Ruënna Mercelina

Early life

Ruënna “Sugar” was born in the St. Elizabeth Hospital, and raised in a Roman Catholic home with both parents Ruthsella Mercelina - Troncon and Gwendell Mercelina Sr. She has an older brother Gwendell Mercelina Jr., who is four years older, whose also a well-known gay personality in Curaçao, international youth ambassador and was the former Youth Parliament President of Curaçao.

In her earlier years she attended Johan van Walbeeck Kindergarten and Elementary school, and then the Albert Schweitzer High School, where she entered the artistic scene by winning with eleven years old the school beauty queen title. There was also when she received her nickname “Sugar” (suku in Papiamentu) for her energetic, lovely and sweet attitude towards her fellows.

She started very young in the artistic scene while she was very active in sports as ballet at the Fina Dance Art School, swimming, athletics in the Olympic team, and also karate with Kyokusinkai Shihan on the island Mr. Henry Gougon.

Modeling & Pageantry

When Sugar was 12 years old, she was discovered by local agent Mrs. Emilka Eustachia from A2Z Models and started modeling while attending school. Her talent developed and soon after she became a model instructor for kids and pre-teens joining the agency.

Later on when she got the opportunity, she decided to participate in the Miss Curaçao Teenager pageant and fashion shows of the former Curaçao Beauty Organization of Mr. Aubrey America. Then she also helped the organization's Model Image division as model instructor for kids and pre-teens.

Her presence in her first beauty pageant was extremely noticeable winning also the titles of Miss Curaçao Teenager Talent, Most Beautiful Legs, Miss Internet, and got distinguished with the title of a major sponsor as Miss Kitatin (the most popular Dutch Caribbean online media community). In her first international appearances she was booked as teen beauty ambassador for the Miss Ecstasy International in Anguilla where she scored the Miss Personality award, and then the Miss Caribbean Talented Teen in St. Kitts and Nevis.

She would later appear on the covers of magazines such as 4 You-th and walked the runways of several national designers and fashion shows, and has featured in advertising campaigns for big national companies such as Albert Heijn, Fun Miles, Maduro & Curiel's Bank (MCB) and Post Spaarbank.

Later she entered as a part-timer and model for a famous Dutch Caribbean fashion-store, Mijn Zaak (mode voor wie durft).

Up until this date she’s the youngest person in national pageantry history of her country to achieve more titles as a teenage girl, and the most accumulated distinctions in the international scene.

She became the Miss University & College of the Dutch Caribbean in 2010 and represented the university in the national colleges and high schools competition in carnival season in the national Teen King & Queen election together with Daveney Sprott (her cousin), where she scored the title of Teen Queen, First Runner Up.

Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus

Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus is an annual international beauty contest for all countries of the Caribbean and the Americas. It was founded in 1990 in the French part of Saint Martin.The 20th edition of the Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus Beauty Pageant took place on December 4, 2010 on the island of Saint Martin, at the Convention Center, Sonesta Maho Beach Resort.

More than 20 contestants coming from a network comprising South and Central America and all the Caribbean islands competed for the title in December 2010 together with Ruënna Mercelina who ended up as Finalist and Best in Evening Gown Winner, where Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus 2010/2011 was crowned Tineffa Naisso of French Guiana at the end of the event.

Ruënna Mercelina’s selection for Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus was done at the executive level of the pageant by Mr. Patrick Eugene using the international pageant judging criteria which includes overall appearance, beauty of the face, swimsuit, fitness, poise and elegance, personality, local and global awareness and intelligence.

In December 2009, Curaçao made history in the Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus pageant when former Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus 2008, Laurien Angelista crowns Miss Caraïbes Hibiscus 2009, Angenie Simon both coming from the island of Curaçao. These girls where the only winners from Curaçao in the pageant history, while in 2007 Clarissa Alberg scored with the First Runner-up title and in 2010 Ruënna Mercelina as finalist.

Miss Teenager Universe

Ruënna “Sugar” Mercelina is a rising motion picture sensation, captivating audiences across the Dutch Caribbean. She holds the title of Miss Teenager Curaçao 2008, and was voted Miss Teenager Congeniality at the 2011 staging of the largest and biggest teenage pageant of the world MISS TEENAGER.

With the clear notion that youth is the future of humanity, the Miss Teenager Pageant each year gathers group of adolescents beauty ambassadors together with clear goals and dreams ahead, eager to make this a better world, full of peace, education and social equality, promoting healthy competition and promoting moral values in each of our activities.

In its fourth edition in 2011, it has managed to consolidate in the industry of the fascinating world of beauty pageants as the largest and most important event of teenagers worldwide, counting this time with more than 40 delegates from the 5 continents.

