Jessica Kahawaty
Bookmark thisJessica Michelle Kahawaty is a beauty pageant titleholder from Lebanon and Australia, and is currently the face of Maybelline Cosmetics in Asia and India. Jessica is currently finishing a combined degree of Bachelor of Laws and Business with a major in Finance at the Univeristy of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Most recently Jessica won the title of Miss New South Wales 2009 and competed in the national pageant where she placed TOP 10 in Miss Universe Australia.
Jessica won her first pageant at the tender age of 18 years old in Sydney, Australia on May 2nd 2007. She was crowned Miss Lebanon Australia 2007 and was the first Lebanese Australian to win Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2008. The extravagant pageant, held in Batroun Village Club, Lebanon, on the 14th of August 2008 featured 31 contestants with a Lebanese origin from around the world. In November, we saw this exotic Mediterranean beauty represent Lebanon in Miss International 2008, held in the small island off Hong Kong, Macao on November 8th, 2008 where she placed as one of the Top 12 semi-finalists and ranked 6th out of 75 countries.
In 2009, Jessica decided to embrace being an Australian and competed in Miss Universe Australia. Among 7000 National contestants, Jessica won the title of Miss New South Wales 2009 and succeeded to participate in Miss Australia proudly achieving a top 10 position, the first to be done by a contestant of Lebanese origin.
At the age of 12, Jessica was scouted by Seafolly to do their fashion parades which developed into a successful modelling career. Today, Jessica has done work for Cavalli, Maybelline, Peter Morrissey, Wayne Cooper, George Gross, Harry WHO, Swarovski, Akira, Jimmy Choo, Tali Jatali, Von Dutch and Aqua Blu Swimwear. In 2008 Jessica was chosen to be the L'oreal Dead Sea product representative in Australia, shooting catalogues for the popular product.
In the acting department has filmed various commercials and campaigns for known brands as KFC, Asian Paints, Strobe Hair, Daewoo for Korea, Diet Coke and Maybelline Cosmetics, featured in Australia, Asia and India. Jessica has also landed a cover for ALIVE magazine, a spread in GQ and is featured in major catwalks on FTV. Jessica was recently a guest actor in the final scene on the movie "A Day in the Life" which will debut in Cannes Film Festival in May, and premiere in August in Australia.
In 2008, upon all the publicity from Miss International, Jessica was asked to be in the same position her judges were in and to be a Judge in Miss Macedonia and Miss Europe. Jessica was also asked to support the Lebanese A1 Grand Prix Team for 2007-08 competing in Sydney.
Jessica, 21 today aids in community service and conducts her own charity events. Upon her reign in 2007, Jessica raised thousands of dollars through personally conducted cruise events for charities in both Australia and Lebanon such as the Millenium Foundation and the program that aids disadvantaged families "Nehna La Baad" (which translates - "we are for each other" in Arabic). She has also run campaigns for SOS in Lebanon as well as Sesobel who have the sole purpose of educating and nourishing disadvantaged children from different walks of life.