Shirly Karvinen (born 3 September 1992) is a Finnish model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned Miss Finland 2016 and represented her country at

Miss Universe 2016 Miss Universe 2016 was the 65th Miss Universe pageant, held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines on January 30, 2017. This was the second time that the pageant skipped a year, after Miss Universe 2014 was held i ...

Background

Karvinen was born to a Finnish father and a Chinese mother in Finland. Due to her father's work in an asphalt paving company, she spent her early childhood living in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. In her teens, she also lived in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

as an exchange student, while spending time with her mother's side of the family. Karvinen speaks Finnish and English. She also knows the basics of

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

Education and career

Karvinen has most recently studied in the

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

program at

Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (, ) is one of Finland's largest universities of applied sciences ("ammattikorkeakoulu" in Finnish). The institution is fully supervised and accredited by the Finnish government through the Ministry ...

in Helsinki. As part of her studies, she also worked as an

administrative assistant A person responsible for providing various kinds of administrative assistance is called an administrative assistant (admin assistant) or sometimes an administrative support specialist. In most instances it is identical to the modern iteration of th ...

in the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral rela ...

in Helsinki and the Embassy of Finland in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Pageantry

Miss Finland 2016

Karvinen was crowned Miss Finland 2016 at Vanajanlinna Castle in

Hämeenlinna Hämeenlinna (; ; ; or ''Croneburgum'') is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Kanta-Häme. It is located in the southern interior of the country and on the shores of Vanajavesi, Lake Vanajavesi. The population of Hämeenlinna is appr ...

on May 13, 2016. As Miss Finland, Karvinen wanted to be a good role model for others to look up to. Among her other causes, Karvinen has supported anti-bullying efforts and spoken against

school bullying School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be ver ...

. According to her, she suffered from bullying in her childhood and youth for being half-Chinese.

Miss Universe 2016

Karvinen represented

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

but unplaced.

Personal life

Karvinen and her girlfriend, Finnish pop singer

Sanni The Sanni ( ka, სანები) are mentioned by Strabo (1st century BC/1st century AD), Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) and Arrian (2nd century AD) as a people settling near Trebizond (in today's Turkish Black Sea Region). In the 1st a ...

, live in Helsinki.

References

External links

Official Miss Finland Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karvinen, Shirly 1993 births Living people Miss Universe 2016 contestants People from Jyväskylä Miss Finland winners Finnish people of Chinese descent 21st-century Finnish LGBTQ people LGBTQ beauty pageant winners