Cheyenne Suarez

Bartending, cutting bagels: How working in the service industry shaped Bea Millan-Windorski as a beauty queen

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1781597559096miss-u.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Miss Universe Philippines 2026 Bea Millan-Windorski. Millan-Windorski/Instagram"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Miss Universe Philippines 2026 Bea Millan-Windorski. <em>Millan-Windorski/Instagram </em></span></span></span></div><p>Miss Universe Philippines 2026 Bea Millan-Windorski will never forget her experience working in the service industry, saying it helped shape her into the woman she is today. </p><p>In an interview with fellow beauty queen Kylie Verzosa in her podcast &quot;Almost Honest,&quot; Millan-Windorski revealed that she has &quot;worked a lot of odd jobs throughout my life,&quot; starting at the age of 15, to support herself while she was in school.</p><p>&quot;No matter where I&#x27;ve lived, and it&#x27;s been several cities at this point, I always have multiple gigs,&quot; said the 23-year-old, who is now based in Manila after living most of her life in the United States.</p><p>Millan-Windorski said she has worked for minimum wage at a bagel shop, and also as a bartender. &quot;Customer service really taught me a lot about life and to always stay humble, and to always treat other people with respect,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;Because jobs in the service industry are so much hard work,&quot; the beauty queen stressed. &quot;And it&#x27;s so mind-blowing to me that people are very dismissive of those roles. Because that&#x27;s honestly way harder work than the higher-paying jobs I&#x27;ve had.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;ve learned a lot more that&#x27;s valuable about life working as a bartender, scrubbing toilets, and cutting bagels than I ever did in any other position.&quot;</p><p>When asked by Verzosa how working as a bartender helped her as a person and as a beauty queen, Millan-Windorski replied: &quot;Bartending taught me how to really talk to anyone, and to always inquire first. I&#x27;m really lucky to have that experience because I think if I never had service industry jobs before pageants, I would struggle a lot because I&#x27;m a naturally shy and awkward person, but bartending really broke me out of that.&quot;</p><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-2" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZbpdCND3Dx/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=607&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A2%2C%22os%22%3A1894336.300000012%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="567" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-2" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>Millan-Windorski is set to represent the Philippines in this year&#x27;s Miss Universe pageant, which will be held in Puerto Rico in November.</p><p>The Filipino-American beauty queen has been vocal about her advocacies and her roots, and has <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/pageants-beauty-queens/2026/5/7/miss-universe-ph-bea-millan-windorski-responds-to-opportunist-performative-remarks-1311">responded to criticisms about her pageant journey</a>.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;ve worked so hard to pick the Philippines as my home, and by winning this crown, I feel like the Philippines has finally picked me,&quot; she said of her national pageant win in a previous interview.</p>

<p>"I've learned a lot more that's valuable about life working as a bartender, scrubbing toilets, and cutting bagels than I ever did in any other position."</p>

"I've learned a lot more that's valuable about life working as a bartender, scrubbing toilets, and cutting bagels than I ever did in any other position."