In 2008 Curaçao was represented by Tiffany Josefa who opened the doors for the island to get in the top finalists of the teenagers’ biggest pageant. In 2010, Miss Teenager Curaçao 2010, Eline de Pool had a remarkable performance during the pageant that was held in Costa Rica in which Eline she was awarded the First Runner-Up position.

Graceful, sweet, fierce and elegant are a few words used to describe her diverse nature, both on screen and off. In Guatemala, the Minister of Culture called her the Ebony Goddess. Ruënna “Sugar” Mercelina was the title-holder of Miss Teenager Curaçao and won in the pageant, the Miss Teenager Congeniality award of the Miss Teenager Universe.

Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam

Ruënna “Sugar” served as main-hostess of the First Inaugural Curaçao International Film Festival Rotterdam. The first film festival of such magnitude and scope that ever took place on Curaçao. More than 25 films and 11 ‘shorts’ got screened in the new six-screen multiplex theater The Cinemas, located in the Otrobanda district of Willemstad, over a four-day period (was held from March 29 to April 1, 2012.)

Curaçao Tourism Queen & Carnival Queen

In 2013, she started back but breaking all records in the history of national pageantry again, one day after her twenty first birthday. She's the first one in history to accomplish 7 out of 8 titles in the National Carnival Queen Election.

Sugar impacted the island with an amazing performance in the Carnival season, and got elected as Curaçao’s Tourism Queen 2013, the most Dynamic Queen, Best Carnival Queen Show, Best Trainers, Most Popular Queen, Most Impacting Queen, and the Carnival Queen’s first runner up. She was also the one who inducted the 2013 Curaçao’s Grand Carnival Parades.

Sugar accomplished to become a local trending topic on Twitter on January 19 and 20, 2013 according trendsmap.com while her Facebook catapults over the 1.000 fans.

As an ambassador to the island of Curaçao, she served in neighbor island Aruba together with Venezuelan celebrities Leonardo Villalobos of “Super Sabado Sensacional” and actress Carolina Perpetuo, as judge for the Aruba’s 59th Carnival Queen and 19th Mrs. Carnival Queen.

The Acting Scene

As actress, her break-through role was as lead actress in a political satire “Fe Lusafe” written and directed by the legendary comedian Eligio Melfor. The play focused on the revolution of the 30th of May 1969 in Curaçao.

In the comedy “Gainan Fini” she played the lead role - a female writer who transforms into a homosexual man to write a book of the “gay community” life. The play recently toured the island of Aruba. She is also one of the main actresses in the international production company Endemol’s new Dutch Caribbean youth soap-series titled “Ki bo Ke Men?” (What do you mean?).

Recently she portrayed the lead role of the biggest theatrical play of the year 2012, "Tisha" a fifteen-year-old girl who faces some hard decisions including on whether to go through an unplanned pregnancy. The play which was shown to teens in the Dutch Caribbean and the Dutch Kingdom, explores issues such as tradition, sexual morality and personal choice.

The play was written by Mr. Albert Schoobaar who also did the successful play “Deconstruction of Edsel K.”, which got nominated for Dutch Royal con-decoration of “Appeltjes van Oranje” together with the direction of international Dutch director Sylvia Andringa. Tisha is produced by Teatro KadaKen. The play ran from March to November 2012 at the youth theatre “La Tentashon” in Willemstad, Curaçao.

Website

In 2014, Sugar plans to launch her fashion and beauty website, which she is co-creating with G!NIUS Management Empire (G!EMPIRE).

The beauty ambassador admires her grandmothers Simona Markes Troncon and Margarita Mercelina Adriana, her mom who she thanks for her talent, perseverance and beauty, Tyra Banks, and Annemarie Braafheid (the former Miss Curaçao 1968/ Miss Universe 1969 First Runner-Up and the first dark skinned woman to attain a high position in the Miss Universe contest).

She hopes one day to be the representative of her nation for the Miss Universe crown, and by being the first Curaçaolean to win a Grand-slam.

Philanthropy

On August 12, 2010, Ruënna Mercelina co-founded the WE LEAD Foundation, which aims at leadership, nation-building and life skills development.

The beauty ambassador who sees herself as a role model serves as Secretary to the Board of Directors of the WE LEAD Foundation. She is working on the mission to develop the role of youth as new leaders and nation builders through engagement in their community through projects.

As ambassador of the WE LEAD Foundation, Sugar desires to be an inspirational role model to young persons across the world, encouraging them to pursue their dreams with passion, focus and respect.

WE LEAD, the foundation is created on the International Youth Day to emphasize the role of the youth in constructing their ideal nation. WE LEAD helps to construct the bridge to cross for every citizen to be united together as a nation, build new leaders that will lead their country with determination, enthusiasm, transparency, and love. This process starts from bottom to top, where you find the youth taking their responsibility as the builders of a nation.

WE LEAD focuses on the social, educational, cultural, political, artistic, sportive, health and environmental areas of a nation carried by the youth wing projects.