Miss America 2020, Camille Schrier has 20/20 vision for 2020!

Miss America 2020 will share her story, her vision for Miss America, and how she plans to bridge the gap for of tradition and the future.

About Camille:

CamiIle Schrier, 24, grew up In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before moving to Virginia to pursue her undergraduate degrees. In 2018, Camille graduated with honors from Virginia Tech with dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biochemistry and Systems Biology, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

In June of 2019, Camille was named Miss Virginia after breaking from tradition to perform the “catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide” as her onstage talent. Her unique talent performance and focus on women in STEM has sparked a positive reaction of inclusivity for the program as a whole. Camille's story has been shared with hundreds of children and viewed by millions. She can be seen on national and international media outlets including The Today Show, Talk Stoop, CNN, BBC, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, Inside Edition, The Weather Channel, Southern Living, Canada’s CTV, Germany’s RTL, and many more. 

On December 19, 2019, Camille earned the job of Miss America 2020 after competing live on NBC from Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. A certified Naloxone trainer in the city of Richmond, Schrier will use the Miss America national recognition to promote her own social impact initiative, Mind Your Meds: Drug Safety and Abuse Prevention from Pediatrics to Geriatrics. Most recently, Camille was awarded the Engineering Champion Award by the Phi Sigma Rho National Sorority for her work in promoting women in engineering and technical fields. Camille will travel over 300 days this year to share her message and advocate for change. 

In addition to her passion for science and drug safety, Camille has battled body image issues. As a young woman who previously battled an eating disorder, Camille chose to compete In Miss America 2020 because of the redirection from physical appearance to social impact. 

SOCIAL IMPACT INITIATIVE: "MIND YOUR MEDS" 

More than 130 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose. Medication errors occur in over 7 million patients a year with an associated cost of nearly $21 billion dollars across all care settings. 

A doctor of pharmacy student and certified naloxone trainer, Camille's year of service is dedicated to reducing opioid abuse, medication errors, and the associated mortality of both by educating across communities and demographics, from pediatrics to geriatrics. 

Follow Camille's journey @MissAmerica and @CamilleSchrier. Keep up with all things MAO by following #MissAmerica.

Thanks for listening and supporting the show!
Thank you to Jamye Shaw Cosmetics for sponsoring Miss America and thi

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to the beauty call podcast with Camille Schrier, miss America, 2020.

Speaker 2: 0:06

When you need advice on beauty, where are you going to call? Beautiful with journey smack with journeys is easy and loves to have casual yet informative decisions on six love, fashion work, life balance diet fitness, nutrition, relationship, and life's ups and downs. Join the beauty code podcast and learn inside secrets to true beauty.

Speaker 1: 0:32

Hi everyone. Welcome to BT call podcast. I'm your host. Janice McQueen. Today's guest is miss America, 2020 Camille Schrier. Before we begin this amazing interview, I have to share some of Camille's accomplishments. She graduated with honors from Virginia tech without one but two bachelor of science degrees in biochemistry and systems biology. And she is currently pursuing a doctor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth university. Now she won miss Virginia and miss America by breaking tradition to perform the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is her onstage talent, that unique performance and her focus on women in STEM sparked a positive reaction of inclusivity for miss America. As a whole. You've seen her on the today show talk, stoop, CNN BPC, the Kelly Clarkson show CBS this morning inside edition, the weather channel and Southern living, and now beauty call podcast. She will travel over 300 days as shear sharing her voice, her passion, her message, and her advocacy for change. Now, Camille has story. She has battled body image issues and had an eating disorder and she chose to compete at miss America because of the redirection from physical appearance to social impact. This is an insightful interview and I hope that you will enjoy the show. Thanks so much for listening well, Camille, it has been an exciting first month and your role as miss America. What has been the best part of your job so far? That's hard because today is actually my third week officially of doing this job. So I'm very still new. Um, but I think I've had some really awesome opportunities to be able to go through media in New York city and be able to share my story of how I became miss America and why I was so interested in miss America 2.0, that has been really important to me and something that was important going into miss America, but it's continuously important throughout this year and something that I want to be able to spread in terms of my message of who I am as a person, what my story is and how I ended up in this crazy job. Well, let's talk about how you ended up in this crazy job. Tell us why you decided to run in a pageant. And this is your first miss America experience of course, and your state pageant and winning that. So tell us your whole story. Yeah, so I actually had competed in other organizations as a teenager, and so it's, I'm not new to the competition world, but I am new to miss America. I never thought would even be

