MANILA, Philippines — Before conquering the pageant world as Miss World 2013, Megan Young had to conquer her fears first — of not having that “perfect” beauty queen smile.
From childhood, her insecurities of having “bunny teeth” carried over to adulthood.
“Especially when I joined beauty pageants, of course, I was always thinking about having the perfect smile, the perfect teeth. And when you saw me, I knew I wasn’t one of those girls and I knew that I didn’t have the perfect smile,” she recalled at a media launch earlier this week.
“But I knew deep inside that my smile was perfect already because I was so happy with my teeth. Parang, my bunny teeth, I love it that they’re unusual and you would know that I’m different from other girls. I learned to own up to my imperfections.”
Accepting who she is, including her teeth, not only paid off for Megan’s self-confidence. Like Mimiyuuh, Megan can’t believe that she scored a toothpaste endorsement because of her teeth.
“Ako rin, ‘di ako makapaniwala na I’m working with this company that focuses on your teeth, smiles, kasi I always thought na I don’t think I’m going to be the right person because you always see on TV – perfection!” she declared at her launch as one of Colgate’s new faces.
“So I love that we’re able to represent ourselves and show them that no matter what your smile looks like, you are beautiful for who you are regardless of your smile. You might be imperfect in other people’s eyes but that is your smile! And you own that and nobody can take that away from you!”
For her, “coffee is life,” so she takes two cups of coffee every breakfast. But through Colgate’s new Optic White O2, a range of teeth whitening products that aims to unleash radiant smiles powered by Active Oxygen Technology, she now does not have to worry about coffee stain on her teeth.
“People always have something to say about you. There will always be that basher and that person always has something to say. Maraming ‘mema’ – may masabi lang,” she advised those who were also not confident with their smiles as she was.
“So we should not let that get the best of us kasi alam natin sa sarili natin, we know what our worth is!”
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