Jesica Ahlberg may have acted next to Ryan Reynolds and may call Katherine Webb a friend, but that’s not the coolest thing she’s done recently. The 24-year-old began her official reign as Miss Alabama USA 2014 Saturday, Nov. 16. “It was just the most overwhelming feeling,” she said. “It’s so hard to describe, maybe a mixture of just shock and joy. I couldn’t believe it. It’s something I’ve wanted for so long.” She began her pageant career in Florida as a teenager.
“I was never a pageant girl,” she said. “I was asked by a friend to do one of the local preliminary pageants. I did it for fun, I wore my prom dress and I ended up winning,” she said. She was eventually named the second runner-up in last year's Miss Alabama USA pageant. Throughout her journeys in the Miss USA pageant network and her most recent competition, she said she made plenty of friends who also celebrated her win along with almost 30 of her loved ones. “The greatest feeling of the night, though, was after I’d won and they crowned me I just remember turning around and then seeing all of the new friends that I had made running towards me and jumping all over me. That was the coolest thing ever,” she said. One of those pageant friends includes fellow Auburn grad and Miss Alabama USA 2012 Katherine Webb. Ahlberg calls her a good friend. “She helped me a lot along the way,” she said. “She helped me pick out wardrobe; she let me borrow a lot of her jewelry.” Ahlberg said she admires how her friend has handled sudden fame. “She’s a really good person,”she said.” I see some of the things that people tweet at her and write on her Instagram and it hurts my feelings for her because she really does have a good heart and she’s not trying to ride the coattails of the football team.” In addition to her newest role as beauty queen, Ahlberg also maintains a career as an actress and a model.
Ahlberg ‘s career began in a very 21st century, internet-savvy way: through Google. “I didn’t know anything about it, but I’ve always wanted to do it,” she said. “I took it upon myself to Google and figure out everything myself.” She dove into the acting world by reading books on acting and working with UAB’s Artplay. She began with a job as an extra on the show “Drop Dead Gorgeous.” She soon followed up with parts on “Necessary Roughness” with John Stamos and “Banshee” on Cinemax. She also has a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and a part in the newest “Spongebob Squarepants” movie. On the modeling side, she is currently the “Sleeping Face” for Delta Airline’s Business Elite class. “Acting is just what I absolutely love to do, so I hope that keeps growing,” she said.
When she’s not acting or fulfilling her Miss Alabama USA duties, she volunteers with the Better Basics program in Birmingham to promote literacy. Ahlberg works with a class at Hayes K-8 School to motivate students to read. She said reading has always been important to her. “It’s a great way to further yourself in life and it’s very important to education,” she said. In the meantime, she said she will continue all of her endeavors while working with trainers and sponsors to prepare for next year’s Miss USA pageant. “It’s such an honor to be chosen to represent the state at the Miss USA pageant,” she said.
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