As South African Zozibini Tunzi received the Miss Universe crown on Sunday, she said the moment made her feel "so proud" as she accomplished a long-awaited goal.
"It feels like I'm really doing something I set out to do. I really wanted so badly for young girls and women to look at me and see themselves represented and see their faces represented in mine," Tunzi told Cheddar Thursday.
When she won the crown Sunday night, the 26-year-old said "I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me — with my kind of skin and my kind of hair — was never considered to be beautiful. I think it is time that stops today. I want children to look at me and see my face, and I want them to see their faces reflected in mine."
A self-described activist, Tunzi said she hopes to continue her work against gender-based violence and in favor of gender equality.
During the competition, Tunzi wore her hair short and natural, which she called "a symbol of my firm belief in fair representation."
This year marks the first time Miss America, Miss Teen USA, Miss USA, and Miss Universe are all black women.
"It's so important for people to see things in order to believe them," she told Cheddar.
Celebrities and excited viewers chimed in online to offer congratulations to the new Miss Universe, including Oprah who tweeted, "Agree with you...leadership is the most powerful thing we should be teaching young women today."
Corey Calliet, celebrity fitness trainer and creator of ACHV Fitness, joined Cheddar News to give an insightful look into training movie stars recently and provide some tips to build a good physique with his new app.
It was a night to celebrate for the stars of “Everything Everywhere All at Once" as it becomes the biggest movie in the awards multiverse. It took a long while for all the cast members to gather in the press room at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where they won best ensemble to go with individual awards for Michelle Yeoh, Key Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The creator of the Dilbert comic strip faced a backlash of cancellations Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”
Angela Bassett won entertainer of the year at Saturday's NAACP Image Awards on a night that also saw her take home an acting trophy for the television series “9-1-1.”
Publisher Penguin Random House says it will publish “classic” unexpurgated versions of Roald Dahl’s children’s novels, after criticism of cuts and rewrites intended to make the books suitable for modern readers.
