It would seem that junior Emma Leonard has her hands full between dancing for the Diamonds, acting in De Soto High school theater productions, helping organize prom, taking AP courses, participating in Student Council, A&M Crew, National Honor Society, Thespians, Debate, Forensics and Choir, but she still strives for excellence in her out-of-school activities as well, including performing in pageants.

Leonard had always been interested in pageants due to her involvement in performing arts and viewing them on various T.V shows such as Kim of Queens.

However, Leonard’s interest was finally fulfilled when she was recruited by a pageant coach at the Natalie M. Fashion show on Jan. 14 after modeling a dress alongside 35 other DHS students as a Prom fundraiser.

She began coaching shortly after her recruitment and participated in her first pageant, the Princess of America Kansas 2018, which took place on March 9-10 in Junction City. It was there that Leonard won the title of Junior Miss Kansas 2018.

For Leonard, preparing for a pageant involves working with her coach on a variety of activities, from on-the-spot Q&As to rehearsing how to walk correctly.

“Training consists of a lot of model walking practice in your evening gown, interview practice and impromptu question answering to make sure you are quick to answer questions thoroughly and genuinely,” Leonard said.

The areas of the pageant Leonard competed in for this title were interview, where each judge individually conducts a three-minute interview about the contestant, personal introduction which Leonard described as “a memorized speech about yourself,” as well as evening gown, the answering of an impromptu stage question and talent.

Not only has Leonard gained a number of modeling and talent connections throughout Kansas from pageants, but it has allowed her to make a positive impact towards a cause that she is personally passionate about.

“From pageants, I have been able to develop my own charitable platform, mine being veterans appreciation, to give back to your community and serve,” Leonard said. “I have been participating in a lot of community service to promote my platform and give back to veterans which is a cause very important to me.”

Overall, Leonard is thankful for her personal support system who have helped her achieve success in the pageant world.

“My family and friends are very supportive of me participating in pageants and are helping me tremendously with fundraising to help get me to nationals,” Leonard said.

The next pageant Leonard will be competing in will be the Princess of America Nationals on Aug. 1-3 in Branson, Missouri.