T&T’s Anna-Lise Nanton Makes History: Wins head-to-head challenge, advances to Miss World finals

Trinidad and Tobago: In a significant development, Miss World Trinidad and Tobago, Anna-Lise Nanton made history as the first from her country to win the Americas & Caribbean round of the Miss World 2025 Head-to-Head Challenge. After her victory over Brazil, she secured her place in the Miss World 2025 finals.  

The debate competition which took place on May 23 in Hyderabad, India, secured the Trinidadian her spot in the regional top 10.  

The 26-year-old engineer from Santa Cruz is the only Caribbean delegate to reach the finals of all major categories so far including sports, talent and head-to-head. Earlier this year, she also claimed national wins in talent, fitness, H2H, and People’s Choice.  

With her victory in the head-to-head challenge, Nanton has moved a step ahead to the crown of Miss World. The finale of the 72nd edition of this renowned international pageant Miss World will take place on May 31, 2025.  

According to the information, the head-to-head challenge in an important part of the competition in which the contestants show their speaking as well as presentation skills along with their thinking and intelligence related to global concerns.  

The competition consisted of three parts, where two candidates answered the same question and were judged based on whose response impressed the judges the most. 

In the 2nd part, Anna-Lise Nanton was questioned, “Telangana women can travel freely and safely at any time of day or night. What message does this send to the world about women's empowerment and safety?” To this, Nanton gave a bold reply and impressed the judged. 

She said, “I have seen many things since coming to Telangana, but the one thing that has impressed me the most is your commitment to putting progress in the empowerment of women. Hand in hand, I'm a woman who comes from a background in Stem, so I love statistics and I love correlations. So it is no surprise to me that Telangana is also one of the fastest growing economies in India.” 

“That also puts women hand in hand. I am very thankful to live in a world where women are allowed to pursue degrees. Women are allowed to be engineers. Women are allowed to dress the way that they want to. To drive cars and to come from a country where all of that is possible for me. But there are many women around the world who are not afforded the same luxuries and the same opportunities,” she further added.  

The young woman closed by saying, “And I am very thankful to be a part of Miss World in a country and in a state like Telangana that really empowers and uplifts women and ensures that they are able to make the decisions to live the lives that they want to. And I would just like to close by saying, we cannot all succeed when half of us are left behind and Telangana, thank you for not leaving women behind. Thank you very much.” 

With this impressive answer, she advanced to the 3rd round of the challenge in which she came face to face with Brazil. Both the women were questioned, “In a world facing urgent climate challenges, how can young people take meaningful action to protect our planet?” 

To this, the Trinidadian replied, “I come from the land of sunshine, of forest, of trees, and I'm lucky to have grown up surrounded by that and because of that, I grew to love being in nature, it is my safe space, it is where I find happiness, it is where I center myself and when you love something, you want to protect it and that’s why my beauty with a purpose – the ripple effects, we so strongly advocate for our environment and also expose others to nature, bring t hem back to where we once came from, because I think this modern world, it has sort of estranged us from nature, from the natural environment.” 

“I'm really proud to say that one of my initiatives, the Hike and Plant Initiative, I joined forces with volunteers of many ages, some as young as three years old, and we went on a beautiful hike in the forest to help replant an area that was damaged by wildfires and part of what I wanted to do was help people to reconnect with our environment, because I think that we really have forgotten how important it is and how much we need it to sustain us. And it's medically proven that being in nature helps us to de-stress. It lowers our stress hormone levels and plants of the day.” 

"Everyone felt rejuvenated. They felt happy, the kids wanted to stay longer, and they kept smiling and laughing and wanting to grab more trees to come back again. And it might seem like hard work, but one small action, one ripple when combined, can leave a lasting change in those trees. Even though it was one day of planting, they will grow and they will have an impact for generations to come. Leaving clean air, helping more animals and plants to come back again so that our world can continue to sustain and nourish us. Thank you,” she added. 

With this, the locals in Trinidad and Tobago are now looking forward to Anna-Lise Nanton to giving her best in the finale of the Miss World 2025.