BY: Denver Sean
Published 11 years ago
Miss Venezuela hopeful Maya Nava has taken extreme measures to stay thin.
After already spending $7,000 on a nose job and breast implants to help achieve her dream of winning Miss Venezuela, the 18-year-old beauty queen has had plastic mesh sewn to her tongue so that it hurts whenever she eats solid food.
‘It makes me lose weight faster,‘ she tells the BBC3 show Extreme Beauty Queens: Secrets of South America. ‘You eat the same [things] but liquefied.’
Maya’s determined to succeed and take care of her family. She sees pageantry as a way out for her family — currently living in the Santa Cruz barrio in Caracas where someone’s murdered every 40 minutes.
‘My wish is to be recognized,’ she reveals. ‘I want people to know that people from the slums can succeed,‘ she says. ‘It would guarantee me and my family a future. It would allow us to leave the barrio.’
The extreme desire to stay thin results from being a part of The Miss Venezuela House — a boot camp run by beauty coach Osmel Sousa — where plastic surgery and punishing diets transform ordinary young girls into rich and famous beauty queens in the world’s most extreme contest.
The grueling process is showcased on BBC’s new reality series, Extreme Beauty Queens.
We have to admit, sewing plastic to your tongue is a pretty extreme diet. We’ll stick to exercise.