Areena Deshpande joins celebrity judging panel

For immediate release

Areena Deshpande joins celebrity judging panel on Miss Universe New Zealand

Auckland, September 1 (JY&A Media) Motivational speaker and mentor Areena Deshpande, who came to the attention of many New Zealanders after her story of surviving a tragic accident at age 2 was broadcast, is one of the five judges, alongside Frankie Stevens, Anna Jobsz, Samala Robinson and Evana Patterson, at Miss Universe New Zealand.

Ms Deshpande runs Unique Appearances, a consultancy specializing in helping people find educational and job opportunities. Her experience comes from a tragic accident when, aged two, she survived a horrific car fire that left her with severe burns, while taking the life of her five-year-old sister.

She says she wanted to be involved with Miss Universe New Zealand specifically because of her background. ‘What I’m about is redefining beauty in society. It’s more than physical appearance.’ Urging people to look more deeply at others, rather than what is on the surface, Ms Deshpande says that one should look at the essence of the individual.

Her role as a judge is to look similarly at the finalists. She says that her experience with Miss Universe New Zealand, which shares many of Ms Deshpande’s views on inner beauty, helps ‘change one’s perspective of how a pageant is run.’

Ms Deshpande is an advocate for educating and spreading awareness on burns, with a goal of providing a mutual understanding within society between those who have endured such injuries and those who have not.

Miss Universe New Zealand 2016 will stream live from Skycity Theatre in Auckland, on Saturday, September 3, at 7.30 p.m. NZST (0730 GMT), and will appear atwww.nextmissnz.com, on YouTube, 3Now, Stuff and Lucire. Media and the public are invited to embed the YouTube stream, which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/c/MissUniverseNewZealand/live.

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