Laksmi De-Neefe Suardana

Biography

Laksmi Shari De-Neefe Suardana (Balinese: ᬮᬓ᭄ᬱ᭄ᬫᬶᬰᬭᬶᬤᬾᬦᬾᬏᬧ᬴ᬾᬲᬸᬯᬃᬤᬦ), simply known as Laksmi De-Neefe Suardana, is an Australian-born Indonesian fashion designer, author, UNICEF activist, 2022 G20 Ambassador, co-founder of Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Puteri Indonesia 2022. Suardana is the first representative from Bali to be crowned Puteri Indonesia. She represented Indonesia at Miss Universe 2022.

== Early life and education ==

Laksmi Shari De-Neefe Suardana was born on 29 January 1996 in Melbourne, Australia, to an Australian mother, Janet De-Neefe, and a Balinese father, Ketut Suardana. She was raised in Ubud, a village located in Gianyar Regency, Bali, Indonesia. She has three siblings. She is the granddaughter of Australian business tycoon, John De-Neefe. Her name was inspired from Lakshmi, a Hindu goddess known for her power to turn dreams into reality. Suardana speaks Indonesian, Balinese, English, Italian, Spanish and French. She learnt Italian while studying and working as a fashion designer in Florence, Italy. Laksmi received a diploma of arts from Monash College in 2013. She then completed her double degree program, bachelor of design in fashion design from RMIT University in Australia and bachelor of business in fashion from Polimoda, a private fashion school in Italy. She graduated with summa cum-laude.

== Career == In 2018, Laksmi took part as an activist and contributor for UNICEF's Voices of Youth. She now actively promotes literacy and literature engagement in the society as her advocacy, knowing that the interest in writing and reading books in Indonesia is still low. She also volunteers to teach English for a non-governmental organization in Bali. On 31 May 2022, Suardana and her fellow Puteri Indonesia 2022 winners, Cindy May McGuire and Adinda Cresheilla, were appointed as the 2022 G20 Ambassadors by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, at the Merdeka Palace, as part of the Indonesian presidency at the upcoming 17th meeting of the G20 in Bali, where the ambassadors were also accompanied by Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno.

=== Ubud Writers & Readers Festival ===

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival was first conceived by Suardana, together with her parents as a healing project in response to the first 2002 Bali bombings. It has grown from a very small festival to the largest literary festival in Southeast Asia. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Suardana created the Ubud Writers & Readers Fest IG Live Book Club. Suardana was appointed the festival's official ambassador by Yayasan Mudra Swari Saraswati in 2023 in conjunction with the celebration of the festival's twentieth anniversary.

== Pageantry ==

=== Puteri Bali 2022 === In January 2022, she competed for the title of Puteri Bali 2022 through an open audition in Jakarta, ended up winning the title.