'Miss Universe does not want a shy person; they want someone who is stately, someone who has a personality that strikes, and I think, having seen what they want, I think I can do well.' Miss Guyana Universe, Odessa Phillips
ARMED with the crown from the local leg of the Miss Universe Pageant, and the experience of international pageantry, Odessa Phillips is poised to take the road to Quito mid-year.
Her victory on December 27 marked two in a row for the 21-year-old beauty.
She was crowned Miss Guyana World in 2002 and just about four months after relinquishing that crown; she won the Miss Guyana Universe Pageant.
The gift package includes representing Guyana at Miss Universe mid-year in the Ecuadorian capital.
Odessa has completed studies in law at the University of Guyana, and plans to read for a Masters Degree in corporate law at the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill campus in Barbados.
Having already been in an international beauty competition before, one would think it's all easy to hit it head on at another. But not so, Odessa says.
At Miss World, for which she visited Nigeria and London, Odessa said the delegates are expected to be the more conservative type, focusing on humanitarian issues and the likes.
In Quito, however, Odessa knows that while she would want to maintain the values of Miss World, she has to be aggressive this time around.
"Miss Universe expects flamboyance," Odessa said, having had the experience all ready.
She visited Panama in the middle of last year as part of franchise holder Odinga Lumumba's support party for then queen, Leanna Damond.
"Being there made me feel like I belonged on the Miss Universe stage. While I was sitting in the audience watching the show, I felt like I was performing," she told the Chronicle.
"Miss Universe does not want a shy person; they want someone who is stately, someone who has a personality that strikes, and I think, having seen what they want, I think I can do well," she said.
Odessa Phillips definitely has the charisma and the supermodel catwalk attitude needed at Miss Universe, and so she could very well be Guyana's best bet yet for Miss Universe!