Abena Akuaba makes Ghana proud at 2016 Queen Beauty Universe

This is the first time in history Ghana has won an international pageant. Very unprecedented!
Abena Akuaba Appiah, often called Abena Akuaba, a model, TV presenter, musician and actress has made Ghana proud by becoming the first Ghanaian to win an international pageant.
Abena emerged as the winner of the 2016 Queen Beauty Universe which took place at the Holiday Polynesia Hotel in Malaga, Spain with participation of 30 countries. The closest Ghana has become was Naa Okailey Shoot placing third at the 63rd edition of the Miss World finals in 2013.
How did the journey start?
Abena was selected by the national director for the Queen Beauty Universe Ghana and couple of other young girls from Ghana to be screened and evaluated.
After the entire process, she emerged as the winner to represent her country at the international pageant, Queen Beauty Universe in Malaga, Spain. Her evaluation started when she touched down in Spain.
After 10 days of meeting other contestants to enjoy the wonders of Benalmadena, the host city with different leisure activities, singing, dancing followed by parades in traditional costumes, swimwear and gala, Abena was proclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the universe.
Aside that, Abena also won Miss Elegance at the event.
Always wanted to be a queen
According to Abena, it has always been her dream to be a queen whiles growing up. She was bullied and teased in school so she made it a priority to gain an international platform to allow her voice to be heard as she fights for young girls who are going through what she went through.
Abena stated that the competition was very tough and what kept her going was the fact that she had to make her country proud and also wanted to prove to young girls around the world and especially Ghana that everything is possible.
Past experiences
Beautiful Abena is not new so far as beauty pageants are concerned. She has quite an experience in participating in beauty pageants. She won Miss Universe Ghana 2014 and competed in Donald Trump’s international pageant Miss Universe in 2014.  She also participated in Miss Ghana and Miss Earth.
Abena has participated in international modeling competitions such as, Top Model Ghana 2013 and Top Model of the World 2013 where she emerged top 15 out of 60 countries respectively.
She has also modeled for most of the top name designers around the world such as crème de la crème from the United States, Andres Aquino from Spain, Sushma Patel from India, Catalan from France,  late Kofi Ansah from Ghana, just to name a few.
She is a brand ambassador for Garner hair products in the United States. She has taken part in fashion show with Contour Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Vlisco, Woodin, Da Viva and GTP.
She was X-Factor finalist, Ghana’s version in 2012 and has recently stared in an American movies set to be released next year. She also stared in the American TV series Afri-Americans, Abena has done TV commercials for Surfline LTG, Lydia contraception pills etc.
She has 5 singles to her credit and still working on her album.