Naelah Alshorbaji was crowned as the new Miss Earth Philippines 2021 queen during the virtual finale held on 8th August 2021. Naelah succeeds Miss Earth Philippines 2020 Roxanne Allison Baeyens of Baguio City at the end of the event finale and will represent the Philippines at Miss Earth 2021.
Representing the Parañaque City, Naelah is a Filipino-Syrian beauty who works as a professional model and is also a real estate agent. The diva is 23-years-old and stands 172 cm tall. She is a professional model and has worked in television and print advertisements. She is excited about taking over the crown duties and starting her preparations for Miss Earth 2021. She was one of our favorites for the crown as well.
During the final question-and-answer segment, the top 10 candidates were all asked how they plan to move forward to achieve their goals in life despite the ongoing pandemic. For her winning answer, Alshorbaji said, "Despite the restrictions in terms of pandemic, we have social media for us to progress and move forward. I think that’s the beauty of the generation that we are going through right now. Moving forward, I think I could accomplish my goals and dreams regardless because I have a bright future even if during the pandemic. I hope that inspires people around us."
Naelah grew up in Syria surrounded by farm animals. Her fondest memories include going swimming and spending quality time with the Alshorbaji-Alzamik clan. She moved to the Philippines at the age of 11, because of the Syrian civil war. She believes, “Not knowing something doesn’t degrade your intelligence. No one knows everything but not being afraid of making mistakes is important, the wanting and willingness to learn is true intelligence and bravery in my opinion. Never be afraid of mistakes because mistakes are the greatest teachers that life can give, it’s either you win or you learn.”
She is not new to pageants as before joining Miss Philippines Earth 2021, she won Miss Parañaque 2019 and placed fourth runner-up in the Miss Manila competition in 2017. Naelah said she joined Miss Philippines Earth so she could have “a greater platform to promote the change I want to see in the world.” Aside from being a commercial model, Naelah also promotes mental health awareness through her Youtube channel ‘Master Peace with Naelah.’ She’s also into various sports such as boxing, arnis, golf, aerial yoga, and surfing.
She advocates to reduce current plastic waste by turning them into usable products. “I chose this because I believe that plastic is a serious issue that needs to be tackled with a better solution. We may need to stop single use plastic but we also need to figure out how to deal with the current plastic waste overload,” she explained.
Naelah will represent the Philippines in the upcoming Miss Earth 2021 pageant. She is vying to become the fifth Filipina to win the Miss Earth title following Karla Henry (2008), Jamie Herrell (2014), Angelia Ong (2015), and Karen Ibasco (2017).