Speaker 3: 3:00

Eligible per se, uh, to compete in the miss America organization because I didn't have a performing talent and I didn't feel comfortable in a swimsuit on stage. And I'm, I love women that are able to be really talented performers and singers and dancers and whether or not you're an instrumentalist. Those are all amazing things. And I wish I could do those things. And if you want to get into swimsuit on stage, I think you should do whatever works for you, but it just wasn't something that was aligned with who I am. And so I just chose not to compete and it was something I always of course, kind of wanted to do. I went to miss America in 2013, flew out to Las Vegas. I remember as a senior in high school and my math teacher, I came in on a Monday and he's like, what'd you do this weekend? I'm like, I went to Las Vegas. Like I was crazy. He's like, no, seriously, what'd you do this weekend? I'm like, no, I went to Las Vegas to see miss America. And so that was my first time seeing miss America in person, Mallory Hagan won that year. And I had a great time and I was like, I'll never do this. This is really fun. And then they changed to miss America 2.0, I had stopped competing in anything like this at probably 18. And so I'm 24 now going on 25 in 2020. So it's been about six or seven years for me since I've done anything like this. And I saw an advertisement for a local competition back in 2000. And, um, back in the beginning of 2020, like April, 2020, and I signed up just kind of as a bucket list item, it was something I always wanted to do. And there was no swimsuit anymore. And I was like, what am I going to do for this crazy talent competition? So I of course didn't want to do something that was not authentic to myself because I think I struggled with the idea of trying to prepare a talent for a miss America competition. That's not authentic to who you are, because I think in my perception of what talent is, it's supposed to show the judges that you can command an audience that you can entertain and that it teaches them something about you as a person. And so I love science demonstrations and I'm obsessed with this woman named Kate, the chemist who goes around and does science demonstrations for kids. And I was like, I'm going to do something like that. So I ordered beakers on Amazon and chemicals on Amazon to my house and prepared this demo. That was very small. I mean, it was a comparatively to my miss America demonstration. It was probably one 50th of the size. One 50th of the volume probably did that. I won the local competition. Eight weeks later, I was the last local eight weeks later, I went to miss Virginia and I won miss Virginia and then had six months to prepare for miss America and won miss America. So I went from April of 2019 was like, Hey, I think I'm going to do a local to, I now sit here as miss America, 2020, which is just wild. But I think a Testament to being in the right place at the right time. So that's my very long story about how I ended up here, which is a little different than most girls, because I think a lot of girls dream of this, their entire life. And I never did dream of this my entire life because I didn't think it was even in my possibility of wheelhouse of what I could do, which is kind of a fun story to be able to share because it's, it's something that if you, if you stay true to who you are, that's when you can be successful. And that's kinda the message that I like to spread throughout this process. I love that. And you mentioned authentic a lot on stage when you were competing and that's something I think it's important, but do you think that word is overused or do you think that it just needs to be talked about differently and how will you do that? I think it's better to show people that you're authentic then tell them, but I don't think it's necessarily overused because I think it's something that's so needed right now when we're in the era of social media and people that portray this image of themselves, that's not necessarily true to their reality. I think of social media kind of as a highlight reel of what our lives are. I'm guilty of it myself. I try my best to be as authentic on my social media platforms as I can, but I fall into that trap too. And so I think it's important to spread that message of authenticity and just being okay with not being perfect and just being okay with who you are. I think it's something that's really needed still today. I think so too. And that really does, I think, resonate with so many young women today and older women too. I think we need to be more authentic to ourselves regardless of our age. So you talked about your, your talent and you talked about that being a different kind of pageant. And you know, there is that gap that of the traditional pageant people that have been around supporting miss America forever and ever like myself, you know, I started competing when I was 17 and I dabbled in it when I was in college and then did other patents along the way. And I, and I love the traditional, but I also love going into the 20th, 21st century in 2020 now. Gosh, it's like, it's so different now for us to, to compete in pageants nowadays. So how do you bridge the gap between traditional and evolution? I think it's important to pay tribute to the traditions. I'm a traditional person surprised maybe surprisingly through this process. I love the traditional aspects of miss America. I think that it's something that should be honored, but I, I don't think that it should be exclusive of things that are not necessarily traditional. I think that we can combine them and find a way that we can really show the true. So I have those traditional parts of miss America. Miss America has always been about public speaking. It's always been about personal presentation and entertaining. And being able to do that in a different way is the way that I can kind of bring that into a new, a new decade, really. And I think that we should celebrate all of the different miss Americas that have different talents. I think that it's important to remember