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Stefania Fernandez Photo Courtesy www.missuniverse.com
Venezuela sure knows how to produce a beauty queen.
For the second consecutive year -- and sixth time in 57 years -- the Miss Universe crown on Sunday was awarded to a Venezuelan.
On Sunday, Miss Venezuela's Stefania Fernandez (pictured), 18, fell to her knees upon learning she was the winner, then danced in ecstasy.
"What do we Venezuelans have?" Fernandez told reporters after the pageant, according to NPR. "That we are ourselves."
Runner up this year went to Ada Aimee de la Cruz from the Dominican Republic.
Last year's winner, Venezuela's Dayana Mendoza, handed the crown over to Fernandez on Sunday.
An international relations student, Fernandez is of Spanish Galician, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish origin, and enjoys tennis and swimming.
Miss Universe isn't the only pageant in which the Venezuelans have excelled.
In addition to winning six Miss Universe crowns since the pageant's inception in 1952, Venezuela has racked up five Miss World and five Miss International titles. The victories are no mere coincidence.
The country has long been fixated on beauty pageants, even creating entire schools dedicated to grooming potential queens. Contenders for the crown undergo an intensive six-month training session, in which they are coached in speech, physical fitness, make-up, modeling and other skills required for the competition, according to the Mirror.
On Sunday, Fernandez told reporters she believes women have finally achieved equality with men in the professional world.
"I feel we have reached the level that men are at," she said.
