Andrea Meza from Mexico was crowned Miss Universe 2020 on 16th May 2021 at the finale held at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, United States. Andrea succeeds and was crowned by Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi, who enjoyed the longest reign due to the delay in hosting the 69th edition.
The 26-year-old Andrea beat 73 other contestants to win the coveted crown. Andrea was crowned Mexicana Universal 2020 at the finale held on 29th November 2020 as she became the official representative of Mexico at Miss Universe 2020. Since winning Miss Universe 2020, Andrea Meza became the third woman from her country to win the Miss Universe crown.
Family and Background
Meza was born on 13 August 1994 in Chihuahua City to parents Alma Carmona and Santiago Meza. She grew up in Chihuahua City as the eldest of three daughters and has Chinese ancestry. After completing secondary school, Meza enrolled in the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, where she studied software engineering.
Pageantry
Prior to being a part of Miss Universe 2020, Andrea began her pageantry career in 2016 where she represented Chihuahua at Miss World Mexico 2016. At the national finale, Andrea was one of the two contestants awarded a crown, being crowned as Miss Mexico 2017 while Ana Girault, representing Mexico City, was crowned Miss Mexico 2016.
Thereafter, Meza represented Mexico at Miss World 2017 which was held on 18th November 2017 at Sanya City Arena in Sanya, China. In the pre-pageant activities, Meza won group sixteen of the Head-to-Head Challenge, which gave her direct entry into the top forty. Additionally, she placed as the fourth runner-up in the talent competition. At the end of the event finale, Meza was adjudged as the first runner-up. Meza was additionally crowned Miss World Americas, placing her within the 2017 Miss World Continental Queens of Beauty.
Humanitarian Work and Advocacy
Andrea is also the Tourism Brand Ambassador for Chihuahua, promoting the best tourist attractions and its rich culture. She is also an activist focused on women’s rights and inclusion and currently works closely with the Municipal Institute for Women which aims to end gender violence.
Profession
Hailing from Chihuahua, Andrea is a software engineer by profession. The newly crowned Miss Universe 2020 Andrea is also a certified make-up artist and model. Andrea practices CrossFit and extreme sports, such as rappel and sand-boarding.
Interestingly, Andrea even turned vegan because she was concerned for the well-being of animals and the world.
Andrea’s winning answer and final statement
As her final question, Meza was also asked how she would have handled the COVID pandemic if she was the leader of her country, and said she would have started a lockdown earlier.
She said, "I believe there is not a perfect way to handle this hard situation such as COVID-19. However, I believe what I would have done is create the lockdown even before everything was that big because we lost so many lives and we cannot afford that. We have to take care of our people. That's why I would have taken care of them since the beginning."
During her final statement, Meza was given the topic of changing beauty standards, and offered an inspiring answer. "We live in a society that more and more is more than advanced, and as we advance as a society, we've also advanced with stereotypes," she said. "Nowadays beauty isn't only the way we look. For me, beauty radiates not only in our spirit, but in our hearts and the way that we conduct ourselves. Never permit someone to tell you that you're not valuable."