‘Empress Universe’ is a platform where strong-spirited women from all around the world come together to bring a positive wave of hope.  The pageant is conceptualised by Shelly Maheshwari Gupta, who is the winner of many prestigious titles such as Mrs Universal 2017, Mrs India 2017, and Mrs Asia Pacific.

Also read: Empress Universe 2018: A unique global beauty pageant to be launched in India

Speaking about the concept to The Statesman, the founder of the unique beauty pageant Shelly Maheshwari Gupta revealed what inspired her to initiate Empress Universe. “Though visible, the amount of positive impact of beauty pageants was significantly lower than what it should be. I thought that we can use this platform to do more. A strong spirited woman with a noble heart, if empowered, can bring a great positive change to the world. What if we could ignite the dormant dreams of positive change inside the hearts of women around the world? What if we could inspire the aspirational and empower the inspirational?” she said.

Shelly Maheshwari further said,”When we delve deeper into the concept, we find the finer nuances, the threads with which the philosophy and vision are weaved around. Empress Universe is created to bring active changes to the society by taking small steps at the beginning which lead to long-term positive accomplishments.”

Focusing on unconditional positive empowerment, Maheshwari shared what she aspired to deliver with this pageant, saying: “Empowering anyone who is either on the downside of advantage or who has a dream to bring a change to the world. At Empress Universe, it truly doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from.”

Even the selection criteria are very innovative and the team wants all women to participate regardless of their body type, height, weight, or age.

Maheshwari plans to groom the contestants through international counsellors, beauticians, etiquette experts, and other experienced mentors. “We offer our contestants the opportunity to be truly world-class. There are four levels of the contest – city, state, country, and finally the grand finale. Till the country level, the training is web-based, keeping all women in mind.”

Read more: Give us equality and respect, we can breathe easy without flowers, chocolates!   

‘Empress Universe 2018’ will have its grand finale in Goa in December this year. Renowned international panelists and jury will evaluate the registered online participants for different titles at city, state and country levels.  Every country winners from all five categories, along with 3 runners-up in each category, will compete for the main title of ‘Empress Universe 2018’.