that. And, you know, we had some nontraditional talents when miss America first started, which is pretty funny. Women actually used to come out and show their hobbies on stage. So whether or not they made fashion accessories, if they didn't have her performing talent that was happening really in the early years of the miss America, we had heard a story from, I think miss America in 1948 while we were there, that they used to allow horses on stage until a woman was doing a demonstration with a horse on stage and the horse fell off the stage. So this is stuff that happened in the early days of miss America and in the last probably 30 or 40 years, it's been traditionally vocalists instrumentalists and, um, dancers. And so I'm hoping to remind everyone that there are other talents, but I love the traditional talents as well. And so I think that we should celebrate both. Yeah, I agree. I love it. I love the fact that you can do anything really, as you show your authentic voice. I love that. Um, so this brings me to a couple of great questions about just, just the history again. And you, you mentioned that you were an ambassador and not necessarily a beauty queen. What is your definition of the difference between those two? I think that being the traditional role of a beauty queen has this perception of the smiling and waving and that that's the priority of your job is to look attractive and greet people in this very like outward kind of way. That's not very deep. And I think that being an ambassador for miss America, I'm a member of the team. I am helping to shape the organization from inside in a, in a real staff role, but also having that interaction with the public and being able to show them what this organization stands for in a way that's more than, than just surface level and more than just what I look like as a person. And my favorite events are the ones where I get to really talk to people. One on one, get to know who they are, learn their stories, not just sit and wave because that's what I, when you say beauty queen to me, I think of a girl with a crown and a sash and just waving in that traditional, you know, that pageant wave where your hand just goes. Yeah, that got to me at parades too, when I'm ever in a parade. And that's the, that's the stereotype, but I want to be able to get through this process because miss Americas have always been so much more than what they looked like. They've always been intelligent. They've always been well-spoken, they've always been educated and that wasn't always able to be seen by the public because of that traditional beauty queen rule. And I want to show that we're so much more than that. What do you think that, um, miss America should go out in public? Like you are right now, just down to earth. Beautiful. As you are, you don't need a stitch of makeup on your eyebrows are definitely on point. You are gorgeous inside and out. So what are the next steps for miss America? I think miss America sometimes has been put on this pedestal of this woman who is sometimes unattainable or seems unattainable or seems unrelatable to other women. And in reality, I think just showing who I am, whether or not I'm in athletic clothing and not a lot of makeup, which is really the reality of what I do most of the time behind the scenes, but also it's fine to get dressed, to be that glamorous part of yourself to the, or both. Okay. And I don't think that any of those things should be mutually exclusive of each other, that we should be able to do both and show women. They have both sides of you. You can be accomplished and you might not be a woman who is interested in wearing makeup. You might go to work and that's not who you are, but you can be a really accomplished well-spoken woman without that. Or if you want to get dressed up every day and wear red lipstick, because that's who you are. And then do that too. And it's really important to stay true to who you are, but that what you look like doesn't dictate your success level or whether or not you should be taken seriously. And being able to show that we have so much more offer than just that I should be taken seriously, whether or not I don't have any makeup on my face or if I do. And I hope that I can be able to show that because of the substance I have, that I can offer from my education and from my experience and through my role as miss America, not necessarily what I wear or what my face looks like on a daily basis. Bravo, thank you. So let's talk about what you're doing for your everyday, for your, your career path. And I know you've taken a break because miss America and miss Virginia is a job, and I understand that it is a full time job and it's more than full time job. It is doing your doctor pharmacy degree. So tell us why you chose that and what your plans are for the future. So, unsurprisingly, I am a very nontraditional pharmacy student. This, this should not come to any surprise to anyone in my undergraduate education. I did two internships with the same pharmaceutical company and learned about how pharmacists can work in a pharmaceutical company, which I didn't really realize as a young 20 something person. He really thought that pharmacists just worked at retail pharmacies and hospitals to a pharm D so could go back into a pharmaceutical company and be able to be in an executive leadership position someday. And that's really my longterm career goal. So not, not the typical pharmacy path, but it gives me a really cool opportunity to have clinical background on the medications that those companies are able to produce. And knowing just the reality of how they're administered, how, what, what kinds of things you need to think about when you're thinking about a certain medication that's being developed, the formulation, the delivery, all of those things that someone maybe without that clinical background, wouldn't have that advantage to know. So that's what I'm hoping to do. And I will take a total of two years off of my education, but I will return with$73,675 toward my graduate education, which will pay for nearly all of it.

