A test tube baby & other facts about Rolene

CEBU, Philippines – Check out five things to know about Rolene Strauss, the 22-year-old new Miss World:

1. She’s a “test tube baby.”

Strauss says on her website that her parents had struggled to conceive for five years. “After five long years and most of their savings, I popped out of a test tube [through In vitro fertilization treatments],” she wrote.

2.She’s a model and medical student... and was basically born for it.

The daughter of a doctor and nurse, Strauss has been modeling professionally for the past several years and is currently a fourth year medical student at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. She had put her studies on hold to compete in Miss World.

“Everyone in my town called me Little Dr. Strauss,” she said in a pre-taped Miss World interview. “I was always the little curly-headed girl running around behind my dad in the hospital. I’m a test tube baby and I believe my passion for health was born with me. Being a medical student, I’ve learned that giving has a ripple effect.”

3. She’s bilingual.

Like many people in South Africa, Strauss speaks fluent English and Afrikaans.

4. She’s a heartbreaker.

In an interview with the South African TV Authority earlier this year, she was asked how many boyfriends she’d ever dumped. “I would say three,” she said.

She was also asked if she has a boyfriend and if she was single. “I definitely don’t have a public relationship,” she said. “As a Miss South Africa, people look up to you and see you as an independent, strong woman. That’s the picture I’d like to show people out there and I think it’s difficult to be in a relationship because of your busy schedule.”

5. If you take her out on a day, maybe you should avoid the vegan restaurants.

“My mother’s oxtail with stampmielies [a corn dish] is my favorite home-cooked meal,” Strauss told Oprah Magazine South Africa. “We have an old coal stove we use in the winter, and no oxtail can taste better than my mom’s, made on that stove.”