After 10 years performing in beauty pageants, Alexandria’s Lauren Stephens was crowned National American Miss Virginia Queen last month.
Stephens moved to Alexandria just five days ago to start work at a new job in Shirlington. In the meantime, the 23-year-old is looking to participate in local events, like parades and festivals. She’s also looking to connect with organizations to provide art therapy.
Art therapy is her pageant platform and she’s used her degree in art history from the University of Arkansas to further a career providing treatments at children’s shelters, nursing homes and juvenile detention centers.
Now in her tenth year participating in beauty pageants, Stephens previously won the 2018 National American Miss Oklahoma teen and the 2022 Miss Arkansas Collegiate. Now her sights are set on winning the NAM Miss USA pageant next year.
ALXnow: Why did you choose art therapy for a career?
Stephens: Art has been my form of therapy for, really, my whole life, and so I’m grateful to be able to do that as Miss Virginia. I have been in and out of therapy since I was six years old. I went through some traumatic times as a child, and I didn’t have the words with which to express that. I think adults have a hard time expressing their emotions, especially children, and so when I didn’t have the words, I turned to art for self-expression. A lot of kids act out, they turn violent, they do illegal things, and that’s how they cope with what they’ve been through. I turned to art in those hard times, and that’s why it’s important to me to go to spaces like juvenile detention centers, like children’s shelters, where I can show young people a safe way to have their voice be heard that is creative and helpful.
ALXnow: Did your parents force you to compete, or was it your decision?
Stephens: My parents were definitely very skeptical, because they knew I was shy, they knew I was insecure, and they didn’t want me to do something where I would embarrass myself and make myself feel worse in a competitive environment with other women. It’s tough as a teenager, but I knew that I needed to change. I knew that I needed to work on myself. I needed to grow, and so it was really my initiative to find a better life for myself, one where I wasn’t scared of my initiative.
ALXnow: How has your everyday life changed since winning the crown?
Stephens: Nothing’s changed too much for me. I can still go to the grocery store. I don’t get recognized, but I do definitely hold myself to a different standard. I have a lot of little girls who follow me on social media, and so it’s important to me, to even though I may not be recognized when I go out someplace, to hold myself to the standard that if I will be to be dressed up, to be acting kind to everyone.
ALXnow: So, we’re not gonna see you in a stained sweatshirt?
Stephens: No, no, no. Maybe after when I’m a former, and I’m back to not having this shiny hat anymore. It does definitely make me live better, makes me a better person. Even though I may not be recognized when I go out someplace, I hold myself to a higher standard and act kind to everyone.
ALXnow: Are we going to be seeing you waving in parades?
Stephens: I’m hoping to. I can throw candy at you. I’m doing my research of different events going on here. So, with a system like Miss America or Miss USA, they have directors who lead the title holder with events and things like that. For my pageant system, National American Miss, they are more of a self-driven system. They want a girl who finds her own opportunities. I’m reaching out to other art therapy organizations in the area, the National Gallery of Art, the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center, to spearhead my own events.
ALXnow: What’s your ultimate ambition?
Stephens: My goal is to be Miss USA one day. That’s been my dream since I was 17 years old. But I also want to get my doctorate in art therapy. I have my pageant platform right now, which is just my own initiative doing my community service, but I want to turn that into my business, and ultimately my career is to be an art therapist. But that’s not something I want to go for until I’m in my 30s. I want to end my pageant career before I pursue that, because I know just being a college student when I was a title holder, it’s a lot. I want to be able to be present in my career. I want to be able to be present as Miss USA or as Miss Virginia, so that’s something that I’m putting on the backburner for now.
ALXnow: What’s sets champion beauty queens apart from their competition? How do you win these?
Stephens: I think the biggest thing for me is mindset. The first pageant I won was my fourth pageant. The year before I won, I wanted to win so badly, and I was absolutely crushed when I didn’t win.
I can work on my interview questions as much as I want. I can work on having the best dress, having the best walk, I can have the best hair and makeup, but I have to shine beyond that, because every other girl can put in that amount of work as well. They can have a more expensive dress than me. That’s not in my control. What I can control is the amount of work that I do to be the best version of myself inside and outside of the pageant.
I think you can’t need it, because that desperation shows. You have to be so sure of yourself that with or without this, you’re going to walk away from the pageant a-okay, a better person with or without the crown.
ALXnow: After 10 years competing, what’s your prep look like before a pageant?
Stephens: I practice my walk every day. I do interview questions and things like that, things that are more in line with the competition itself. But for me, it’s doing things outside of my comfort zone. Now that I’m in a new city, I’m planning on going to a lot of events by myself, and that can be scary when you show up to to a festival or to a farmer’s market or go to a restaurant by yourself, but it’s showing me that I can do hard things, and that even if I stumble over my words or if I look awkward because I’m by myself at an event, I still did that for myself. I think continually doing little things makes bigger things less scary, because if I can do this, and take those little baby steps to continue to reassure myself of who I am, that shines on the stage.
