Nguyen Huong Giang – Photo: Miss Universe Vietnam 2025
Nguyen Huong Giang, a transgender Vietnamese reality TV star, has been chosen to represent Vietnam at the 2025 Miss Universe pageant, becoming the country’s first transgender contestant. Miss Universe Vietnam confirmed the historic selection in an Instagram post.
“The Miss Universe Vietnam Organization has made a special decision: to handpick an outstanding representative, someone who embodies feminine beauty, intelligence, confidence, resilience, and above all, a strong heart that never stops striving,” the Instagram caption reads.
“The person entrusted with that mission is none other than Miss Nguyen Huong Giang,” the post continues. “She is a living testament to the power of perseverance and talent. Huong Giang’s inspiring and proud journey spans many roles: singer, actress, model, MC, judge, and producer…. In every role, she shines with strong inner strength, creativity, and pride, fitting the image of a modern and powerful Vietnamese woman.”
A model and singer, the 33-year-old Nguyen rose to fame on reality shows throughout the 2010s, starting with a breakout appearance on Vietnam Idol in 2012, where she became the show’s first transgender contestant and tour participant. She released her debut album, Mercury, in 2013, and the following year won the third season of The Amazing Race Vietnam.
In 2018, Nguyen entered the pageant circuit, winning the all-transgender Miss International Queen competition in Thailand. More recently, she served as a producer for Miss Universe Vietnam, according to GMA News Online.
Nguyen reflected on her new title in an Instagram post, saying the pageant gives women a chance to “share powerful messages with the world” and “break stereotypes.”
“Since the day Miss Universe expanded its criteria to include transgender women, women with children, and married women, I have believed this decision was never about the world lacking beautiful single women,” Nguyen wrote. “It was about opening the door to equality and hope, which no other major pageant had chosen to do. Miss Universe has become a stage where, no matter your circumstances, all women are women, lifting each other up and shining together in front of billions.
“Instead of asking, ‘Why Huong Giang?’, I chose to ask, ‘Why not Huong Giang?'” Nguyen added. “This is not just a story about gender. It is a story about people, about faith. Believe that with enough effort, one day, you can all change your own lives. Your starting point does not define your limits.”
Nguyen is the fourth transgender woman to compete in Miss Universe since the organization began allowing transgender contestants in 2012, when Donald Trump still owned it.
The previous contestants were Angela Ponce of Spain in 2018, Rikkie Kollé of the Netherlands in 2023, and Marina Machete of Portugal in 2023. Nguyen is also the first trans contestant from Asia.
Transgender Thai media tycoon Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip (“Anne JKN”) purchased the Miss Universe organization in 2022 for $20 million. She pledged to “evolve” the brand for the “next generation,” launching a new licensing and merchandising arm and opening the pageant to married women and single mothers.
But Jakrajutatip appeared to undercut that pledge when she was recorded during a November 2023 Miss Universe board meeting saying that women from nontraditional backgrounds — including transgender women, married women, divorced women, and plus-sized women — “can compete but they cannot win.”
She was also recorded saying that allowing such contestants, as a nod to “social inclusion,” would be good for the pageant’s image — even though her remarks suggested those competitors had little chance of winning. Jakrajutatip later said her comments had been taken out of context.
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