14 DAY TRIAL // Nicole Kelly, a gorgeous 23-year-old woman from Keokuk, was crowned Miss Iowa over the weekend but, while she might seem like a typical beauty queen from afar, she stands out for being the first one-armed beauty queen with a shot at the Miss America title.
Crowned Miss Iowa in Davenport at the end of a 3-day competition, Nicole says she’s happy to use the platform she’s just been given to draw attention on how to overcome disabilities.
In fact, her Miss Iowa charitable platform is just that, helping others overcome disabilities. She’s also happy to open a conversation on people with disabilities such as herself.
“As I grew up I learned to counterbalance the initial stares I received from people with an outgoing personality that would not give into ‘no.’ This means that I tried everything,” Nicole says on her official Miss Iowa page, as cited by British publication Daily Mail.
She goes on to explain that her dream career is in theater: she wants to become a Broadway stage manager.
“From baseball, to dance, to diving – there is nothing I would not try. I found my passion within a world where I was giving people permission to stare: the stage,” Nicole explains.
What she never imagined was that she’d become a beauty queen, let alone Miss Iowa.
“If you would have told me a year ago that ‘pageant queen’ was in my future I would have laughed. So maybe I didn't see this path coming my direction, but now that I am here I can see it is a perfect fit and I feel so blessed to have been surrounded by people who have encouraged my steps,” she says.
In September this year, Nicole will go up against several other beauty queens from across the US, at the Miss America pageant.