Paulina Vega

Paulina Vega Dieppa is a Colombian model, business administrator, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe 2014. She previously won the Miss Colombia title in 2013, becoming only the second woman from Colombia to be crowned Miss Universe in the history of the pageant.

Vega was born on January 15, 1993, in Barranquilla, Atlántico, Colombia, to Laura Dieppa and cardiologist Rodolfo Vega Llama. She is of French and Spanish descent and has familial ties to pageantry and the arts, being the granddaughter of Colombian tenor Gastón Vega and Miss Atlántico 1953 Elvira Castillo. Vega attended elementary and high school at Colegio Karl C. Parrish and the German School of Barranquilla before moving to Bogotá D.C., where she completed her final years of schooling at Deutsche Schule Bogotá. She later pursued studies in Business Administration at the Pontifical Xavierian University.

Her career in national pageantry reached a milestone on November 11, 2013, when she represented the Atlántico Department at the Miss Colombia 2013 pageant held in Cartagena. Vega won the competition and was crowned by outgoing titleholder Lucia Aldana. This victory made her the 11th representative from Atlántico to capture the national crown since the pageant's inception in 1934, earning her the right to represent Colombia at the international level.

On January 25, 2015, Vega competed against 87 contestants at the Miss Universe 2014 pageant in Doral, Florida. She won the competition and was crowned by her predecessor, Gabriela Isler of Venezuela. Her victory marked the first time a representative from Atlántico won Miss Universe and made her the second Colombian winner overall, following Luz Marina Zuluaga's win in 1958.

As part of her Miss Universe achievement, Vega was presented with a new crown designed by Czech-based jeweler Diamonds International Corporation. Her prize package included an official prize money package, a one-year promotional contract with the Miss Universe Organization, global travel opportunities, a rent-free luxury apartment in New York City, a US$100,000 scholarship for the New York Film Academy, and access to major fashion houses and beauty services. During her reign, she intended to travel internationally to speak on humanitarian issues and promote HIV/AIDS education.