Monday, January 29, 2007 Her borders By Jenara Regis Newman
NATALIE Glebova, Miss Universe 2005, is more than just a beautiful face and a beautiful body (tall at 5’11", and slim but with curves in all the right places), this we found out during her visit here. She was a member of the board of judges for Miss Cebu, but she took time to meet with the press at Krua Thai, whose owners are the sole distributor here of Singha beer, the company of which she is a brand ambassador.
Glebova was born in, Tuapse, Russia but migrated with her family to Toronto in Canada when she was 12. She finished bachelor of commerce and marketing at Ryerson University, did modeling work and was a motivational speaker for grade school and high school students.
Representing Canada, she won the Miss Universe title in the pageant held in Thailand in 2005. To be in this or in any other beauty contest, Glebova says, the contestant “must be able to project herself naturally on stage and must define what it is she wants out of the title.” It could be just to have fun, to have all the attention, or to have a more serious objective like making it a learning experience.
In her case, it was to be able to campaign for AIDS awareness, to do something about AIDS. True to her aim, she is “trying to set up my own foundation for AIDS-Asia.”
As Miss Universe 2005, she did a lot of traveling but found Thailand, from day one, a most beautiful place, and Thai food most appealing to her taste. So she has relocated herself and now lives in Thailand where she has lent her image to beer brewer Singha Corp., which also has other products like mineral water and soft drinks. It’s the latter products she drinks, as she does not drink alcohol.
For Singha, she travels wherever the product is available and where the company tells her to go, which is why she found herself for the first time in Cebu (first time also in the Philippines) where Singha beer was introduced in December, marketed by Thai-Phil Intertrade which also runs the Krua Thai chain of restaurants.
Aside from AIDS-Asia foundation, she is trying to set up, Natalie Glebova also has a cosmetic line coming up, under the brand Fah Glebova International, as well as a book on how to be healthy, happy and beautiful. Watch for it!
