Miss Universe Netherlands 2023, Rikkie Valerie Kolle.
Miss Universe Netherlands 2023, Rikkie Valerie Kolle.
A transgender woman has won Miss Netherlands for the first time in the Dutch beauty pageant’s 94-year history.
Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, received the title and will go on to represent her country at the Miss Universe contest in December.
“I DID IT!!!!” Kolle wrote on Instagram following the event.
“I am so proud and happy I can’t describe it. I made my community proud and showed it’s possible.
“And yes I’m a trans woman and I’d like to share my story, but I’m also Rikkie and that’s what counts for me. I did this on my own strength and enjoyed every moment.”
She will be the second trans candidate to compete in the international pageant, which will be held this year in El Salvador, after Angela Ponce took part in the pageant in 2018. The Spanish trans model had been crowned Miss Spain earlier that year.
Kolle, of Dutch and Moluccan descent, grew up in the city of Breda between Rotterdam and Antwerp.
‘A voice and role model’
At five-foot-11, Kolle towered over her fellow competitors at the AFAS Theatre in Leusden.
In her entry profile for the competition, she said she wanted to be “a voice and role model”.
“I know better than anyone what it’s like to feel alone and not be surrounded by only positive thoughts,” she wrote.
Miss Universe Netherlands 2023, Rikkie Valerie Kolle.
Announcing their decision, the jury said: “This finalist shone throughout the show and made the most progress.”
She “has a solid story with a clear mission”, the jury said after the verdict in Leusden.
Kolle’s entry to Miss Universe as the second trans candidate reflects just how far the competition has come since its first show in Long Beach, California in 1952.
In 2012, it lifted a ban on transgender contestants while co-owned by Donald Trump.
The former president reportedly praised the inclusion of transgender women in the pageant, only to vow earlier this year to “defeat the cult of gender ideology”.
Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, a Thai media tycoon who is a transgender woman, bought the Miss Universe Organisation in 2022 for US$20 million.
