Official Portraits by FElicia schütte
KRALENDIJK – For Vivienne Vollebregt, stepping onto the Miss Universe Bonaire stage is about much more than competing for a crown. Representing Kralendijk, the entrepreneur, professional makeup artist, permanent makeup specialist and kickboxer brings with her a story built around confidence, discipline and the belief that women should feel strong and beautiful in every sense of the word.
For Vivienne, the timing feels right.
A miss pageant is something she once dreamed about as a young woman, but over the years that dream seems to disappear into the background. Now, years later, the opportunity suddenly presents itself again.
And this time, she is ready.
“Some opportunities come at exactly the right moment,” she says. “If I had done this ten years ago, I would not have been as confident as I am now.”
That confidence is not something that simply appears when the cameras turn on. It is something Vivienne has built over years of personal growth, entrepreneurship, sport and working with women.
Beauty as a form of confidence
Vivienne’s relationship with beauty begins long before Miss Universe Bonaire.
As a young girl, she discovers a passion for professional makeup and, more importantly, for what makeup can do for the person sitting in her chair. She enjoys seeing the reaction when someone looks in the mirror and suddenly feels more confident.
That passion eventually becomes her profession.
After working as a makeup artist in the Netherlands, her love of travel brings her to Bonaire. In 2012, she settles on the island and begins building the life and career that she has today.
Through Viv’s Beauty, she works with women every day to enhance what is already there. Her expertise extends from professional makeup to permanent makeup, brows and lashes, facials and other beauty and wellness treatments.
But for Vivienne, beauty is never simply about appearance.
Her philosophy is much bigger than that.
“It’s my mission to make you leave the salon feeling better on the outside & inside, with a clear, calm mind and the feeling that you can take on the world!”
That idea of empowerment runs through everything she does.
Whether she is creating someone's brows with permanent makeup, preparing a woman for an important event, coaching someone through a wellness journey or simply giving a client a moment to relax, the goal is ultimately the same: to help women see themselves differently.
Not as someone who needs to become somebody else, but as someone who is already capable, beautiful and strong.
Strength looks different too
That belief in strength takes a very different form outside the salon.
For years, Vivienne has been training in kickboxing. What began as something that helped her regain focus and feel stronger has become an important part of her life.
Kickboxing is demanding. It requires discipline, consistency and the willingness to be uncomfortable.
For Vivienne, that is exactly what makes it valuable.
She describes the sport almost like a form of meditation. During training, there is no room to think about everything else happening in life. You have to be present. You have to react. You have to keep going.
In 2025, after years of training, she finally steps into the ring for her first official kickboxing fight on Curaçao. The experience is intense and does not go exactly according to plan. She ultimately loses the fight by a narrow decision, but refuses to define the experience as a failure.
Looking back, she sees the moments where she could have done things differently. She also sees something more important: she gave everything she had.
“Despite that I didn't win, I feel like a winner,” she says.
That attitude says a lot about Vivienne.
Winning matters to her. She is competitive and wants to perform at her best. But she also understands that courage is measured before the result is known.
First, you have to step into the ring.
And now, she is stepping onto another kind of stage.
From the ring to the runway
The contrast is striking.
In one world, Vivienne is wearing boxing gloves, training hard and learning how to absorb a hit.
In another, she is walking in heels, preparing for interviews, practicing her posture and learning the intricacies of the catwalk.
Yet the two worlds have more in common than they might appear to.
Both require confidence.
Both require discipline.
And both force you to become comfortable being seen.
As one of the three candidates competing for the Miss Universe Bonaire crown, Vivienne is preparing for far more than a beauty pageant. The candidates work on public speaking, etiquette, interviews, presentation and personal development.
And then there is the catwalk.
“It looks simple, but it absolutely isn't,” Vivienne says. There is posture, movement, timing, turns and, of course, the challenge of walking confidently in high heels.
For someone who spends much of her everyday life on Bonaire in sandals or barefoot, the transformation is not without its challenges.
But she embraces it.
Because the Miss Universe experience gives her another opportunity to explore what confidence looks like.
A woman who builds confidence in others
Perhaps that is what makes Vivienne's participation particularly fitting.
Her professional life already revolves around helping people feel better about themselves.
Her salon is built around beauty and wellness. Her permanent makeup work gives women the option of simplifying their routines while enhancing features they love. Her coaching focuses on helping people work toward healthier versions of themselves. And her experience as a professional makeup artist allows her to transform the way someone presents themselves to the world.
Then there is kickboxing, where she challenges herself physically and mentally.
None of these things are really separate stories.
They are different expressions of the same message.
You are stronger than you think you are.
You are allowed to take up space.
You are allowed to feel beautiful.
And perhaps most importantly: confidence is something you can build.
That is the message Vivienne carries with her as she represents Kralendijk.
Representing Kralendijk
For Vivienne, Bonaire is not simply the place where she currently lives.
She has spent the majority of her adult life on the island, building her businesses, creating relationships and becoming the woman she is today.
Bonaire is home.
That makes representing Kralendijk during Miss Universe Bonaire especially meaningful.
The competition also gives her the opportunity to show another side of herself. Beyond the beauty professional, entrepreneur and athlete is a woman who is comfortable acknowledging that she still has things to learn.
She does not enter the competition believing she has everything figured out.
Instead, she enters willing to grow.
That openness is perhaps one of her greatest strengths.
More than a crown
There is naturally a competitive element to any pageant. Vivienne wants to do well. She wants to challenge herself. And when she walks onto the stage, she wants to give everything she has.
But she also speaks warmly about her fellow candidates, Caroline Porras and Katherine Montero.
Rather than seeing the other women purely as competition, she sees them as women sharing the same experience.
“I want them to do well too,” she says.
That attitude reflects something important about the kind of woman Vivienne wants to be.
A crown may recognize one person at the end of the evening.
But confidence, strength and empowerment are not limited resources.
There is room for every woman to feel powerful.
A new chapter
Vivienne Vollebregt is entering Miss Universe Bonaire with a lifetime of experiences that do not necessarily fit the traditional image of a pageant contestant.
She is a business owner.
A beauty professional.
A permanent makeup artist.
A coach.
A kickboxer.
And a woman who has spent years learning how to become more confident in her own skin.
Now she is bringing all of those parts of herself to the stage.
The heels and the gloves may seem like opposites.
The beauty salon and the boxing ring may appear to belong to completely different worlds.
But for Vivienne, they tell the same story.
Strength can be feminine. Beauty can be empowering. And confidence comes from knowing who you are.
As she prepares to represent Kralendijk at Miss Universe Bonaire, Vivienne is not simply chasing a crown.
She is stepping into a moment she once dreamed about as a young woman—and discovering that sometimes dreams do not disappear.
Sometimes, they simply wait until you are ready for them.
