Mai Hoa: The journey from economics student to winner of VNTM 2025
Overcoming her initial insecurities, Lai Mai Hoa, a 1.84m tall student, conquered the top prize. She shared her career aspirations and the reasons for temporarily putting beauty pageants on hold.
Overcoming numerous challenges during a months-long journey, Lai Mai Hoa, an economics student with an impressive height of 1.84m, officially became the winner of Vietnam's Next Top Model season 9. Instead of bursting with emotion, her moment of coronation was quite calm, a sign of her maturity and determination for the long road ahead.
Mai Hoa shared: "For me, the title of Champion is the result of a whole journey of overcoming myself. At that moment, I could only smile and feel relieved, as if I had just laid the first brick for the long road ahead."
The journey to conquer the highest position.
Despite her height and physique advantages, Mai Hoa admits she had a rocky start. Entering the shared house with 14 other outstanding contestants initially made her feel insecure and somewhat withdrawn.
"In the early episodes, I was quite nervous because I felt I still had a lot to learn. My lack of confidence and the stressful pace of work made it take me a while to adapt," she recalled. However, the judges' frank feedback helped her gradually regain her composure. Mai Hoa said she carefully noted down all the comments to reflect on and change after each challenge.
The turning point came from the judge's reminder.
The real turning point came for Mai Hoa when she received a reminder from the judges: "A good physique alone isn't enough; a model must know how to tell a story through her eyes and body." This statement awakened her, prompting her to begin finding ways to connect emotionally with the camera and convey a message through each pose.
The photoshoot on the sand dunes was the most memorable experience, marking a transformation for Mai Hoa. "For the first time, I truly relaxed and immersed myself in nature to 'live' in each frame. I knew what I needed to do to have the best expressions and create photos that told a story," she shared.
Career Orientation: Intellectual Model and Future Plans
As a student at the University of Economics - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Mai Hoa aspires to build an image of an intelligent and confident model. She plans to pursue her studies and modeling career simultaneously, believing that her economic knowledge will support her path to a professional fashion career.
Let's put beauty contests on hold for now.
Responding to encouragement to participate in beauty pageants, Mai Hoa stated that she currently has no such intention. "Every journey has its right time. For now, I want to dedicate all my time and effort to developing my modeling career and proving that the title of Champion is entirely deserved," she affirmed.
Conquering the international stage
The trip to Paris with the Top 3 as part of the program gave Mai Hoa invaluable experiences, allowing her to interact with the world's fashion capital and work with international teams. As the new champion, she aims to work even harder to improve her skills and be ready to conquer major runways.
"I hope to leave a stronger impression of a professional model from Vietnam," Mai Hoa expressed her determination.
