Shanira Mariette Blanco Colón was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican mother, María Colón, and a Dominican father, Ángel Blanco. Blanco is the oldest of three children from that marriage. In 2013 Blanco married longtime boyfriend Dr. Augusto Ayala. They had a son in 2015, Mateo Ayala Blanco.
Beauty pageants
When she was 19 years old, she started competing in different beauty pageants, which made her travel the world to places like Venezuela, France, Germany, Turkey and the Philippines among others, and won Miss Amber World 2001 and Miss Folklore World 2001.
Blanco represented Puerto Rico at the Miss Earth 2004. She won the Miss Leonardo award.
Pageant Director
Blanco was the previous national director for the Miss World Puerto Rico, Miss Earth Puerto Rico, and Miss Grand International Puerto Rico franchises. Under her direction, Puerto Rico won the first Miss Grand International 2013 crown with beauty title holder Janelee Chaparro.
Television career
After pageants, the doors to the world of television opened up for Blanco, receiving the opportunity from Puerto Rico's producer Hector Marcano in 2005, to join and co-host with his team, the television show “Que Suerte” which was transmitted through the Univisión Puerto Rico Network. It is there were Blanco grows as a TV personality, obtaining the chance to collaborate in other TV Shows like “El Gordo y la Flaca" and "Objetivo Fama", both directed to the Puerto Rican audience as well as the Hispanic market in the United States. At the same time, this young woman received the “Paoli Award” for “Outstanding New TV Talent of the Year ”, was elected as “The Most Beautiful Face on TV” by the readers of Teve Guia Magazine and was hired by the beauty company as their Hispanic Market Spokesperson.She has been Mirta de Perales Spokesperson since 2005. After “Que Suerte”, her TV career continued, where she received an offer from Univision PR to host the show “Flashazo VIP”, one that she accepted and continued doing it till 2012. After Flashazo VIP, Blanco continued to appear in Univision Puerto Rico shows like Tu Mañana, Tu Mediodia and Ruben & Co. Blanco was a presenter for Paparazzi TV. Shanira joined Loteria Electrónica televised Live at WIPR in 2012. She is currently one of the television hosts. 2017, Univision Puerto Rico announced Blanco was returning to the network to be part of their new project " Despierta Puerto Rico". She currently hosts the "UNICAM" In 2019, Blanco returned to daytime television hosting the new TV show “ Aqui Estamos” which means, We are Here! With Puerto Rican merengue sensation host, Manny Manuel. The show currently airs daily from 2:00pm to 3:00pm on WIPR Television Network.
Social Media
Shanira has over 500,000 followers on her social media accounts. Campaigns posted on her social media includes collaboration with brands like Walgreens, Dannon, Goya, Mastercard, Simon Malls, Quaker, Disney, Frito Lays, Ford, Colgate, Mc Donalds, MDA and Mirta de Perales among many more.
Actitud Modeling Academy and Agency
After acquiring a bachelor's degree in marketing and a master's degree in business ,Blanco established Actitud, a modeling academy and agency, in 2007. Actitud Modeling Academy and Agency prepared delegates to the Miss World Pageant such as Ivonne Orsini, currently WAPA TV Hosts, which placed in the semifinals in 2008 and Amanda Vilanova, which became Miss World Caribbean and 2nd Runner up in London in 2011. Actitud also trained Miss World Puerto Rico 2012 Janelee Chaparro, who placed as quarter finalist in Miss World 2012 and eventually represented Puerto Rico in Miss Grand International 2013 where she won the first edition of this event. Puerto Rico's first 2018, was a student at Actitud in her early years as a forming model.
