Monika is 23 years old. Her mom is Pinay and her dad is Portuguese-Dutch whose family moved to Malaysia. "But we moved to Las Pinas later and that's where I grew up." She has a degree in psychology at La Salle Taft. "I finished college first before I joined any contest," she says.
She's almost 6 feet tall and has beauty queen good looks. Will she be joining a beauty pageant? "As of now, I have no plans. Kasi my goal talaga is to be a model not only here but also abroad, like in the U.s. or Europe. But I'm now managed by Jonas Gaffud's Mercator, who has handled a lot of beauty queens, so I don't know what his plan for me is as of now."
Will she also be joining showbiz? "Hindi talaga part yun ng dream ko, ang mag-artista. But I guess, if doors would open for me and the opportunity comes along, sino ba naman ako to reject it?"
She's honest enough to admit she has a boyfriend, Charlie Sutcliffe of "Juan Direction". "Four years na kami, but he's very supportive of my dream to become a model abroad. Okay lang sa kanya to leave him here and I try my luck abroad as a model."
"Asia's Next Top Model" is hosted by another Pinay, Georgina Wilson, who left hurriedly during the press presentation as she has to catch a flight to Jakarta. "Ayaw rin sigurong matanong siya at all about her rift with her manager, Shirley Kwan, because of the Samsung brouhaha," says one writer.
