Alexandra or Sandra Styberg is half Thai half Danish. And on 21 August she became the second runner up for Miss Thailand World 2004.
“I entered the beauty pageant mainly because of my mom and my aunt,” Sandra says.
“They said that I should start doing something useful instead of spending most of the time in front of the computer,” Sandra adds.
The 20 year old Sandra’s younger sister, Natalie Styberg, has already for some years been a popular and successful singer at Thailand’s giant music label Grammy and she has been in the music career since the age of ten. This gives Sandra a little pressure but not so much to give her the envious feeling of her little sister.
Sandra and Natalie’s Danish father is Kristian Styberg. Today, he works as a programmer and advisor at the Thai International Airport. In the beginning, the family lived in Denmark, where Sandra was born. After completing kindergarten, the family first moved to Germany before finally moving here to settle in Bangkok, her mother’s hometown.
Sandra grew up and attended Thai schools, but from her experience living in foreign countries since childhood, she is able to speak English, Thai, German and her mother tongue Danish. Her aunt, who lives in Denmark, is partly responsible for keeping her practicing her Danish.
“I still use Danish when I chat with my aunt on MSN so I when I occasionally bump into Danes, I don’t find any problems communicating with them at all,” remarks Sandra.
The interview was engaged in English. Even when she found something hard to explain, she never switched into Thai.
Many will find it hard to believe that such a modest and softly speaking person is a celebrity. Her bright look and smile are those of a young teenage girl. But you don’t need to talk to her for long before realizing, that behind her soft voice and modest character, she is also a very determined woman who doesn’t give up so easily on problems.
The question that she was asked at the Miss Thailand World beauty pageant was what is her opinion regarding Thai models wearing no bra on catwalks? Her answer to this was that she is rather neutral towards the issue because in the west, they take this as an art and many people are doing it. But in Thailand, there is a different culture and people should respect that. Anyone who wants to go braless will have to consider what is appropriate and what is not, the definition of art and that there should be limit.
“I’m not so against it as long as it’s proper and kept to a good limit,” she adds. And that was the very question that made her the second runner up for Miss Thailand World 2004.
When asked how she felt about receiving the position, the young beauty said she was happy and surprised that she would have come this far because there were many beautiful girls in the pageant. However, Sandra doesn’t believe that she gets to be the second runner up because she is “luk krueng” or because she’s the sister of her famous little sister Natalie but purely because of her own beauty and talents.
Before she Miss Thailand World 2004 changed her life, Sandra was just an ordinary girl leading an ordinary life just like other girls her age. She tries to keep it at that.
Sandra has in the past been doing a few fashion shoots and some interviews. Now there will certainly be more to come. Her position now will require her to do some social work, a typical routine for the beauty queen, but at the moment she’s going to have to put a lot of effort into managing her time as she is not considering dropping out from the university like a lot of people do when they come into the limelight. She is now a sophomore at Thammasat University, Faculty of Arts, International Program. Her first priority is education and she now has to go to study four days a week and have three days for the social work and fashion shoots and what else goes with the job.
“I think education is very important and I choose to continue what I was doing previously. I may not be able to attend social functions like the other two beauty queens but I will do so only after my school hours or when I have time,” comments Sandra.
