National American Miss Pageant 2022 – NAM

I received some very exciting news two weeks ago and I had to share it on the blog!! I am unbelievably excited to announce I have been officially accepted as a Miss Minnesota contestant for the 2022 National America Miss Pageant!

AHHHH!! *cue my dramatic screeching and enthusiastic clapping*

To start from the beginning, my mom had sent me a link on Facebook about the National American Miss pageant and encouraged me to look further into it. I did some more research on the pageant and found that they were still accepting applications for the 2022 contest. I thought for a bit about whether I should apply or not and then I decided to send in my application just to see where this could go. I was very interested in this opportunity and I really resonated with their organization’s values for young girls and women.

My application was submitted around midnight on a Friday while I was brushing my teeth before bed. And I received an email notification the next morning prompting me to schedule a phone interview with the regional director for the pageant. I was already surprised with how quickly this process was moving along and was ready to dive head first into this adventure!

I scheduled my phone interview for the following week and excitedly awaited my 20 minutes to sell myself as a potential contestant. The phone interview was scheduled for the following Friday afternoon and I watched the brief overview video I was sent to prepare while I took copious notes. I was really impressed with the overview video of the pageant and it continued to grow my excitement for this opportunity.

As for the phone interview, I answered a total of three questions and spoke with my regional director of NAM for about 6 minutes before she excitedly congratulated me on being accepted as an official contestant for this year’s pageant! I was shocked with how quick she made her decision, but absolutely thrilled for this opportunity. She expressed how impressed she was with my background, previous experiences, and how confident I was while speaking with her over the phone. She knew right away that I would be a great contestant with NAM. It felt overwhelming and exciting and thrilling all at the same time, and I was ready to jump into the pageant world!

We spent the remainder of my interview time going over next steps in my pageant journey, sharing contact information for various connections, and me asking all of the questions. I had quite a few because I didn’t know what to expect in this world; I have never competed in a pageant before, well one that I remember at least. I did participate in one back when I was really young, which I found out later from my mom that she signed me up in passing at the Mall of America, and I ended up winning!

I’ll unashamedly admit that as soon as my phone interview ended, I was googling pageant dresses. I sketched out a rough design of what I was looking for and basically drafted up my look and color scheme for the formal wear portion of the competition. I was excited! What can I say?! If anyone knows me well enough, I think you can guess what color I’m going to be wearing… 😉

I’ll be documenting my Miss Minnesota journey on my blog and on my Instagram to share with everyone, so I hope you are excited for the next few months with me on this adventure!!

For any local friends and family, I will be competing the weekend of August 5-7th in Wisconsin and would love for you to come out and support! Contact me directly and I can send you more details on the pageant weekend!

~Jaiden 🤍