Miss Universe 2016 Iris Mittenaere of France will crown her successor at The AXIS in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on November 26, 2017. Among the 92 Miss Universe 2017 candidates, only two are from Oceania, namely Olivia Rogers, 25, of Australia and Harlem-Cruz Atarangi Ihaia, 19, of New Zealand.

Rogers was born in Adelaide, Australia. It is her advocacy to encourage people to deal with their mental health issues without feeling embarrassed.

Aside from having an eight-year modelling experience, Rogers is also a qualified speech pathologist specializing in pediatrics. Her hobbies include painting and managing the Instagram account of her famous dog named Mooshie.

While Rogers enjoys social media, she is a firm believer in truthfulness. She told Herald Sun. “We need to stop pretending our lives are perfect on social media.”

“If I’m having a bad day, I’ll post about it,” Rogers explained. “If I’m having a good day I’ll post about it. You need to be real.”

On the other hand, Ihaia recently graduated with a degree in the Māori language. She is a qualified early childhood kōhanga reo teacher and she hails from Napier, New Zealand.

“I’d like to acknowledge my whole tribe because I wouldn’t be able to go through with this if my people were not behind me all the way,” Ihaia told Māori Television about her Miss Universe 2017 journey. “It’s a huge honor for me to represent my people and be a role model too.”

So far, Australia has won Miss Universe twice. Kerry Anne Wells was crowned in 1972 while Jennifer Hawkins won in 2004.

On the other hand, Lorraine Downes is the only Miss Universe from New Zealand. She was crowned in 1983.