Speaker 4: 15:28

Wow. That's amazing for scholarship.

Speaker 3: 15:35

So helpful. I'm so grateful. So, you know, you mentioned that you, um, you, one of the things that you're going to talk about this year as miss America is talking about opioid addiction and medication safety. So talk about how he'll take that experience science back, that, that passion and educate the community and educate the young women that want to be in this America one day.

Speaker 4: 16:00

Talk about that please.

Speaker 3: 16:04

So my platform is medication safety and abuse prevention. It's called mind your meds. And I'm able to share more of my experience that I've had as a pharmacy student and really from all age levels. I am not someone that had a lot of experience with children before my years, mrs. Virginia, and, and I very quickly learned through, I did a school tourism, miss Virginia, which focused on drug and alcohol safety, how to communicate those types of that type of information to young people down to maybe the age of four and being able to share really what I learned as a young person, my mom's a nurse. And so that's kind of how this platform came about, um, is that my mom always was very careful about what she gave me as a child. Um, and one day I wanted to, to be able to express to other parents and caregivers, the information that some of those people don't have. I had a friend who gave her daughter a medication that was supposed to be refrigerated, but it wasn't. And I talked about that on stage and it had gone bad and it was not something that was safe for her to be giving her child. And that's, you know, it's hard when you're a busy mom and you had sick children, maybe you have more than one sick child and you've got medicine all over the place, and you're trying to give that to them. Um, it's a really easy way to make errors. Um, in Virginia, we have a huge opioid crisis, especially on the Eastern United States and throughout the country. That's something that I've been able to see as a pharmacy student. And it's something that I'm able to talk about throughout this process and educate about in a way that I wouldn't have been able to just sit in the classroom as a pharmacy student and to be able to now talk to women who are interested in this organization, whether or not they're thinking of competing or have competed, we have an exceptional opportunity through these social impact to build our own resume for when we are able to graduate from our education, which potentially will have scholarship dollars associated with it to come out with scholarship money and then experience those are perfect setups for a great career. Start to have things that you've worked on personally, that you're passionate about and get a job we're going to be a lot more marketable. And that's the really cool part about the miss America organization is that it gives us experience that we might not have had otherwise if we hadn't participated, puts us ahead of people our own age, which is really exceptional. That is, that is so, um, let's fast forward to the next year, this 2020 that you have in front of you. And you're just, like you said, three weeks into your reign and you have a lot more to do. So you will be the one leading the organization into the 100th anniversary. So how do you intend to do that? Especially we talked about the, the traditional on evolution of the program. And there, there is that rift that's happened over the last two years. So you're the person basically that we look up to that's leading this forward. How do you plan to do that? How will you role model that?

Speaker 4: 19:03

Aye,

Speaker 3: 19:04

I'm an advocate for listening and understanding people who potentially have worries or criticisms and hearing maybe their concerns. I think it's important too, to hear them and listen. And as someone who is very new to this organization, I have a really exceptional opportunity to be very fresh minded. I'm not, I'm not stuck in the past, but I'm also, I want to be able to kind of, um, honor those traditions. But I also want to see this organization move forward and not many organizations are able to make it to their hundredth anniversary and we have, and that's really important, but I think that to continue this organization, we have to have it changed with time. And that's nothing new. This organization started in 1921 as a swimsuit competition competition on the boardwalk of Atlantic city, where women had their bodies, body measurements, judge for perfection. We have never, we haven't done that for years. This organization has changed. It didn't always have talent that was added. I think in the thirties or forties we've changed, and this is nothing new and it's sometimes hard to accept change. But I think that the change is good. The change gave me an opportunity as someone who would have never seen myself in this organization to come out and compete and earn scholarship dollars. And I think it makes it more inclusive. And so to be able to share my story as we go into this hundredth year of how the changes in this organization make it more relevant. I mean, college is more expensive than ever. We want, it's so expensive. And it's almost a requirement for many jobs that we have that you have to have a college education for some jobs, not all, but it's, it's so important to be able to give young women an opportunity to have those experiences learn the soft skills that aren't necessarily taught in schools to be able to communicate, to be able to public speak. These are things that I learned through competing. I didn't learn in the classroom and I'm someone that usually focuses more on the positive than the negative and tries to see the best in everything. And I hope that I can be able to share that positivity this year and really change the way maybe that those critics can look at our organization and show them why things are changing and how it's beneficial. That's great. Do you think that since miss America, you know, it is celebrating his 100 anniversary and it is, it is a, a champion for change. Do you think that through the evolution that other pageants should follow suit? I think so. I think we've already seen some pageants changing, um, the way that they, you know, focus on outward beauty or maybe giving women another opportunity to really share their story and speak. Um, I think that it's a great opportunity for other competitions to follow students and really celebrate all that women have to offer. Um, I think that that's, what's the most important thing is that I'm an advocate. I'm an advocate for body positivity. I'm an advocate for authenticity. I think that we should always focus on what women have to offer in their hearts, in their minds, above what they look like, but that's just my particular view. And so that's why I found myself really aligned with miss America to point out, to begin with,

