying to imagine ourselves being on her shoes. Without a doubt, answering a simple question in front of thousands of people will get the hell out of your nerves and can turn the most intelligent and confident person into a speechless jerk. That girl is not good in speaking English but that same girl also has the qualities and the makings of a beauty queen. It's really unfair to label her as 'beauty without brains' for the simple reason that genuine intelligence cannot be measured by how fluent a person is in speaking English. Hence, to those people with ''superior I.Q." and are judging this poor little girl because of her 'petty' grammatical errors, be thankful that God has given you that kind of intelligence but also remember that it doesn't give you the right to humiliate anyone you think is inferior than you. No one is perfect and everyone of us commits mistakes........mistakes that do not define us as a person but mold us to become better persons. Lastly, this Janina San Miguel-grammatical error issue wants to teach everyone of us a valuable lesson: Do not let anyone or the society to dictate you of what to say or do. In case of Janina, she was stuck on the stereotype that questions on beauty pageants ought to be answered by English alone in order to make an 'outstanding good impression' on the judges. Sadly, she got out of her comfort zone, failed to show her real personality, was not able to answer the question and ended up being a 'mess'. She could have nailed it had she used the language she is most comfortable with and dared to be different. To put it in realistic terms, we have our lives of our own and we are put here on earth to live our own ideas of life and not somebody else's. Therefore, we are free people that must celebrate the essence of real freedom, which is the ability not to care on what other people might think. Let's live and love life!