BY HANNAH GOLDFINGER
HGOLDFINGER@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
OPELIKA —
Kalaigh Sullins had never considered being in a pageant — but now she is a pageant winner.
Sullins competed for her second yard in the Ms. Full Figure Alabama Pageant and won.
The pageant was held in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 22. Last year, in Montgomery, Sullins was first runner up.
Ultimately, Sullins decided to try her hand at pageantry due to self-confidence issues, she said.
“I was like, let me start challenging myself and see if I can do this,” she said.
Sullins suffers from intense social anxiety.
“I decided, I was like, hey, this is a new journey, let me just see if I can do this,” she said. “And I was able to do this And I loved it.”
The social anxiety was difficult while competing, she said, especially when she had to give a speech.
Last year, never having competed before, she said it was even more nerve-wracking than this year.
Everything was new, she said. For example, she didn’t know how to choose the right outfits.
This year, unlike last year, participants had a pageant coach.
“What they do is, pretty much like, ‘this is what you need to do, this is how you need to walk, teaching us the kind of things that we need to know.’” she said. “Last year, we didn’t know anything, so we were just starting, just brand new, didn’t know anything and so this year, she just went head on.”
Sullins said the addition of a pageant coach contributed to her win.
Three of last year’s participants returned this year to compete again.
“I loved it because of the fact that I was still with my pageant sisters that were able to do it last year,” she said. “And so, that was more rewarding.”
She described it as a, “lifelong friendship” and even traveled to Georgia to watch a pageant sister compete.
Sullins ran on a two-fold platform — mental health issues and school bullying.
“I want to help my community as far as mental health issues,” she said.
One way she wants to help spread awareness is through a nonprofit she has called Project Empowerment and events she’s hosted in the past called Empowerment Brunches.
“I really want to help other women in the community, like empowering other women,” Sullins said.
While she doesn’t plan on competing again, she does encourage other women to do so.
“If you’re doubting yourself or you’re lacking self esteem, it’s a way of just going ahead and doing something that is going to bring the best out of you, I would say, because it brung the best out of me,” Sullins said. “I would say just go for it, do it, don’t listen to anybody, what they got to say, just go ahead and do it.
“… Keep going after your dreams, if you want to do something, just keep doing it. And don’t try to change who you are based on what society wants you to feel like or wants you to look like.”