The newly-crowned Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for an interview. The star discussed winning the title and her journey to becoming Miss SA.
Image: Zozibini Tunzi IG
When Trevor asked her if it had sunk in that she won, she said no. She said in part, “I don’t think so. It’s been almost a week now, and I’m getting used to it.”
On becoming Miss SA, she shared that it was a tough journey, “I had a new look that people were not used to. And so I got crowned and I got a lot of different responses. But I was quite excited about it, regardless of what was happening.” She added, “I got comments like ‘she’s a downgrade from the others that we’ve had’. And then it got more international when people found out I was going to do Miss Universe.”
Zozi also shared that the initial responses to her Miss SA were not great and got worse once she won Miss Universe. She said in part, “I got comments like ‘she’s a downgrade from the others that we’ve had’. And then it got more international when people found out I was going to do Miss Universe. It was in that moment where I thought I’m not even mad because it’s just how society has labelled beauty to be. It’s how we’ve been programmed to look at beauty that way.”
On what she plans to do with her reign, she shared that she’s excited to travel the world. She said in part, “I’m so excited to travel the world. I haven’t really had the opportunity to travel before and I think this is gonna be quite an interesting one for me to have my messages and everything that I’m passionate about to just go across the globe. And one thing I always say is I don’t want to feel like when I step out of this crown that it was wasted. I want to be responsible with it and now I have a platform, I have 2,5 million people following me. So I want to use that platform and whatever I do it must just be purposeful work.”
She added, “When people ask me ‘what does this mean for you personally?’ It’s the beginning of building generational wealth for my family because it’s not something we’ve had in the past.”
Take a look at Zozibini Tunzi on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