Speaker 1: 22:29

I hope that you are enjoying the interview with Camille Schrier, miss America, 2020, but I wanted to pause for a moment to tell you about my latest beauty find that's Jamie Shaw cosmetics. I have fallen in love with every single thing that Jamie makes, but three of my favorite things are her lasting lip nude lip stain. It is beautiful. It goes on, it's not cakey. It lasts all day. It's a neutral color and I love it. It lasts through lunch last through dinner. I don't have to reapply it once I put it on in the morning and it doesn't look cakey. I just am in love with it. She has varying colors, but my favorite is the lasting lip, which is a very nude color that will look good on any skin tone. And I pair that with the lip liner and that sets my lip. It makes it very defined, but also very natural. So they look very professional throughout my Workday, but also I can go out on the town and look beautiful as well. I've also been in search of a concealer that fits me, and it's tough because I am looking for something that won't dry my skin out, and that concealer has to be Dewey, but he has to also cover the dark circles that I can get under my eyes sometimes. So Jamie has something called VIP cream, the E E P cream. Very cute, nice play on words. Jamie love it, but it does. Last is Dewey. It goes on very rich and creamy. And I set that with her best pressed powder and that's almost like an setting spray. So I pair those two together. And when I put that on in the morning, it truly does last all day. So Jamie Shaw, cosmetics.com to get my top three favorite products, but please shop her entire line because they are fantastic. They're, cruelty-free, paraben-free all the things that you want to be beautiful, but also use things that are great for your face. Okay. Let's get back to the interview with Camille.

