Vivian Kueh
The grand finale of Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5 was just aired a few days ago on Starworld, crowning Maureen Wroblewitz as the first Philipina contestant to win the ASNTM title.
Aside from making history with her title, the 18 years old German-Philippines model will be bringing home a Subaru Impreza, gracing the cover on Nylon Singapore as well as a modelling contract with Storm model Management in London.
The grand finale concludes the 13 episodes ASNTM5 series that was filled with tears, dramas (think internal conflict and shouting young girls) and extreme challenges (underwater and defying gravity shoots) for the models, truly living up to its tagline #ExpectTheUnexpected.
The top 3 (Maureen Wroblewitz, Shikin Gomez, Minh Tu Nguyen) battled it out during the finale runway and their final editorial photoshoot featured the finalists brimming with national pride as they beautifully combine traditional elegance and high fashion avant-garde. The trio were absolutely stunning during the finale and now let’s find out more about these amazing models and how would they fare on social media – Instagram.
Maureen Wroblewitz (@mauwrob) – Philippines
“The Teenage Dream” At the young age of 15, Maureen was discovered on Instagram by a modelling agent and later relocated to the Philippines after her studies to pursue a bona fide modelling career. Despite her soft-spoke, sweetheart personality, she is full of dreams and confident throughout the tough season.
However, being the youngest and the smallest frame of all contestants, she had been mocked for being just a pretty face with no skills but those words did not put the winner down. In a post shared after winning the title, Maureen talked about stuggles throughout the competition and her gratitude towards all her supporters, #TeamMaureen #TeamPhilippines.
As ASNTM5’s host Cindy Bishop also said to Maureen before the crowning, “Maureen, your gorgeous face has been a great advantage to you, but you also worked hard to prove that you were worth more than just a pretty face as you finally broke free of that mold throughout the weeks. You’re not only the youngest, you’re also the smallest of the competition. But you have stood tall, and silenced anyone who ever doubted you. (Rappler)”
For Maureen, any criticism that comes her way simply translated to an even stronger motivation for Maureen to perform and proved that her lack of experience was not going to stop her from being a world class model.
Maureen has a total of 516k followers on Instagram with an exceptional interaction rate of 22.77% and the graph above shows that there was a sharp increase in number of followers on the day – 28th June, when the finale episode was aired (18.58% growth in a day).
Here are some of Maureen’s top Instagram posts in the past 14 days, with one being a photo taken together with fellow ASNTM5 contestant Cindy (@yshin.c) from Taiwan.
Shikin Gomez (@shikingomez) – Malaysia
“The New Tradition” 24 years old Shikin comes from a traditional Malaysian family but she took a leap of faith, unapologetically pursuing her modelling career as she considers herself as a modern age woman. She sets her eyes on the exclusive high-fashion world and takes on any opportunity to pursue her dream.
She was also a strong contender, winning a couple of weekly shoots and challenge throughout the competition. In addition, she became the face of Zalora and the newest Subaru ambassador for the region.
On Instagram, Shikin has a total of 117k followers and 18.18% interaction rate. Statistics from Popular Chips also revealed that Shikin’s top Instagram post in the past 2 weeks was the above photo of the final top 3 contestants which Shikin posted on the day the finale was aired to congrats Maureen.
As seen from the chart above, it was interesting to note that most of Shikin’s followers on Instagram actually came from Philippines standing at 37.38% followed by her home country, Malaysia at 18.14%.
Minh Tu Nguyen (@minhtu_nguyen) – Vietnam
‘The Fiesty Fox” The Vietnamese model was given the nickname Fiesty Fox for her assertive, fearless and strong-willed personality and her attention grabbing presence in the show. She’s a fierce and confident 24 years old model who might just have the best body on ASNTM5 with her curvy and fit physique.
Similar to Maureen and Shikin, it is not surprising that Minh Tu’s top Instagram post in the past 2 weeks is a post of her finale individual photoshoot where she donned her glamorous traditional attire and thank her supporters.
In terms of followers demogrpahics, it is shocking to see that most of Shikin’s Instagram followers are also from Phillipines (36.75%) while those from her home country, Vietnam stands at second place (26.20%).
ASNTM5 has definitely been one exciting (and dramatic) season with 14 amazing contestants from all over Asia and filming in both Singapore as well as Malaysia. We can’t wait for Cycle 6 to arrive but before that, let’s just #ExpectTheUnexpected!
