Five minutes before Miss Nevada Ellie Smith was crowned, her younger sister and best friend, Amy Smith, 15, was crowned Miss Nevada Outstanding Teen. “When she won I think I was crying harder than she was,” Ellie Smith said. She is the youngest Miss America 2014 contestant at 17-years-old. “I was on the other side of the stage freaking out. I run over to her, give her a hug, and then right in my mind, I’m like, ‘Oh, what if I don’t win?’” Fortunately, it worked out for the Smith sisters. Ellie was crowned immediately after Amy, whose turn it was to freak out.
“It was the best night of our lives by far,” Ellie Smith said. “Just such a magical moment to be able to share that with my sister, my best friend, and now to be able to share a whole year with her is really, really, truly great.” While Ellie Smith paved the way into pageantry ahead of her sister, many of this year’s Miss America contestants follow in family members’ footsteps. Miss Mississippi Jasmine Murray, 22, has two older sisters who inspired her to pursue a crown. They both competed in the MAO at local and state levels, but Murray is the only one in her family to win the title of Miss Mississippi.
Still, she said, she couldn’t have won it without her sisters’ direction and good example. Miss Maryland Jade Kenny competed for Miss Maryland three times before she won the title. Likewise, her mother competed for the state title when she was 17 years old, and won the preliminary swimsuit award. A fact, Kenny said, her mother has on occasion, “rubbed in her face.” “It’s kind of funny because my first two years I never won swimsuit, and she won swimsuit. She would always kind of rub that in my face like, ‘Your momma’s still got it,’” Kenny joked. “So I definitely pushed through so I could win the swimsuit preliminary my third year.”
Although her mother may have goaded her a bit while she was competing, Kenny said her mother never pushed her to do pageants. The 23-year-old found the hobby independently. When she was 13 years old, Kenny said, she had trouble grieving the loss of her best friend and grandparents. When a guidance counselor told her to develop a thicker skin, she was furious.
“I found the Rainbows Organization and it helped me through a very difficult time,” Kenny said. “Ever since then I needed to make sure that no child is ever told to get over something like that.” Pageantry, she said, gave her a “microphone” to support the Rainbows Organization. On the road to Miss America, Kenny’s platform is Healing the Hurt, Restoring the Hope – the Rainbows Organization. Kenny said competing in her mother’s footsteps and finally winning Miss Maryland is kind of like a relay race, “We’ve finally hit that mark,” she said. Although Miss Hawaii Stephanie Steuri’s mother was Miss Maui 1977, her parents were not immediately onboard with her participation in pageants, Steuri said. They were worried she was sacrificing the years she had dedicated to her education.
“That local title was my chance to show them that I can do both, I can be that beauty and brains figure,” Steuri said. “I can continue my education with a title in the Miss America system and earn scholarship money.” After winning a local title, Miss Paradise Kauai, and continuing on to compete in Miss Hawaii, Stueri said her mother’s attitude toward pageants shifted. “She was super-excited, almost living vicariously through me,” Stueri joked. “She was just so excited that I had grown so much as a person both academically and as a woman.” Three of the women received valuable advice from their predecessors, “be yourself,” while Smith had some advice for her younger sister. “If you believe you can do it, you can do it,” Smith said.
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