Annandale High School graduate will represent Venezuela in a beauty pageant

Rachel Laguna

Rachel Laguna, of the Annandale High School Class of 2007, is the 2021 Mrs. Venezuela and is slated to compete in the international Mrs. Globe competition in Shenzhen, China, later this year.

Mrs. Globe (or Ms. Globe, as Laguna prefers) is an international beauty pageant featuring contestants age 26 to 45 of any marital status.

Originally from Venezuela, Laguna mostly grew up in Northern Virginia. Her parents were involved in providing humanitarian aid and “being a voice for the people back home” during the ongoing political crisis, she says. It was through that work that she met the pageant director for Venezuela, who asked her to join the competition.

She was named Ms. Virginia in 2019, as well as Ms. Venezuela for Washington, D.C.

Laguna was born in Caracas but spent much of her childhood in the Amazon rainforest, where her father worked for a British gold mining company.

The family moved to the Annandale area when she was 10. She went to Braddock Elementary School, starting in the fourth grade, then went to Poe Middle School. At Annandale High School, she was a cheerleader, yearbook editor, and played the flute and piccolo in the marching band and regular band.

After high school, she earned two bachelor’s degrees at George Mason University, in global affairs and foreign languages.

Now 31, she is a management analyst in the Fairfax County Department of Family Services. She has also served as a parent liaison and interpreter for Fairfax County Public Schools and as a cheerleading coach at Woodson High School and Poe Middle School.

Laguna will play the flute in the Mrs. Globe pageant, which also includes a bathing suit and evening gown competition, and an opportunity for contestants to talk about themselves, their platform, and their causes.

Laguna’s main cause is raising public awareness of polycystic ovary syndrome. As a member of the board of advisors of the PCOS Challenge: the National Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association, she is lobbying Congress to make the disease a legislative priority

She also promotes the importance of donating blood, especially during the pandemic, and has volunteered with Food for Others and Ronald McDonald House.

Laguna has long wanted to represent Venezuela on the world stage and is excited to be a part of the Mrs. Globe pageant.

“I felt it was more inclusive,” says Laguna who is 31. “We all have different stories and backgrounds.”

“I had to work to pay for my education. Now that I have a career, I’m able to live these dreams,” she says. “It’s never too late to make these dreams happen.”