Kamryn Blackwood prepares for Miss USA competition

By Hannah Grover The Daily Times

FARMINGTON — Kamryn Blackwood first decided she wanted to be Miss USA in 2012. After years of hard work, her dreams are on the verge of coming true. Blackwood, the current Miss New Mexico USA, will compete in the preliminary Miss USA competition on Wednesday and in the finals on Sunday. The final competition will be broadcast live on NBC.

Blackwood has spent the last week in Louisiana where she has been making daily appearances and gotten to know the other competitors. "It's my fourth day and I'm having the time of my life," Blackwood said when reached by phone on Thursday. She said the competitors are all nice and want the best for each other.

"We're really just kind of learning what we need to do," she said. She has been mentally preparing for the preliminaries — which consists of a personal interview and gown and swimming suit previews. While preparing, she is also trying to stay relaxed. "It can get really stressful quickly," she said.

Blackwood said being an athlete and having an athlete's mind-set has given her an advantage because she can compartmentalize and understand that "when I step on the court, it's court time and when I'm in a classroom its class time." Because of this, she said she is able to give all of herself to whatever she is doing.

Blackwood's athletic career recently ended with her final collegiate tennis tournament in April. She described the experience as sort of surreal. As she played in her last game, she said she thought back to the day when she decided to put in the practice time to get onto a college tennis team. She also thought about when she received the tennis scholarship to play at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

"Time really flew by," Blackwood said. She says her time as Miss New Mexico USA has taught her about staying true to who she is. "With all of the publicity that comes with it, people can lose themselves really quickly," she said.

She said she is anxious about Wednesday's preliminaries. "It really is in God's hands," she said.

Becoming Miss New Mexico; After watching Miss USA, Kamryn Blackwood decided she wanted to compete

By Hannah Grover The Daily Times

FARMINGTON — In the summer of 2012, Kamryn Blackwood and her father, Lynn Blackwood, sat down to watch the Miss USA contest on television. Kamryn Blackwood turned to her father and told him she wanted to compete in the Miss New Mexico pageant. And three weeks ago, Farmington High School graduate Kamryn Blackwood took home the Miss New Mexico crown. She is now preparing to compete in the Miss USA contest in mid-June. 

The road to becoming Miss New Mexico wasn't short for the 21-year-old Blackwood. Her parents encouraged her to focus on her degree. She enrolled in college at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, where she had been given a tennis scholarship. But she never gave up her dream of one day becoming Miss USA.

In 2013, she and her father attended the 2013 Miss New Mexico competition to watch. The two of them sat in the back. Lynn Blackwood said he kept asking his daughter if she still wanted to compete. She said she turned to him and said, "Yeah, Dad, and I'll win." She watched as Miss New Mexico 2013 was crowned. "To watch the girl's face when she won, I wanted that feeling," Blackwood said. After deciding to compete, Blackwood came up with a one-year plan. And she knew she would win. Blackwood piled up school credits during fall semester so she would have time to focus on the Miss New Mexico competition during the spring. She also began to train. "I have a very athletic walk and a very athletic build," she said.

She found a coach to teach her how to walk and she started to exercise her core more in order to be "bikini fit." She also started to train for the interview portions of the competition. When the competition came, the questions surprised her. "In your mind, you're thinking they're going to be very political," she said. Instead, she was asked what her New Year's resolution was. Blackwood thought about it and about her training. She said training to be Miss New Mexico had gotten her thinking about the importance of health and fitness. She said her resolution is to pass this message on to children. Another important part of preparing for the competition was choosing a design for her dress. She said she already had a design picked out in her head.

The gown was an emerald green with long sleeves and a high cut neck. However, it had an extremely low back, that caught the audience's attention. She said one of her friends later told her that when she turned around there was a collective, "whoa." After winning Miss New Mexico, she became one of only a few girls to compete in Miss USA without any prior experience. Blackwood's parents have supported her the entire time. However, Lynn Blackwood said he tries to remember that he didn't win the award.

"I just be Dad," he said. "That's what she wants." He said for the most part he just talks with her and listens to her. Kamryn Blackwood said she appreciates this from both her father and her mother, Tyra Lopez. "Sometimes I don't need an answer, I just need someone to listen," she said. In addition to support from her family, Blackwood has received support from teammates and the university. Her picture is displayed on the university's website as one of the first things visitors see.

