North Carolina
'I'm ready, y'all': Carrie Everett aims to become first Miss America from NC since 1962
On Saturday, Carrie Everett will start her journey to become the next Miss America.
The Johnston County native will head to Orlando on Saturday as she prepares to compete in the Miss America Pageant on Jan. 5.
Everett will be joined by Kamryn Howell, who won the 20th Miss Teen North Carolina.
“We are currently stopped in Georgia and on our way to Orlando in the morning,” Everett told WRAL News on Friday. “We just needed a bit of rest.”
In June, Everett won the 87th Miss North Carolina pageant. In an August interview, she told WRAL News that her family struggled with finances and that her journey to be Miss North Carolina was challenging.
She said it wasn’t a journey she wouldn’t have been able to do alone.
“I learned it’s okay to ask for help,” she said. “I have always been an individual who is scared to ask for help because I don’t want to feel the shame of not being able to do things myself.”
While she describes herself as independent, she said she has learned that you can be independent and still as for help.
She told WRAL News she plans to take those lessons into the competition and not only compete but bring Miss America back to North Carolina for the first time since 1962.
“I am feeling ready, willing and like I can totally bring that crown home with the grace of God,” she said. “I hope to make history for North Carolina. I’m ready, y’all.”
The Miss America pageant will take place at the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, with preliminary competitions starting on New Year’s Eve.
The pageant has five areas of competition: interviews, sportswear, evening gowns, on-stage questions and talent.
Everett will perform “The Impossible Dream” from the Broadway musical, “Man of La Mancha,” an adaptation of the 17th-century novel Don Quixote.
“It’s a beautiful piece and tells the story of our lives [and] my family … It will tell the story of my life and how far I’ve come, dreaming the impossible dream to inspire [the] youth of this generation that they can dream so much bigger than they think they can,” she said.
The Miss America pageant will be live-streamed on YouTube and MissAmerica.TV.