‘Embrace and adapt’: Singapore transgender beauty queen on her journey to Miss Universe

Qatrisha Zairyah is the first married trans woman to be a finalist in a Miss Universe Singapore pageant. - Instagram/qatrisha_zairyah

SINGAPORE: Since Miss Universe Singapore, widely regarded as the biggest pageant in the city state, announced that a transgender woman had made the finals last week, beauty queen Qatrisha Zairyah has had to deal with online vitriol.

The 1.8-metre-tall (5.9 feet) fashion adviser, 33, has competed in the biggest beauty competitions locally and abroad for transgender women, finishing among the top four in most of them, and told This Week in Asia she wanted to test herself on the biggest stage.