"There's a little pocket in Florida that's for Miss New Mexico," Lynn Blackwood said. Like all other contestants in Miss USA, Blackwood has a platform she promotes in media interviews, and talking to community leaders and others with influence. The Miss New Mexico organization decided to make the platform breast and ovarian cancer, but Blackwood is also promoting National Day of Care, which is a Farmington organization focused on building houses in Africa. She currently serves on the organization's board of directors. Blackwood said her father and brother we're involved in missionary work before she got involved with National Day of Care through a group from Pinon Hills Community Church. "Hearing their stories and how their lives were changed and they changed lives, how could I not go?" she said.

While in Kenya, Kamryn Blackwood and a group of 19 other people built 10 houses. She hopes to increase the number of houses built in Kenya while serving as Miss New Mexico. For the organization's platform, Blackwood is taking her cues from Farmington. Every year in October, Farmington hosts "Get Pinked," which raises awareness and money for breast cancer. One part of "Get Pinked" is the "Pink Glove Dance," in which people from around the community dance wearing pink gloves. The dances are filmed and entered in a video competition. Kamryn Blackwood wants to introduce this event to other communities across the state. "It really brings the community together," she said.

Las Cruces teen captures Miss New Mexico Teen USA title

By Andi Murphy
http://www.lcsun-news.com

LAS CRUCES >> After being named runner-up last year, Aundria Littlejohn, 17, knew she had to run for Miss New Mexico Teen USA again. "I decided I wanted to do it again because I wanted to win," she said.

And she did.

On Jan. 4, Littlejohn was crowned Miss New Mexico Teen USA by former pageant winner, Jacqueline Cai at the Las Cruces Convention Center, scoring the highest in the interview, swimsuit and evening gown portions of the competition. For the interview she was asked what she would do with her title if she won. Littlejohn responded she would make her family proud, campaign against bullying and give New Mexico the best representation possible. The second question was whether she thought Miley Cyrus was a good role model to which she responded, "she does what she wants and from that we can take away, as women of today, that we can do what ever we want -- not to that extreme."

She also wore a pink two-piece bikini for the swimsuit portion and a royal blue, double-sleeved evening gown with white rhinestones across the top and a deep back. The judges looked at 30 teens in their best bikinis and dresses, evaluating posture, fitness and elegance. When numbers were tallied and Littlejohn was announced the winner, her legs gave out and she sank to the floor.

"It was really crazy," she said. She gave a hug to runner-up, Saryn Swanson of Bernalillo, and took her first walk as Miss New Mexico Teen USA. For the rest of the year, she will be touring the state as an ambassador of Miss USA to attend school assemblies, charitable events and special events, such as the Governor's Ball, she said. She will have the perfect opportunity to reach thousands of grade school students across the state to talk to them about bullying, a subject she's familiar with.

"I've gone through that (bullying) since middle school where I found that kids -- for some reason -- found me easy to pick on," she said. "A lot of kids are not telling their parents. I want them to understand that they can get help and things will be OK." She would like to focus on the victims of bullying and make their lives better by speaking directly to them and letting them know that bullying is not only physical -- it's emotional, too -- and it does not have to stop anyone from doing anything they want to do, she said.

Littlejohn has moved around a bit and came from Las Cruces by way of Arizona and Los Angeles. The family follows their father R. Todd Littlejohn, who is a football coach, and currently with Aggie football.

Aundria Littlejohn, a senior at Centennial High School, has already been accepted to NMSU, but still has her options open to attend other colleges. She hopes to become a political campaign manager or a sports broadcaster because she loves sports, especially football, she said. She's a big San Francisco 49ers fan and loves to root for teams that her father's players are playing on, she said.

The rest of the Littlejohns are Toi-Yan, mother, and little sisters Aniya, 13, and Ahria, 10, both of whom want to join pageants like their big sister, Aundria said. "We're very proud of both our ladies, both our winners," said Curtis Rosemond, president of CR Productions, the company that produces the Miss USA pageant. The 2014 Miss New Mexico USA is Kamryn Blackwood, 21, from Farmington. Her campaign is AIDS and breast cancer awareness, Rosemond said.

Both New Mexico pageant winners will go on to the national Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants some time in August. From there, pageant winners will go to the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss New Mexico pageants are also charity events and the organizers and contestants raised $7,000 for the Tough Enough To Wear Pink campaign and $79,000 in the last 14 years for dozens of local nonprofit organizations, Rosemond said.

The Miss USA pageant is a product of Miss Universe and is owned by NBC and Donald Trump. It was founded in 1952.