A fluke hoverboard accident shattered more than you’d imagine—it became the catalyst for a revolution in how one woman defines power, beauty, and purpose.
Annastasia Mason didn’t plan to become a different kind of leader. She certainly didn’t expect a children’s toy to be the instrument of destruction that would lead to her downfall and ultimate transformation.
But approximately three years ago, a hoverboard accident changed everything. The fall was sudden. The impact was brutal— a traumatic head injury that caused a minor but lasting brain injury, extensive dental damage, over a year without being able to drive. For Mason, whose world had always included stages, spotlights, and the currency of appearance, the physical injuries were only the beginning.
The real damage was looking in the mirror and not recognizing the woman staring back.
The Unraveling
“There were moments I couldn’t face my own reflection,” Annastasia admits. The statement carries weight because it comes from someone who has spent years in spaces where reflection—literal and metaphorical—sadly, matters very deeply.
This wasn’t just about aesthetics. It was about subconscious identity collapse. When the external markers of who you are suddenly vanish, what remains?
For Annastasia, the answer wasn’t immediate. It emerged slowly, painfully, through faith, family and friend support, and what she describes as a serendipitous connection with someone who guided her through the darkest and ongoing stretches of recovery.
The reconstruction wasn’t ultimately about getting back to who she was. Over time, she realized that wasn’t in the cards and It was truly about discovering who she could become.
A New Equation
Fast forward to today: Annastasia Mason now holds the Ms. Universe® 2025 title and mid-reign she decided to take over as Executive Director of Universe International®, the organization behind Mrs. Universe®, Ms. Universe®, Miss Teen Universe®, Ms. Senior Universe®, Mr. Universe® and their global extensions.
But here’s what makes her tenure different—she’s not running these platforms the way they’ve always been run.
She is dismantling the old infrastructure. Removing Toxicity. Removing Stereotypes. Visual Rebranding. Advocacy. Expansion. A fundamental repositioning of what these titles actually represent. Under her direction, pageantry isn’t about perfection on parade. It’s about platform, substance and emphasizes that “Beauty is Universal®”—real influence wielded for meaningful impact.
“Visibility without purpose is empty,” she says. It’s not rhetoric. It’s her operating principle.
Building Something Different
Alongside her work at Universe International®, Mason founded Positively You™ Empowerment Studio. The mission is specific: addressing domestic violence, trauma, rebuilding self-worth, and creating pathways to empowerment through education, spirituality, creative expression, examples and leadership.
Her online educational course, Beauty From Ashes©, works with a simple but profound premise—trauma doesn’t have to be the end of your story. It can be the beginning of a different one. It’s never too late to start anew, a reclaiming of the divine crown we are all given at birth by our creator.
Mason’s background gives her unusual tools for this work. An academic foundation in Art Education and Psychology. Time as an art teacher and theater costume designer. She understands how humans construct identity, how symbols carry meaning, how storytelling shapes reality.
“Empowerment isn’t about pretending you weren’t hurt,” she explains. “It’s about standing in truth and choosing not to be defined by the damage.” She explains that she, too has had to face those hurdles, big and small. She then explains. She has made many mistakes in her life that have also helped shape her knowledge and overcoming. She openly shares that there is so much more that makes her who she is, including the failures and downfalls.
What’s Coming
Six months into her reign, Mason is moving fast. An international empowerment retreat in Italy, possibly other countries such as France as well, focused on healing and connection. Collaborations with global fashion designers. Two magazine launches. A cosmetics partnership launching during major fashion weeks. (And so much more)
Each initiative follows the same blueprint—pair outer expression with inner restoration. Beauty as vehicle for visibility, not destination.
“The crown is symbolic,” Mason says. It can create a beautiful microphone for change. “The real work happens when women recognize their worth without needing permission.” Comeback can begin at any moment your worth becomes a conscious, focused-forward decision.
The Faith Factor
Mason speaks openly about her faith, though she’s careful not to make it a barrier and expresses spirituality and acceptance of all. She believes that love and kindness are a worldwide language that we are in desperate need of spreading, daily. Her motto is “Kindness is Queen ™” and her message centers on agency—particularly for women and girls whom have been silenced, dismissed, or erased by trauma.
Her communication style reflects this. Direct. Unfiltered. Intentional.
“I want women to stop negotiating with self-doubt,” she says. “To stand in their truth and say, ‘Not today.'”
It’s this authenticity—grounded in lived experience rather than performed perfection—that has drawn thousands of women to her work worldwide.
The Legacy Question
Annastasia Mason’s story refuses easy categorization. It’s not a redemption arc. It’s not a comeback narrative. It’s something more complex—a demonstration that destruction can be generative, that loss can become leverage, that the worst moments of your life don’t have to define what comes after.
The fall doesn’t write the story. Not loss, not divorce, not separation, not loneliness, not opinions, not failures and not downfalls. The response does.
For Mason, the crown she wears now means something entirely different than it might have before the curveballs of life and THE accident. It’s not a symbol of arrival. It’s a signal—proof that fracture can produce strength, that pain and mistakes can generate leadership, that choosing to rise publicly, with all your scars visible and vulnerable, is its own form of power.
And perhaps more importantly—that when you do, you give permission for others to do the same.
That’s the rise that matters.
You can follow Annastasia’s journey as follows:
Instagram:
Facebook:
@annastasia.L.mason
Groups- Warrior Women International ™
Photo Credit:
BTA Productions Photography
HMU & Styling:
Positively You ™ Empowerment Studio
