What it takes to win Miss Universe, the crown UAE-raised Kaziah Liz Mejo wants

Dubai: In two months, a 19-year-old law student who went to school in Abu Dhabi will walk onto one of the biggest stages in pageantry, carrying India's hopes for a fourth Miss Universe crown.

Kaziah Liz Mejo won Miss Universe India 2026 in Jaipur on 23 August. She now heads to the 75th Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico in November. So what does winning actually involve, how are contestants judged, and what does the title mean for the woman who wins it?

The final takes place on 24 November at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mexico's Fátima Bosch, the reigning Miss Universe, will crown her successor.

Puerto Rico is eight hours behind the UAE, so the final is likely to fall in the early hours of 25 November here. The broadcast time has not yet been announced.

No one applies to Miss Universe directly. Each country runs its own national competition, and only the winner goes forward.

Kaziah's route ran through two of them. She first won Miss Universe Kerala, then beat 51 other women at the national final in Jaipur. She is the first Keralite to win the Miss Universe India title. Before that, she finished first runner-up representing India at Miss Teen International 2025.

The field she'll face has also changed in recent years. Miss Universe has allowed married women and mothers to compete since 2023, and in 2024 it confirmed it had removed the upper age limit for contestants over 18. Height and weight restrictions were dropped at the same time.

Most of the judging happens before the televised final.

Ahead of last year's pageant, the Miss Universe Organization confirmed there are only four official stages of evaluation: the interview, the national costume, the evening gown and the swimsuit presentation. The organisation said these are the only moments the judges consider when deciding the result.

The interview happens behind closed doors, away from cameras, and it is where a contestant's personality, advocacy and communication skills come through. On the runway, judges look for confidence and stage presence.

Scores from these preliminary rounds decide the Top 30, who are revealed at the start of the live final. At last year's edition, the Top 30 walked again in swimwear and gowns before being cut to five, then three, for the final question and answer round. The format can change from year to year, so this year's cuts may differ.

The final answer on the night carries enormous weight.

At the national final, Kaziah's closing question was: what is the sound of silence to you personally? She described the calm that comes over her on stage.

"My entire world goes blank, and I'm just there to enjoy the moment," she told Gulf News.

She was far less calm once the result came.

"My heart was beating out of my chest and the second that they called my name, I actually screamed on stage, like out loud. I screamed because I couldn't digest it."

Winning Miss Universe is a full-time job for a year. The titleholder acts as the organisation's chief ambassador, appearing at media interviews, sponsored events and charity drives around the world.

The organisation does not publish its full prize package, but last year's winner was reported to receive a cash reward of $250,000 (around Dh918,000), a monthly allowance of $50,000 (around Dh183,600) for travel expenses, and a residence in New York City. The crown she wears is valued at around $5 million (about Dh18.4 million).

India has taken the crown three times: Sushmita Sen in 1994, Lara Dutta in 2000 and Harnaaz Sandhu in 2021.

It was Harnaaz's win that set Kaziah on this path. "The first ever show that I ended up watching was the year that India's Harnaaz won, and I think that moment really changed my life," she said. "It changed how I saw the world, and it changed what I wanted to be as well."

Kaziah comes from Mavelikkara in Kerala's Alappuzha district, but spent much of her childhood in the UAE capital, studying at Emirates National School, St Joseph's School and Abu Dhabi Indian School.

She sees that upbringing as her edge on an international stage.

"One of my strong suits at the moment is the fact that I have lived in a country which is so welcoming of every single ethnicity, of every single person, irrespective of your background, irrespective of what your journey was," she said. "The UAE made sure that I was connected with my roots in India, while also being connected with the rest of the world."

She has also pushed back on the idea that pageant contestants must starve themselves. "If you have to starve yourself for a body, then that body is really not yours, right?" she said.

The 2026 edition arrives after a difficult year for the organisation. Several members of the selection committee for the 2025 competition publicly raised concerns about irregularities in how it was run, and Puerto Rico's hosting committee reportedly asked for changes before confirming this year's event.

For Kaziah, the focus is on the stage itself.

"We are so prepared to bring the fourth crown of Miss Universe back to India," she told ANI.