After her win, it was revealed that Zender was only seventeen years old, five months under the contest's minimum age requirement of eighteen.

Pageant officials decided that she could keep the crown after they were told she was considered to be eighteen in her country due to an old custom explained to them by the then-Peruvian ambassador to the United States, Fernando Berckemeyer Pazos.

This edition saw the debuts of Martinique, Morocco, and Paraguay, and the returns of Austria, Ceylon, Hawaii, and South Korea.

[3] British Guiana, Chile, and the Dominican Republic withdrew after their respective organizations failed to hold a national competition or appoint a delegate.

[citation needed] Leona Gage, Miss USA 1957, was announced as one of the fifteen semi-finalists, but was removed from the contest on the afternoon before the final after it was discovered that she was married and the mother of two young children.