Miss Thailand Wore Dress Made of Soda Can Tabs To Honor Her Garbage-Collector Parents?

In June 2024, posts went viral on Facebook, claiming that Miss Thailand wore a dress made of soda can tabs as a tribute to her parents, who worked as garbage collectors. “Her parents have obviously done a great job of raising her,” one Facebook user commented.

The story was also shared on other social media platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

It’s true that Miss Thailand wore a dress made of soda can tabs at the Miss Universe preliminary competition in January 2023. Though Anna Sueangam-iam did not explicitly state that the dress was “a tribute to her parents who worked as garbage collectors,” she wrote in an Instagram post that it was inspired by the familiar surroundings of her childhood and later added that she grew up with garbage-collector parents. Because of that, we have rated this claim as “Mostly True.”

We have reached out to Sueangam-iam and we will update this article if and when we receive a response. 

Sueangam-iam shared photographs of her unique dress on her Instagram account @annasnga_1o, on Jan. 12, 2023. 

The post’s caption informed that growing up with garbage-collector parents, Sueangam-iam’s lived among piles of garbage and recyclables as a child:

🔗 My Gown – My Personal Statement to the #Universe 🔗

This gown was inspired by the familiar surroundings of my childhood. Growing up with garbage collector parents, my life as a child was among piles of garbage and recyclables. This unique gown was purposefully tailored-made with discarded and recycled materials, namely the ‘Can Tab’ to present to the UNIVERSE that what’s considered worthless by many actually possesses its own value and beauty.

Thank you all for seeing it, hearing it, and hopefully being that message of self-worth. 🕊

An official Instagram account of Miss Universe Thailand, @missuniverse.in.th, also shared photographs of Sueangam-iam’s dress.

The post said she was brought up by a “father who is a garbage collector, street-sweeper mother, and a virtuous nun who was Anna’s great-grandmother”:

“You must not get stuck with murky surroundings you were born into, but do believe you have the power to change your own life for the better,” the inspirational quote by “Anna Sueangam-iam”, Miss Universe Thailand 2022, precisely reflects and self-defines her own significant characteristic.

Persistence, tenaciousness and optimism within her have led her to a great success in life. It is the result of being brought up by a father who is a garbage collector, street-sweeper mother, and a virtuous nun who was Anna’s great-grandmother. Although she was called by some as “The garbage beauty queen,” that never stops her from shining bright as a precious gem.

From her empowering life story, the message is conveyed through this “Hidden Precious Diamond Dress”. Meticulously created from used aluminium pull-tabs of drink cans and Swarovki combined, this unique upcycled dress designed by “MANIRAT” is at its most promptness to be found on the universal stage.

Sueangam-iam’s bio, shared on the website of the Miss Universe Organization, said she grew up in a Bangkok slum and was later sent to a temple for safety, where she survived on leftover food from monks while living among Buddhist nuns:

At an early age, poverty differentiated her life at school from other children, especially the cost of tuition. In order to cover her tuition fees, she had to collect merit points, donate blood every semester, collect plastic waste bottles, and clean public restrooms. This experience made her question the accessibility Thai children had to education.

Having overcome this challenge, Sueangam-iam would like to represent all the children from less privileged backgrounds and amplify their voices. She uses her bigger voice to collaborate with many nonprofit organizations in order to provide children with access to educational systems. She has conducted the “Do it, Earn it” campaign, supports the project No Mixed Waste, participates in a Saturday school project, and works with Smile Train Thailand.

This wasn’t the first time we investigated a Thailand-related story. For instance, in April 2024, we looked at a post claiming that the quick thinking of a 10-year-old English girl, Tilly Smith, helped save some 100 lives just before the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 struck the island of Phuket. We also unpacked a rumor claiming that rocker Billy Idol once had to be subdued by Thai police with a tranquilizer dart after he partied for three weeks in a Bangkok hotel suite.