A former beauty queen herself, Dato Reiss Tiara has made waves with her own homegrown Millennium Universe beauty pageants and the Millennium World Award celebrating talents all around the world. Also the founder of THEREISS branding, it’s hard to believe that Dato Reiss had only entered the entrepreneur scene just a little over a year ago.

With the experience of full-time motherhood waning to a close, Dato Reiss found time for herself to pursue her own avenues for satisfaction and motivation. Her history with the beauty pageant industry naturally led her to establish the Mrs Millennium Universe.

Bringing together some of the most dedicated, passionate, and exemplary women to be celebrated, the Mrs Millennium Universe beauty pageant is Dato Reiss’ most successful venture to date. The Mrs pageant invites women who are or have been married and/or with children to a platform where they can network and build each other up.

An out-of-the-box projection from the traditional convention of beauty pageants, the Mrs Millennium Universe is Dato Reiss’ move towards establishing a space to go beyond the face-value qualities to more valuable traits.

The idea for the Mrs Millennium Universe came from Dato Reiss’ own desire to connect with women across the world with mutual interests and objectives, all dedicated to highlighting those active in helping and giving back to their communities. Through this initiative, not only will these women get to experience beauty queen levels of showcasing, but also present a meaningful value to the platform where they can gain worldwide friendship and motivation as a collective.

Dato Reiss stresses that the ‘Mrs’ title was important, as the women eligible for her pageant extended beyond married women to those who had experienced divorce and who are single mothers. She passionately explained that every woman deserves a chance to be celebrated, and that each carries their own message of inspiration no matter which walk of life they come from.

Humorously relishing her ability to set her own rules in a new-school way of running a beauty pageant, Dato Reiss confides that this non-discriminatory method centers on the many self-made women who tirelessly toll for the sake of their surroundings. One of her highlights was Mrs Venezuela, a full-time lawyer for humanitarian rights, Latin American dancer, and someone who hand-sewed her own costume for the pageant days before she was due onstage. This all-round passion and dedication warrants fair commendation, wouldn’t you agree?

Dato Reiss’s next venture is to start a Ms. edition, and to break the cutoff age of 26 years to 38 years of qualifying age. “Women nowadays have spent their 20s pursuing an education. To expect them to be highly qualified and settled down at a certain age is unrealistic,” she explains. “There is so much more to go on than looks and existing connections to establish themselves by.”

The mindfulness of extending the pageantry qualifying age also gives the participants a chance to be introduced to Dato Reiss’ industry, and her resources of becoming entrepreneurs and charitable members themselves.

A love of parties, fun, and generally good-feeling things are Dato Reiss’ driving force and mission. But her journey as a pageantry showrunner and entrepreneur has not always been a piece of cake. Even with her long history as a beauty queen judge and crowner, putting together a show keeps her business profile on its toes.

Everything in the pageant she has sourced herself, from fundraising to filling the seats on the venue floor. Negotiating and helping out friends in the industry comes into play all the time, and the rewards reaped are often strived to be of equal investment.

Nevertheless Dato Reiss still proclaims pageantry her beloved hobby, her life’s passion, and a new opportunity for her to explore brand building of her own making. Together with the many beautiful participants, she continues to give a platform to and unite the voices of change together.

This article was first published in The Expat magazine 2019 (October). To subscribe for more content, click here.