Speaker 3: 24:25

Let's talk about your, um, you mentioned very openly that you had an eating disorder and I know what that's like. I think a lot of people listening to this, especially women that are listening to this podcast know that I've had that I've shared that story. I've had an eating disorder, many have had eating disorders. Can you talk about that and how it affected you and how you overcame it? Yeah. Having an eating disorder is something that I probably had for a very long time and didn't know, and it was something that I struggled with in my kind of mid to late teen years and was interesting for me because I don't think that it started from a pressure from others of what to look like. But for me, as someone who also struggles with OCD, it was a control mechanism of how I could manage my life and keep track of my success and progress in terms of numbers. And that became really dangerous for me. And it impacted the ability that I had to face my life in a successful way because I did not have the energy or the cognitive ability because I was not healthy to be able to face the challenges that I had in my life. And it really, it, it almost changed the, my entire academic path because I wasn't, you know, in a healthy mindset that I was going to be able to complete my education and it really threatened that. And that was the point in which I needed to find help because academics were always the most important thing to me. And seeing that risk, my ability to be able to graduate successfully was really important. And so I left my first university that I had gone to originally and came home and sought medical treatment from doctors and found myself kind of on the upside of it. And I'm, I look back at those times and I'm, I'm grateful for what I went through because I think it made me stronger and made me understand frameworks, how my body works and what I need going forward in the future to make sure that I can be successful and being healthy and well rounded is so important to me now and understanding how food and nutrition keeps your body, but your brain as well, healthy and functioning. And so when we talk about being able to succeed academically at a really high level, you can't do that if your body is starving or if you're not giving yourself the proper nutrition and why I didn't feel comfortable competing in a swimsuit because I knew that that would put an unhealthy amount of pressure on me and wouldn't necessarily be a healthy choice. Especially as someone who had gone through a recovery process, my has actually said that I was not allowed to do it if there was a swimsuit competition. And so to think about how eliminating that competition made it more inclusive to people like myself who wouldn't have been allowed to compete. Otherwise, I think is really important because it's more than just what we look like. It's how healthy we are on the inside. Right. I get that. And, um, you know, I, I believe, you know, I, I know it's tough to parade around in a swimsuit and I also look at it as an opportunity to heal yourself, to have you had someone, I think you've had the, probably the question of, of the why of why you, why this, why that was hard for you, or, you know, do you think that eliminating some student fitness from miss America is the right choice for the future, or is it the right choice for now? I'm not sure about the organization as a whole, but I think that it's the right choice for now. At least I think it's the right choice from the future in terms of swimsuit. I think fitness is still important and being able to be healthy and balanced is incredibly important for the job of miss America. Although I, I struggled to think of the way that that can be incorporated in a way that would be really true to being a health and fitness type of competition rather than a fitness competition, because that's what I feel like swimsuit became at the end. That's what I was, that's what I struggled with. And because I don't think you have to be a traditionally slender shaped woman to be healthy. And I think that's the biggest misperception that we have in our society. Thank goodness. Well, rounded goes different ways. I'm very well rounded. I do think in this era where we have so many people who have so much pressure on their bodies, and I think that it is the right choice for now. Although I would love to see some type of fitness incorporated in some way. I don't think it would be on stage, but I am an advocate for health and fitness. And I think that the other thing is you have to have a certain level of health and fitness to be a state title holder. So if you've gotten there, you're already proving that you're doing the job. And so if you can make your way through being a state title holder, you sure as heck can do the job miss America, because I've been a state title holder and it's not easy. Yeah. Well said, that's a great way of putting it. So you mentioned that you are into health and fitness and you love cooking this one of your hobbies. So what is your favorite thing to cook? That's difficult because they don't have a ton of time to cook anymore. I know a couple things, so I like to meal prep. And so when I was in pharmacy school, I always would meal prep, my breakfast lunches and dinners and leave them in my refrigerator because that made it so much easier when I came home and was tired to just put it in the microwave and eat my dinner. My ultimate favorite thing to cook, which is not necessarily healthy is pizza because I love to make yeast to dose. And so I make a pizza on the grill here at home when I'm in my parents' home. Um, and I am able to cook this pizza outside on this big stone grill. And we use fresh tomatoes and basil from our garden in summertime, which is really fun for me. So that's kinda my favorite thing, but I also love baking too. I used to make crazy recipes when I was a kid and my parents had to taste and they probably didn't like them, but they tried them because they're very kind. Um, but I do enjoy cooking and baking in my free time when I do have it now. Um, but pizza on my grill is definitely my favorite thing to make, Oh, I love pizza. It is hard. You know, you travel all the time as miss America. So can you give like best advice for travel tips and eating healthy while you're on the road? So for me, I like to plan ahead as much as I can, which is still difficult when you're traveling. Um, but if you can find places like restaurants that, you know, have things that you are comfortable eating, like I love Chick-Filet. Um, and she always has like grilled nuggets and grill like grilled chicken on salads and things that I know I can eat when I get there that are good choices for me. Um, but also to make sure that you're staying balanced, that you're not just eating like the cleanest foods ever, but giving yourself an opportunity to enjoy the things that are local. That's important to me too. I love to be able to try local foods and restaurants when I go traveling. Um, being able to give yourself the opportunity to do that as well. That's great. And of course, this is a beauty call podcast. It's about beauty inside and out. We've talked a lot about the inside and I have many more questions about that, but I really would love to hear your beauty tips because you're naturally beautiful in the Courser, you know, you're young and you know, but do you have tips for those like yourself that are busy you're in school? You're you're are those that are working and traveling. What are your best beauty tips that you can share with our audience? I think for me, my hair is one thing that I've learned a lot about throughout doing this process and this job, um, especially when I'm working out, because I can't wash my hair all the time and I will probably not. I'll probably wash my hair maybe once or twice a week. I think people over wash their hair a lot. And so I've learned about dry shampoo very quickly. Um, and you know, having like a freshly washed hair, maybe doing hair down for a couple of days, and then once you need a little bit more dry shampoo, then you have a couple of styles for a couple of days, but being able to really manage your hair and make it easier for yourself. I also have learned how to do some cool up dues. I actually did my hairstyle at miss America. That was the first time I'd ever done that, but it's something I'm going to continue throughout the year because it's so easy. It took me about five minutes to do that up to, and it looked great and I sprayed it and it stayed literally all day long. Um, so that's my hair tips, but I'm also a big advocate for moisturizing, especially when you're using tanning. I use tanning mousse because I am incredibly fair skinned without it, which is not a bad thing, but I like to have a little bit of color on me when I go out. And so I use a tanning mousse and it drives my skid out really bad. So I am a huge advocate for moisturizing and using lotion all the time. So I always have lotion with me, especially in hotels. Yes. You travel because if you fly a lot, you get even more dehydrated. Yes, absolutely. And you're a coffee lover like me. So lots of water. I do lots of coffee and lots of water. And I only do black coffee because if I did not black, if I did coffee with cream and sugar, I would probably consume a daily amount of calories that would be normal within just my coffee intake.

Speaker 5: 34:07

Oh, we're soul sisters. I love it.

Speaker 3: 34:10

So how do you respond to those that have, um, that have reached out and said that, um, you know, miss America isn't relevant. I know we talked about that some earlier in your interview, but you know, people will be, be asking this question when you're out there and they want to know why is miss America relevant now? Just because it's 2.0 for a couple of reasons. And miss America was relevant 2.0 1.0 3.0, it's always been relevant. And I think that that's what we have to go back to is that miss America is still miss America and it's giving women scholarship money to go to school and it's giving us experience. We would have never gotten just sitting in a classroom. And so when college is more expensive than ever, we talked about this before, too. I don't know how that's not relevant. I don't know how having your own social platform that you're working on isn't relevant and being able to impact children and teach about drug safety, which is what I'm doing, how isn't that relevant. That's my question. And I think when you look at the way that the organization has changed and been able to show more what the job really looks like. And when I think of 2.0, I think of changing the competition to represent more of what miss America really does on a daily basis. Ms. America is speaking to people. She is in business meetings, making deals with new sponsors and corporations and advancing her social impact initiative. This America was never probably since maybe the twenties, miss America was never going into meetings or really doing her job in a swimsuit. And so to be able to change the organization, to be better representative of what that job really is, I think that that's how we continue to make this job a relevant thing and show the public really what miss America does, because it's not just smiling and waving. It's such a more, it's a job that's so much more than that. Really.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Yeah. I love that. You mentioned sponsors and you also said that on stage. And I love that because you know, that is what we, you know, we look for sponsorships so that we can have scholarships for young women. So how did you bring sponsors to the miss Virginia organization and how will you bring them to miss America? I,

