Tania Verstak

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Tania Verstak (born c. 1942), of Australia, is Miss International 1962.

Tania was born in Tianjin to Russian couple Vladimir and Valentina Verstak. They immigrated to Australia when she was 10 years old and settled in Manly, New South Wales. In 1961, she became the first migrant to win the Miss Australia title.

Even before going on to compete in Miss International, her victory in the national pageant was already seen as a small but significant shift in the traditional articulation of the Australian feminine ideal, attributed to the infusion of European values to the Anglo-Australian fabric, at a time when beauty pageants were the craze of Australia.

She went on to win the Miss International title in Long Beach, California. Thus, the victory further endeared her to the Australian public, demonstrating their pride and approval of Tania Verstak as the embodiment of perfect Australian womanhood and as the image of Australia as a modern nation, even though she was a ‘new Australian’.

[edit] External links

• http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s831921.htm
• http://www.api-network.com/articles/index.php?jas83_ustinoff_saunders

Preceded by Stam Van Baer

Miss International 1962

Succeeded by Guðrún Bjarnadóttir