Who Is Andrea Meza? From Miss World and Miss Mexico, the Journey to Her Miss Universe 2020 Win

One month after her extraordinary win, we reflect back on how Andrea Meza, a Mexican software engineer, captured her nation’s third Miss Universe win.

From being a close shot to the title of Miss World 2017 after placing second, to bringing on the fight of representing her nation one more time four years later, and eventually winning as a proud software engineer degree holder and vegan, we take a dive into Andrea Meza’s long and fulfilling journey to the Miss Universe title.

During a special double-reign coronation held in 2016, two women were chosen to represent Mexico for the next two years at the highly coveted Miss World pageant. They were Ana Girault and Andrea Meza. The following year, in November of 2017, Meza went on to represent her North American pageant powerhouse country at Miss World in Sanya, China.

After winning her group’s head-to-head speaking challenge and advancing into the Top 40, she ultimately left the contest as Miss World Americas and 2nd best of 118 women as she was awarded the 1st Runner-Up title. For the major pageant scene, we would only be seeing the beginning of what was to come from the woman who got 2nd in the world’s most competitive pageant.

In May of 2018, Andrea went on to crown her successor to the title of Miss Mexico for Miss World, Vanessa Ponce de Leon. Andrea’s successor later went a mark further than her own placement when Vanessa won Miss World 2018 as the first Mexican woman to do so.

After this, in November of 2020, representing her home state of Chihuahua, Andrea went on to win the coveted crown of Mexicana Universal 2020. She bested 29 other women from all across Mexico and would go on to represent the country at the 69th edition of Miss Universe.

With already having come so close to winning another major title in previous years, it was no surprise how Andrea was praised and pressured to bring Mexico far. And bring herself far so she did! Pageant pages ushered up support for her, connecting her crossovers with past competitions, and a majority comparing her to 2018’s Miss Universe Catriona Gray from the Philippines who placed in the Top 5 of Miss World 2016, just one year before Meza set foot on the same stage.

After 21 became 10 and Andrea broke through into the evening gown competition, she set the stage on fire in her daring and tall red Ivis Lenin dress.

When Brook Lee was selected at random to ask Andrea her final question, that’s when the magic of being a Miss Universe started. Though asking a broad question, Meza answered Lee’s “If you were the leader of your country, how would you have handled the Covid-19 pandemic?” in English stating:

“I believe there’s not a perfect way to handle this hard situation, however, what I would’ve done was create the lockdown before anything was ever that big [as it is now] because we lost so many lives and we cannot afford that. We have to take care of our people and that’s why I would’ve taken care of them since the beginning.”

Later when it came to the final statement, selecting the topic of Changing Beauty Standards, Andrea Meza took to the microphone in Spanish with the following:

"We live in an advancing society. As we advance as a society, we also advance with stereotypes. Nowadays, beauty isn’t always the way we look. For me, beauty radiates not only in our spirits but in our hearts and the way we conduct ourselves. Never keep others from letting you know that you are valuable."

The crowd in Florida cheered upon hearing the latter segment of Miss Universe Mexico’s words. As she remarked how you conduct yourself, the 26-year-old went on to keep a steadfast attitude and a big smile until the final moment, showing that Andrea truly enjoyed herself during the whole competition and that charisma is the embodiment of a winner.

Now that you’re all caught up, follow the one-month crownaversary queen @andreameza on Instagram for when she relinquishes her title this upcoming winter, and stay tuned to the Queenly blog for more updates on the Universe’s favorite and groundbreaking queens!