PRIDE – MELANIN, FAITH & A CROWN
After three attempts, a 19-year-old Black girl from Hickory, Mississippi, has officially made history as the first African-American winner of Miss Mississippi Teen USA. Her journey has touched and inspired many, becoming a shining example of perseverance and relentless determination.
19-Year-Old Wins Black Miss Mississippi Teen USA Pageant After 3 Attempts
Nationwide — Meet Maddie Oliphant, the first African-American to be crowned Miss Mississippi Teen USA, a title she earned after three attempts. At 19 years old, Oliphant, a Hickory native, is using her platform to inspire others and push for better access to books for young children across the state.
Oliphant, a student at East Central Community College, launched her project, Maddie’s Little Library, in honor of her younger brother Evan. Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Evan’s reading skills improved through daily reading sessions with her. That experience inspired her to help other children discover the power of books.
Through her platform, Oliphant plans to organize book drives and donate books to daycares, preschools, and local libraries. Her mission is to expand early childhood reading across Mississippi and encourage community involvement.
“Because it’s people like you and me and ideas like Maddie’s Little Library who can grow this organization, and that’s exactly what I plan to do,” Oliphant told WLBT.
Winning the crown took three years of effort, but Oliphant said the journey made the victory sweeter. Oliphant hopes her journey will motivate young girls, especially girls of color, to keep going no matter how long it takes.
She credits her small town for helping her reach this milestone. She said, “I believe that I couldn’t have done this without my small town and the support I had there. I want to give back to them, I want to highlight the small businesses in my town that really poured into me and I want to do them the smallest little favor by just giving back to them.”
Oliphant also thanked her family, coaches, and makeup artist Stephanie Moore for helping her gain the confidence to keep going. With a full year ahead, she plans to grow her platform and keep empowering others through her story.
News
My Parents Humiliated Me at My Father’s Retirement Dinner Then My Husband Revealed Who He Really Was
Chapter 1: The Nobody My name is Diana Parker. I was thirty-two years old when my mother stood in front of 150 people at my father’s retirement party, leaned into a microphone, and made my marriage the punchline of the…
MY MOTHER TOLD ME NOT TO BRING MY SON TO EASTER AGAIN—THEN MY 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER STOOD UP AND SAID WHAT NONE OF THE ADULTS WOULD
Chapter 1: Don’t Bring Him It happened at a rented folding table covered in deviled egg crumbs, pastel napkins, plastic forks, and the shiny foil wrappers from Easter chocolate. The April wind moved through the dogwood trees behind my aunt’s…
MY FAMILY USED ME AS AN ATM, Until They Sold My Anniversary Gift and Learned I Was Done Paying
Chapter 1: The Good Daughter The smell of peppermint rinse and sterile latex was the permanent weather of my life. As a dentist, I spent my days working inside the smallest rooms of other people’s fear. I knew the exact…
MY HUSBAND GAVE ME AN “ALLOWANCE,” HIS MOTHER AUDITED MY GROCERY RECEIPTS—THEN THEY DROVE TO MOCK MY “TRAILER PARK” HOUSEWARMING
Chapter 1: The $3 Receipt Friday night in the Miller house always felt like a trial. Not dinner. Not family time. A trial. The kitchen table, a scuffed pine monster Linda insisted was “perfectly good,” was covered in crumpled receipts,…
MY NEWBORN WAS TURNING BLUE—MY HUSBAND LEFT FOR HAWAII AND SAID I WAS “JUST DRAMATIC”
Chapter 1: Blue Lips “Stop being so dramatic, Elena. He’s just coughing.” My mother-in-law said it like I had interrupted her breakfast, not like my three-day-old son was turning blue in my arms. Beatrice Vance stood in the middle of…
MY BILLIONAIRE FATHER DISOWNED ME AT MY OWN WEDDING—HE HAD NO IDEA THE “TRASH” HE MOCKED WAS ABOUT TO BECOME HIS BIGGEST REGRE
Chapter 1: Disowned Have you ever wondered what it feels like to have a billionaire father? Trust me, it is not the fairy tale people imagine. My name is Fiona Ashford. I was twenty-eight years old when my father stood…
End of content
No more pages to load
