Zara Carbonell is the first-ever Filipina to win the coveted Miss Tourism Worldwide title in 2018. And while she’s best known as an international beauty queen, her colleagues and peers have a different title in mind—‘Communication Kween’—as she’s always been a purveyor of transparent communications, whether at work, with her friends, or around the people she loves most. This title seems fitting for an organizational communications graduate from De La Salle University, who spent most of her years communicating on screen, on stage, and on paper. 

Taking after her grandfather, she started writing a column at 16 for The Manila Times. Her love for semantics was solidified when she discovered a knack for speaking on the public stage, whether as a host or as a keynote speaker.

Over a decade later, after a handful of awarded titles and a social enterprise built from scratch, she spends her time working with business owners, giving them a way to thrive on the digital space through her firm, The Social Startup. And when she’s not out there rallying for education and creating opportunities, you’ll likely find her in some part of the world, collecting sunrises and postcards.