Who will walk the runway during New York Fashion Week and win $20,000? You decide.
Arbaina Kawilan
Must finish first in their group to advance to the Semifinals.
Voting for this round ends on August 28, 2026 at 10:00 PM EDT
About Arbaina Kawilan
Filipina nonprofit founder, TEDx speaker, and UN delegate who believes the most radical thing a woman can do is take up space — loudly, purposefully, and on her own terms.
Learn More About Arbaina Kawilan
What makes you the Next Runway Star?
I walk into rooms I wasn't invited to and I make them better for it. I'm a Filipina woman from Cotabato, Philippines. I founded SADIA to serve women from underserved and conflict-affected communities in Central Texas. I've spoken at the United Nations twice as a civil society delegate for nonviolence. I gave a TEDx talk on Emotional Alchemy: the practice of turning pain into power without losing yourself in the process. The runway isn't new territory for me. Visibility is my work. Showing up fully — in my body, in my culture, in my purpose — is something I do every single day. RISE reclaims the runway as a place of empowerment. That's not a concept to me. That's a lived practice.
What would this once in a lifetime experience mean to you and why?
This isn't a fantasy I've been chasing, it's an extension of work I already do. I spend my life pushing for visibility for women who are too often unseen. It would also make my inner child so happy. As a Filipino, I grew up surrounded by pageants and runway culture, but my body, my height, and my appearance never reflected the beauty standards I saw around me. This opportunity isn't just a chance to heal that part of myself for being different. It's a chance to show other kids, and other women, that beauty and grace can look different, and can show up on a different kind of stage. Walking this runway during New York Fashion Week would put that mission on a global stage, at the exact moment my advocacy work and my personal story are converging.
What are you most proud of about yourself or what have you overcome and why?
I'm most proud that I refused to inherit a pattern. I come from extreme poverty and survived abuse, the odds were literally stacked against me from the start. The women in my family organized their lives around men for generations. I broke that. I'm the first in my family to graduate college, I founded a nonprofit, and I've represented civil society at the United Nations twice. I did this without a guaranteed safety net and without anyone handing me a blueprint. I built my own.
What would you do with the $20,000 cash prize?
I'd invest it directly into SADIA's work — expanding our programs for women from underserved and conflict-affected communities here in Central Texas. Every dollar would go toward building the kind of infrastructure that doesn't currently exist for the women we serve: resources, safety, and a path forward that doesn't depend on anyone else's permission.
Content from Arbaina Kawilan
Safety is an Inside Job
A glimpse into the story behind my entry. My TEDx talk on Emotional Alchemy, the framework I use to turn pain into purpose, and the foundation of everything I do with SADIA and beyond.
Vote for Arbaina Kawilan
Rise is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit that helps sexual assault survivors across the country and around the world. They’ve created the most successful legislative reform movement in U.S. history: 120 laws passed, 1 UN Resolution and 112 million people’s lives impacted by their efforts.
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