An America born, first-generation teenager Nitya Kodali was declared the world's first-ever Miss Teen Telugu Universe.

Telugu Universe is an international pageant that consisted of contestants from over 40 different countries including the United States, Canada, India, Australia, UAE, etc. The pageant was a part of the World Telugu Cultural Fest, consisting of over 18,000 participants in collaboration with 100+ Telugu organizations.


The vision and goal of the Telugu Universe pageant is to nurture, promote, and advance Telugu culture in young women across the world. The pageant consisted of multiple rounds including ramp walk, talent, Telugu speaking, and question-and-answer. 22 finalists were selected to compete in the grand finals from over 700 semi-finalists, where Nitya was awarded the coveted title.


Nitya Kodali, the winner of Miss Teen Telugu Universe 2020, was born in the USA to parents Ramya Kodali and Neerup Kodali, both emigrants from India.



Nitya keeps in touch with Indian culture by participating and volunteering in celebrations of Indian festivals by community organizations.



She has also been learning classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam for 8 years, and is a part of the Bollywood dance team.



She is also actively involved in volunteer activities, as the founder and executive director of her global nonprofit, Letters and Love, working to reduce increase mental wellbeing in the healthcare field amidst this pandemic. Her organization has over 1,000 volunteers from more than 12 different countries globally.



On her weekends, Nitya volunteers at the Telugu school as a teacher and helps promote the Telugu language to future generations. She is also actively involved in her school as an executive board member of the HOSA and Science Olympiad organizations.


From a young age, Nitya has always shown a passion for the medical field and sciences. She aspires to be the embodiment of the term "beauty with brains" as the current valedictorian of her school, earning the first rank in over 800 students.

All these attributes have put her ahead of the contestants for the pageant and won her the crown.