Competing in Miss Alabama USA

At the end of October 2021, a few friends of mine decided that I had a positive message about overcoming obstacles that people needed to hear. My friends knew that I was going to need a big stage to share it on if I was ever going to get my message out there! After some thought, my friends decided to sign me up to compete in the upcoming Miss Alabama USA beauty pageant that was going to be held at Auburn University on January 14th-15th 2022. After they told me that they had signed me up, I thought they were crazy at first but I told them that I would consider doing it. After a lot of thought and prayer, I realized that maybe God could use this pageant to inspire and reach people through me. So I decided to compete after all and it turned out to be a very wise decision!

I first had to get my formal gown, so I ended up going to Modern Bride which is actually the same place my mom got her wedding dress back in the ninties! I ended up finding a silver dress that we could easily badazzle. It was such a gorgous dress I knew that was the dress for me! I then found three sponsors that paid for my ads that were in the program book at the competition. My sponsors were Coco Couture, Athen's State University, and Trivector Services Inc. I am so blessed to of had these amazing sponsors sponsoring me in such quick timing!

News of me being in this competition all of the sudden sparked interest in people and before I knew it. news stations and websites were calling me for interviews! I ended up doing interviews with Alabama Rehabilitation Servixes, 1819 News, AL.com, and WAFF 48 News. The whole time I was at the pageant, I had people coming up to me and telling me that they had been following my interviews. They also would tell me that they were so inspired by my positivity and bravery. It meant a lot to me to hear that!

The best part for me while preparing to do this pageant was that people that I care about were able to be a part of the experience in one way or another. I had so many people that voted for me for the People's Choice Award and post my interviews that I did on their social media pages sending me all kinds of love and support my way. I even had some very artistic friends of mine help me decorate a masquerade mask for me that I could wear for the opening number with my glasses. They even made a butterfly wing for that mask just out of hot glue and paint! Which still blows my mind!

I also had some friends that got some celebrities do Cameo videos for me! I got Cameos from Lauren Alaina, Kevin Sorbo, Andrew Walker, a Tom Cruise impersonator, Bethany Hamilton, and Sara Evans. A couple of my friends were even trying to out do each other by getting me the most Cameo videos over the other person. I thought that it was so sweet that they were trying to promote me in anyway that they could! Getting these videos helped to remind me that I had so many people backing me up in doing this pageant. It was more than appresiated!

When I finally got down to the pageant, I got to meet the other girls that I would be competing against. All of the girls were so friendly and we all supported each other so that was nice. We all enjoyed hanging out with each other and laughing at our silly inside jokes. I even reconnected with an old high school friend of mine who graduated the year before I did! There was one girl that I met there in particular named Mackenzie Marable and she was my buddy the whole time. She was especially sweet to me. Mackenzie helped direct traffic for me and help take my masquerade mask off during the opening number. It turns out that MacKenzie is a veteran in the pageant world, so she was giving me tips on how to survive in the pageant. Which I really appreciated!

On the first night of competition, we did everything from the opening number, bathing suit, to the formal gowns. I had lots of compliments on all of my outfits so that felt really nice to hear! I also had the best hair and makeup team that was led by a woman named Britney Shelton. They were so fast and they did such a wonderful job with my hair and makeup! When I was on that stage, I was just myself and wasn't trying to be anybody else! That may have shown but, I did not care because I was just having fun.

The next morning, we had to do our interviews with the judges. The more I talked about overcoming obstacles, the more I apparantly was inspiring one of the judges! I was so nervous that I would mess up or say something stupid that when that judge told me how my story was inspiring him, it all of the sudden put things back into perspective for me. It reminded me that the most important reason I was there was to encourage people. That interview was definitly a highlight during the weekend!

After the opening number during the second night, they announced who the top sixteen were. Even though I didn't make it in the top sixteen, I still got to do the parade of gowns and I was still available to win an award! They ended up giving out several awards like the People's Choice Award, Most Photogenic Award, and the Miss Congeniality Award. I honestly didn't think I would win any of those awards but I was pleasantly proven wrong! I ended up winning second place for the People's Choice Award and actually winning the Miss Congeniality Award! Winning Miss Congeniality meant more to me than actually winning Miss Alabama because it was the only award the girls that I was competing against voted for! I was so shocked and humbled they would vote for me for this coveted award!

Through that whole experience, I became more cofortable and confident in my own skin! I also got to share my story with many people that I wouldn't of been able to reach if I hadn't done this pageant! I even made lifetime friends with my fellow competitors that made me laugh the whole weekend! I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have supported me through this whole journey from my sponsors to my friends and family that encouraged me to do this pageant! I would not have made it to that pageant without you guys!!

1. MacKenzie Marable with me wearing my masquerade mask.

2. Me wearing my formal gown holding my award!