Francisca Luhong James was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia 2020 on 5th September 2020 at Petaling Jaya, Selangor. She is now preparing herself to represent Malaysia at Miss Universe 2020 and is emerging as one of the strongest contenders for the title.
Recently, Francisca shared a guide on cultivating resilience in collaboration with Girls4girls Malaysia on her social media which showcased on how to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Women empowerment and proudly presenting her culture is the driving force behind Miss Universe Malaysia 2020. She sees Miss Universe Malaysia 2020 as both a huge responsibility as well as hope for many women with a similar background.
In her guide she has shared four major points on how women can support each other and grow together. She has mentioned that everyone should learn from their failures and use them as their motivation and push towards working hard and making all the dreams successful. Francisca shared that she has failed so many times trying to pursue thing in life and in this process, her failure became her motivation to grow and work hard. She wants to use the platform she has now to make young girls and women understand that failure is another step to success and one should always keep that in mind. The diva believes in being ambitious, having perseverance and knowing your purpose. Miss Universe Malaysia 2020 states, “People say, ‘You should just give up and try something else. But I say, this is what I want, and I’m in the process of learning’”.
The second point she mentioned was ‘Even strong women struggle sometimes’. She explained that women and young girls can be a strong individual and still face challenges in life which helps in building a character and makes one grow bold and help ones help you identify the purpose. Francisca mentioned that one may doubt yourself but always look at how far you’ve come and never underestimate your ability to inspire those around you. The diva further mentioned that one should never aim for perfection all the time rather get in the habit of turning each moment into a learning opportunity. She lastly added, “Girls with big dreams, become women with vision.”
Francisca added, “Your tribe is your backbone” as third point, which she explained that in life, everyone tends to have low moments from time to time and it’s very hard to get yourself back up if you don’t have a community to rely on. So, that is the moment when you should realize that having a back or a support system is very essential as they are the people who guide, listen and champion you. You need people you can trust to guide you too. You.
The last point that was added to the guide was “You can’t please everyone, but you can inspire them”. The diva who is preparing herself to represent Malaysia at Miss Universe 2020 shared that she received a lot of backlash and negative comments who asked her to quit and said that she should quit or she is not fit enough, beautiful enough and smart enough. But she stayed adamant with her goals and realized that people will always have something to say to you but you shouldn’t respond to the negativity. She lastly added, “Let them see you grow. Show them how resilient, passionate, and forgiving you are. You can’t please everyone but you can inspire them.”
The diva has shared, “In a way, I am opening a large door for other indigenous girls out there who has ever doubted themselves being capable of winning the title. Now, I hope they realize that they too have an equal chance to win and represent Malaysia.” Francisca hopes that with the guide provided the young and aspiring women would learn and understand to focus on oneself and trust the process of becoming women with a vision.