H'Hen Niê

H'Hen entered Miss Universe Vietnam in 2017. During her time at Miss Universe Vietnam, she was recognized for her short hair and tanned skin, a contrast to Vietnamese beauty standard.[6] In the finale, H'Hen Niê went on to win the competition, beating out first runner-up Hoàng Thùy and second runner-up Mâu Thị Thanh Thủy. Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza was a judge at the finale. When asked by a co-judge whom she would pick as the winner, Mendoza chose "the girl with short hair", which was H'Hen.[6]

As a Rade person, H'Hen Niê is currently the first and only Miss Universe Vietnam titleholder to be of an ethnic minority. In an interview, she revealed she had almost paid off all of her family's debts thanks to new opportunities after winning the competition.[7]

She represented Vietnam at Miss Universe 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. In the months leading up to the pageant, H'Hen's training and preparation was documented and aired as a YouTube series called Road to Miss Universe 2018.[8]

The Miss Universe Vietnam Organization held a contest to find the Vietnamese national costume that H'Hen would wear for the national costume competition at the pageant. Six designs made it to the final round.[9] After a nationwide vote, the top three designs were selected: Bánh Mì (inspired by the Vietnamese sandwich bánh mì), Phố cổ (inspired by the ancient town of Hội An), and Ngũ hổ (inspired by the classical Hàng Trống painting and Vietnamese opera).[10] In the end, Bánh Mì was selected to be Vietnam's national costume at Miss Universe 2018.[11]

In the finale held at Impact Arena on December 17 in Bangkok, H'Hen finished as a top 5 finalist, the furthest any Vietnamese representative have made and only the second time since 2008 that Vietnam advanced through the first cut.[12] In her top 5 interview, H'Hen received a question about whether the #MeToo movement has gone too far, for which she answered:

“To me, it has not gone too far. Because protecting people’s well-being against sexual abuse, protecting women, that is a precious right. All of us need protection, our lives need freedom as well as protection.” [13]

Alternative translation:

“Personally I do not think that the #metoo movement has gone too far. It is because protecting human’s well-being and protecting women from sexual harassment are extremely fundamental rights. In life, we as human beings all need to be protected because it gives us the right of freedom. Thank you.” [14]

She was selected as the winner of the 2018 Timeless Beauty Award by Missosology, the popular beauty pageant blog and magazine. She defeated 112 other women competing in different major beauty pageants in 2018. Timeless Beauty has been organized annually since 2010 as a tradition of Missosology to recognize a queen who best embodies beauty that will transcend time, “something that shall be remembered for all eternity."

While having moderate success prior to the pageant competition, H'Hen's modeling career significantly took off after she won Miss Universe Vietnam 2017. She became an ambassador for various brands and appeared on multiple magazine covers and editorial features. She has walked for fashion shows in Vietnam and overseas.

In July 2019, she joined Lệ Hằng, Vietnam's representative at Miss Universe 2016, to compete in season 6 of The Amazing Race Vietnam as the Yellow Team. The team eventually won the race and received a cash prize of 300 million VND (approximately 13,000 USD). They committed to using the prize for charity work.[15] She was the host of I Am Miss Universe Vietnam 2019, which premiered in October 2019. However, H'Hen had to halt her appearance in Miss Universe Vietnam 2019 due to health issues. She has denied rumors of conflict with the MUV organization or pregnancy, and continued to post about the competition on her personal social media.[16]