srirachini:

“I wanted to prove that darker-skinned girls can make it in the Thai beauty world too,” she says. “Before the contest, I told my [fans] that I wished to represent all the girls who felt insecure about their dark skin. I said, ‘I will try to win this contest to give you a leg to stand on’ .” 

“Many Thais want to be [light] and those with dark skin try to hide it. They think they aren’t good enough but I’ve shown them that this isn’t true.” 

The 22-year-old aspiring singer and model has since been inundated with messages from fans saying she’s helped them change the way they feel about their skin. 

“They tell me, ‘I won’t try to be pale anymore. I will be proud of myself’.”

As a young girl growing up in Surat Thani in the South of Thailand, Maeya often dreamed of being crowned Miss Thailand. 

“I practised my beauty queen wave every day — I was a real wannabe,” she jokes. But she discouraged herself from getting too hopeful, aware that there were very few dark-skinned Thai beauty pageant contestants. 

“I would tell myself, ‘They don’t like people with dark skin. Only people with pale complexions are considered beautiful’. But when I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought, ‘I am pretty! I’m just a different kind of pretty’.”

- Nonthawan “Maeya” Thongleng (x)