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Riona Krishnan Dighe has been crowned Miss Teen Universe Asia 2026, the first Singaporean to clinch the title.<\/p>\n
She was competing against more than 30 other delegates at the finals held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sunday (Oct 25).<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old advanced through the first two cuts of the finals, from the Top 20 to the Top 14, before claiming the award.<\/p>\n
She also won Miss Popular Choice, an award decided by online public voting, placing her as the audience favourite among her cohort.<\/p>\n
Riona competed on a platform of children’s education and access, built through charity work she has been doing since she was 11.<\/p>\n
For the talent segment, she performed a traditional Peranakan dance, as she wanted to introduce Singapore’s heritage to an international audience.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/riona.dighe\/p\/De7nSjHk27E\/<\/a><\/p>\n In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the beauty queen shared some of her personal thoughts about winning in the pageant.<\/p>\n “I came to Cambodia as a girl from one of Asia’s smallest nations and I leave with the honour of representing an entire continent. A continent of billions, countless cultures and extraordinary women,” she wrote.<\/p>\n “To think that a Singapore girl has been chosen to carry the Asian crown is something I could only have dreamed of.”<\/p>\n She also took the chance to thank those who have supported her through this journey, including her mother, manager, team members and fellow contestants.<\/p>\n Riona then attributed the win to Singapore and expressed national pride.<\/p>\n “I may have stood on that stage alone but I had an entire nation behind me. From one of the smallest countries in Asia to a crown representing the whole continent, we have achieved something I once thought was impossible,” she added.<\/p>\n “Singapore, we didn’t just make our mark. We made history. Majulah Singapura!”<\/p>\n Beyond beauty competitions, Riona is involved in AI research.<\/p>\n She spent two years working on applying natural language processing to Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) framework. She had worked with a mentor from Cornell University who helped her throughout the process.<\/p>\n Part of the work involved her going to Bhutan to share her research with schools there and educating children on what could be done in their country.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Db9z4fkh2PQ\/<\/a><\/p>\n The idea partly came about due to her exposure to Bhutan from a young age doing charity work there, where she became familiar with the concept of GNH.<\/p>\n “When I was talking with an official in Bhutan, he told me that it was done using surveys. I thought that surveys take too much time; it’s not very cost-effective. So I thought, why don’t we use AI?” she explained in an interview with Wonderwall<\/a>.<\/p>\n “You could use off-the-shelf natural language processing in order to create code which allows you to measure the GNH Index.”<\/p>\n Her research was subsequently published in the International Journal of High School Research and was even presented to the King of Bhutan.<\/p>\n In closer relation to her pageantry pursuits is her modelling career.<\/p>\n She has walked at New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks, and was previously Miss Teen London 2024 and first runner-up at Miss Teen Universe UK 2025.<\/p>\n In July, Riona was crowned Miss Teen Universe Singapore 2026.<\/p>\n [[nid:748691]]<\/p>\n dannon.har@asiaone.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\nNot your usual beauty queen<\/h2>\n