User:Mauriziok/Valentina Figuera

Lourdes Valentina Figuera Morales (born 16 June 2000) is a Venezuelan actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned as Miss Grand International 2019. She participed in the first El Concurso by Osmel Sousa edition, where she placed as a finalist, obtaining the title of Miss Grand Venezuela 2019.

Early life
Figuera was born in Puerto La Cruz, Anzoátegui. She has an identical twin sister called Verónica, in fact they would both participate in various pageants together. Figuera was studying Architecture at the Santiago Mariño Polytechnic University Institute in Puerto La Cruz.

Pageantry
At the begining of her carrer on the pageant world, Figuera participed in several local pageants, like the Reinado Turístico Internacional de los Carnavales de Barcelona in 2018 (from which Edymar Martínez and Sthefany Gutiérrez would also come) where she was the winner.

El Concurso by Osmel Sousa 2019
At the end of the first edition of El Concurso by Osmel Sousa held at the Municipal Theater of Caracas (where she competed with her own twin) on December 7, 2018, although the event was shared until August 15, 2020. Figuera ended as a finalist, obtaining the position as Miss Grand International Venezuela 2019, where she was crowned by Sousa. Her court included the winner, Miss Venezuela Charm 2020, Claudymar Oropeza from Valencia, Carabobo, the 1st runner-up, Andrea Romero and the 2nd runner-up, Valeria Badell who participated in Reina Hispanoamericana 2020 ending as 4th runner-up.

Miss Grand International 2019
In October 25, 2019 she represented Venezuela at the Miss Grand International 2019 pageant hosted in Caracas, Venezuela. She competed with other 59 candidates from around the world. For her national costume, she chose to represent a wayuú fantasy. At the end of the evening, she was crowned by Miss Grand International 2018, the Paraguayan Clara Sosa, as Miss Grand International 2019, being the first title of Venezuela in this contest. This is the highest placement for Venezuela since Tuliá Alemán's 1st runner-up position in 2017.

Valentina was one of the most active beauty queens of the 2019-2020 season, because the situation in Thailand (host country of the contest and where the winner resides during her reign year) during the COVID-19 pandemic was safer than in most other countries, so unlike other international beauty queens, she was allowed to participate in a number of events within said country. Also visiting Indonesia, Cambodia, Panama and Venezuela.

Her reign also set several records, including being the youngest winner at the time of her coronation (19 years), the highest (1.84 meters), the first to be crowned in her own country as host and also the record for holding the longest reign in the history of this event (17 months and 2 days) elapsed from 2019 to 2021.

On March 27, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand, Figuera presented her title to Abena Appiah from the United States.