Speaker 3: 36:27

They had a really exceptional opportunity in Virginia because I was the first scientist, miss Virginia, um, to be able to have companies come at me, wanting to support women in STEM, wanting to support an organization that was then supporting women, going to school for science careers. So I had companies like DuPont personal protection, specifically as one who had reached out, wanting to sponsor my personal protective equipment for my demonstrations, when I was doing my chemistry demonstrations. And I was able to share with them what the scholarship of this organization really looked like. And they donated a STEM scholarship for a woman who was pursuing a STEM career at miss Virginia. That will be there next year for the class of 2020 to come in and be able to gain more scholarship dollars. And I think that in an organization that is so focused on being able to provide these dollars to women, it's part of my role to be able to bring new people to the table. Maybe people that didn't always see miss America as something that they wanted to support, being able to go in and tell them how I earned$73,000 of money to go toward my doctoral education. Did they know that that's what ms America was doing? Maybe not, and being able to open new doors, that someone, not that there's been plenty of miss America that have been scientists and doctors and really educated women, but I've had a really interesting opportunity from media exposure to be able to kind of be tagged as the miss America scientists, which I am totally okay with. But it's brought attention from companies that might have not ever seen miss America as something that would be supporting women in science. And I have a really cool job to be able to show them how it's supporting women in science, women, in arts women in all different types of careers and why they should support us. And I think that we need to go to the table with them and ask them for the dollars, because that's how we're going to keep this organization moving for another hundred years. We can't do it without dollars.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Love it, love it. Um,

Speaker 3: 38:36

It's rumored that you hired a publicist to get promoted after you won your state title. Is that true? And do you think that is something that's necessary in the world? Stay I a hundred percent did not hire a publicist.

Speaker 1: 38:51

[inaudible]

Speaker 3: 38:52

My mom. Maybe that might be my who my mom is. I love that. I love it. Definitely don't have a publicist. Definitely just have my mom who does things that publicists might do, but it's definitely my mom. Um, so I actually had a really cool opportunity to be able, like I got to go on the Kelly Clarkson show and that was them reaching out to me. So I've had interest from a lot of different national media platforms that have wanted to highlight this really strange combination or what, which is sad that actually society sees this as like a new combination, but that's fine. And I'm happy to be the person that debunks that, you know, you can't be a scientist and be miss America. I want to show everybody that you can and being able to go out and show that on a national stage has been really cool both at miss America and on shows like Kelly Clarkson and stuff. No publicist, just Cheryl Schrier. My mom, maybe she'd get

