Venezuelan Teresa Ruglio stood proudly on stage last week as she received her title of Miss Universe Malta.

But just last year, the 23-year-old had been traumatised after hearing her brother had been found dead in a river in Colombia.

He was schizophrenic and the family had sent him to Colombia for treatment.

“He got lost in the jungle, we don’t know what happened, but we found his body in a river,” she said.

Ms Ruglio has fond memories of her brother, Bruno, and has dedicated her Miss Universe Malta crown to him.

“Before he left [for Colombia], I remember him telling me to continue doing what I was doing,” she said.

Teresa dedicated her Miss Universe Malta title to her brother Bruno, who died last year

Ms Ruglia, who has 11 siblings, grew up in a tight-knit family amid political turmoil and an economic crisis in Venezuela. After her father passed away when she was 13, her eldest brother stepped in to become the family breadwinner.

As the economic crisis in Venezuela grew, Ms Ruglia left the country to study abroad. At 21 and with limited knowledge of English, she moved to build her new life thousands of miles away from home.

Teresa with her father in Venezuela. He died when she was 13

“I couldn’t study [in Venezuela] because it was so dangerous. My dad is half Italian and my sister was in Malta,” she said.

Ms Ruglio now plans to use her experiences to help motivate people to work hard and to look at the world with a sense of optimism.

“The experiences, of course, were tough, I went through a depression and anxiety because I didn’t understand what I was going through or what will happen,” she told Times of Malta.

“I was a teenager and had to move away and start from the beginning. It was very hard, but inside of me I always tried to be happy.  So I started to learn. I started to study. I wanted to create positive habits”.

Teresa pictured at Times of Malta offices this week

Two years after her move, her sister encouraged her to take part in the Miss Universe competition. She said she was a bit hesitant at first but had always dreamt of taking part in the pageant.

“When I won, I was both impressed and shocked. I had a lot of mixed feelings. I was excited and happy, I was thinking ‘wow, I made it’,” she said of her win.

The newly-crowned Miss Universe Malta, however, faced backlash by some who argued that Miss Malta’s representative should not be a foreigner.

Ms Ruglio brushed the criticism off.

“I thought ‘fair enough’,” she admitted.

“It doesn’t make me feel bad – in fact, it’s the opposite, I try to understand them,” she said.

However, she’s grateful the country still gave her the opportunity to represent Malta abroad.

“I understand that Malta is their country, but I’m grateful that Malta gave me this opportunity to show that you can make your dreams come true.

“I want to show them that I don’t take anything for granted,” she said.