On Sunday, history was made yet again in the Miss USA pageant. A stunning 22-year-old woman, by the name of Mikayla Holmgren, became the first woman with Down syndrome to ever compete in the Miss USA pageant. While she was in the contest, she won two awards, the Spirit of Miss USA and the Director’s award (more info on those awards here). Holgrem looked gorgeous in a blue sparkly dress and during the talent section, she performed a dance. This is not Mikayla’s first beauty pageant, in the past, she has participated in the Miss Minnesota Amazing competition which is for women with special needs.

Having Mikayla participate in the Miss USA pageant is really important and while I know that beauty pageant often get a bad rep for being superficial, it great that Mikayla was able to be front and center of the pageant. However, Mikayla is not the first trailblazer in pageant history from the state of Minnesota. Just last year, a Somali-America woman named Hamila Aden became the first Muslim woman to compete in the Miss USA beauty pageant and wear the hijab and the burkini which was revolutionary especially in our day and age where Muslims women are often verbally and sometimes physically attacked for wearing their hijabs.

The community of people with Down syndrome is often underrepresented in many mainstream media outlets and when they are represented it is not always in a positive light. What I find the most amazing is that now in these beauty pageants more and more women are finally able to see positive representations of themselves which inspires confidence in millions of women and especially young girls.

Hopefully we can get more and more representation of all types of women in the upcoming beauty pageants (because they really need) but for now, I’m extremely proud of Mikayla for her bravery and helping to pave the way for more diversity and representation in the mainstream media.