Speaker 1: 39:53

The side job is that we all have side hustles don't

Speaker 3: 39:56

To be honestly, would be fabulous at it quite honestly, but there's nothing like doing it for your children for sure. But I love that, you know, and I, I agree. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a publicist in many pageant girls do. Um, it's nothing wrong with that, but it's just so great that just you being unique and authentic to who you are is all you need really to get the word out there. Nope. Which is, which is fantastic. So what do you, what is your main goal for your year? You've talked about all the different things you plan to do, of course, but if you could just sum it down to your main goal, what would that be to bridge the gap between the traditional miss America and bringing it into the new decade and really this new century of the organization? That's if I can do that in some way, but also being able to advance my own social impact initiative of course, but making the miss America organization kind of be able to, to highlight that traditional, but also highlight the new and I would love to be able to bring everyone back together. I think that that's kind of my personality is I want everyone to be happy and understanding of the changes and finding them, finding a middle ground for everyone would be what I would love to be able to do. We'd love to debunk some of the myths of miss America, um, show what my job really is. And I'm trying to do that on my own social platforms, but I'm very much learning how to do social media. I've, I've been kind of thrust into this now social media world, um, through an advanced following this process, but I really want to be able to represent what the show is, who I am and how I do this job and that I'm not some robotic perfect girl. I'm really just a low key crazy cat lady from Virginia who got this really cool job to be able to show that I'm a nerdy scientist, but I'm also a woman who has corporate experience and can make a deal at it at a board table, but also can go home and be goofy and weird. And that's who I am in a nutshell, and be able to show people that that's who miss America really is. But I also love the fact that you're saying all this, and you're very, very real, but behind you as a whole bunch of trophies, they're probably science trophies though, right? A little bit of beauty, a little bit of science, a little bit of both, but it's very true from my childhood. There is nothing wrong with that. I love it because you're the perfect person to bridge that gap. Thank you. You have it all. You have it all. I think that's what miss America is. And I've always thought that I grew up watching miss America with my mom. And even though I have a traditional talent, I love seeing people express themselves in many different ways. And I applaud you for having a fantastic talent. I love your talent by the way. And the fact that it, it showcase so well on stage. I know it'll also play really well whenever you do it, maybe in the schools when you talk to the kids and then it'll be fantastic. I really think it'll be great. And I think of miss America as an icon, I think of miss America as a celebrity, but I know the miss America organization stated that miss America is not a celebrity. What do you think they meant by that? That's difficult. Miss America is very much a public figure, but I think that there's a difference between being a public figure and being a celebrity. I think celebrities have this rap that they are these divas who are very, you know, maybe they are very aggressive in what they want. They want to have a certain image and they're focused on their appearance. And that's what I kind of think of whether or not that's true. That's not true of all celebrities, of course. And I recognize that, but I think that's kind of the image that we get when we use that word celebrity. I think miss America is more, almost has more of a job, kind of like a politician is kind of a better way that I think that I would describe it is that you're definitely a public figure. You're definitely representing a large group of people. You are in a public spotlight and your opinions matter, but you're definitely not a celebrity. There's a D there's somewhat of a difference. And it's very strange when people think that I have this some kind of fame and people are, I get comments from people on Instagram. They're like, are you famous? I'm like, I'm not famous in any sense of the word. Um, but I have been put into a public spotlight, which is very interesting. Um, but I don't think miss America is a celebrity and miss America really is a social advocate. I think that's the better way to describe it. She's someone that has so much more to offer. Um, but that's, that's a hard question, but not a celebrity. I don't know how to describe it, but that's, but she isn't one she's more of a politician is more,

Speaker 1: 44:47

I would say, right. Well, I think celebrity has become this generic term for those people that are in the public eye. And you know, it is sort of a, I guess, a misnomer, but I, I totally agree with you that it can be, I think it was America, in my opinion is so much more as a celebrity because you are,

Speaker 3: 45:08

You are an

Speaker 1: 45:10

Printed imprint on today's society. And especially with young young women. And I think young men as well, I think miss America can evolve to where it encompasses that as well. It's all about empowering the youth. Um, so while sad, I think that's a great way of looking at it. You mentioned earlier that you have dealt with an eating disorder, but you also live with Ehlers Danlos syndrome. Can you talk about that and how that's impacted your life?

Speaker 3: 45:35

Yes. So Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a genetic connective tissue disorder. And to make that more understandable, you know, what college is, it's something that exists in your skin and a lot of your soft tissues in your body. I have a form of college that doesn't work properly. And so it makes me hyper mobile makes me have really soft skin and are really badly. And so being super stretchy and bendy by seem fine, but it actually causes me a lot of chronic pain. Um, I scar very badly. I have, if I cut myself or bruise myself, I was a bruise very easily kind of bruise like a banana, um, is how I describe it. But I'm also a little klutzy because my joints will dislocate. So actually fell down a whole flight of steps on the day of miss America finale. That was great skinned my knee really badly and got a big bruise, but that's kind of what I live with. It's chronic pain, chronic fatigue as well comes along with it. And that was one of my concerns going into my job as miss Virginia, if, whether or not that would impact my ability to do my job. And it didn't, which was good. Um, but it was something that I was concerned about going in, and I'm grateful that I was able to get through that year success or the six months successfully. And it's taught me about managing my priorities and optimizing my energy and doing things when I do have energy. But it's another way to think about invisible illnesses, whether or not their mental illnesses, um, or something like Ehlers Danlos that you might see somebody and they might look like they're struggling and you don't know what's going on behind the scenes to be able to be understanding of other people.

Speaker 1: 47:17

Wow. So to finish everything out, I'd like to leave with just one, one thing. If you could tell our listeners the best advice that you could give them, if they're inspired, aspiring to be an a pageant.

Speaker 4: 47:32

I I've said it already, but I will say it again. We'll always be more successful when you are true to who you are, because if I had not been true to who I was at miss America at miss Virginia at my local competition, I would have never won. If I had done a talent that wasn't authentic to my strengths and my abilities, I would have never won that. If you've walked out, being true to who you are, then you've been successful and you've won in your own sense. And so that's probably the thing that I would leave everyone with.

Speaker 6: 48:05

Thanks so much for listening. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram at beauty car podcast and subscribe rate, and review us on iTunes. Thanks again for listening.