Iris Mittenaere

Biography

Iris Mittenaere (English: AI-rees MEE-tə-NAR; French: [iʁis mitənaʁ]; born 25 January 1993) is a French television personality, model and beauty pageant titleholder best known for winning the title of Miss Universe 2016. The second Miss Universe from France after Christiane Martel, Mittenaere had previously been crowned Miss France 2016 and Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2015.

== Early life and education == Mittenaere was born on 25 January 1993 in Lille, to Yves Mittenaere, a middle school history and geography teacher, and Laurence Druart, a primary schoolteacher and museum guide. She has a brother, Baptiste, a sister, Cassandre, and a younger half-sister, Manon. Her parents divorced when she was three years old. Mittenaere attended school in Steenvoorde, where she lived with her mother. In 2011, she graduated with honors from lycée with a focus on science. After graduating, she moved to Lille, where she attended Lille 2 University of Health and Law, studying dentistry. Prior to becoming Miss France, Mittenaere was in her fifth year of a dental surgery fellowship and planned on becoming a dental surgeon after graduating.

== Pageantry ==

=== Miss France 2016 === After winning the local title of Miss Flandre 2015 on 2 May 2015 in Bailleul, Mittenaere entered the Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2015 regional pageant in Orchies, which she won on 26 September 2015. Mittenaere initially only entered Miss Flandre after being contacted on Facebook by the contest organizers, due to there being a lack of candidates that applied. Mittenaere represented Nord-Pas-de-Calais at the Miss France 2016 pageant. On 19 December 2015, she was crowned Miss France by outgoing Miss France 2015 and former Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2014 Camille Cerf in Lille. It was a back-to-back victory for the region. As Miss France, Mittenaere promoted oral hygiene and launched an awareness campaign on oral health. She participated in oral hygiene awareness programs at French schools targeting young schoolchildren. In November 2016, Mittenaere presented the Francophone Group of the Year Award at the NRJ Music Award in Cannes. During her reign as Miss France 2016, Mittenaere traveled to China, Italy, Morocco, Germany, the Caribbean, and Ivory Coast.

=== Miss Universe 2016 === As Miss France, Mittenaere later competed in Miss Universe 2016. She was the only European delegate to progress to the semi-finals of the competition, later going on to win the title. Mittenaere became only the second woman from her country to win the crown after Christiane Martel won Miss Universe 1953. Mittenaere was additionally the first European winner since Oxana Fedorova of Russia, who was crowned Miss Universe 2002 but soon after dethroned, and the first European titleholder to complete her year as Miss Universe since Mona Grudt of Norway, who won Miss Universe 1990. In the first part of the question-and-answer portion, Mittenaere called for open borders. She was asked the following by host Steve Harvey: "Given today's worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees or do they have a right to close their borders?" Mittenaere replied:

Throughout the world, people can choose to have borders open or close. In Europe, we have open borders. In France, we want to have the most globalisation that we can. We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can. Maybe someday that will change, but now we have open borders. According to one of the judges, Mickey Boardman, who wrote about his experience as a Miss Universe judge in The New York Times, "it was the question-and-answer portion that put her over the top. While the other contestants didn’t seem to actually answer the question about a mistake they had made in life and what they had learned from it, she was poised and well spoken". The top three contestants were asked the same final question by Harvey: "Name something over the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience?" and she replied:

I have failed several times in my life. I thought I had failed my first year in medical school because my name wasn't on the passing list. So, the very same day I went to buy a new set of medical books to keep on studying. I think when you fail, you need to stand up and keep going, we are all able to do so. If I don't win tonight, I will still keep on smiling tomorrow because I am proud to be part of the three finalists. I've learnt a lot from my failures and happily, I did end up passing my first year of medical school.

==== Reign ==== Mittenaere was crowned with the DIC Crown at the Miss Universe 2016 pageant. As a result of a lawsuit between IMG and Diamonds International Corporation (DIC), she wore the Diamond Nexus Crown from March 2017 until the end of her reign. In her capacity as Miss Universe, she served as a judge at Puteri Indonesia in Jakarta, at Miss Egypt in Cairo at Miss Peru in Lima, at Miss Guyana held in New York City, and at Miss Diva in Mumbai.