The evolution of pageantry reflects increased diversity and representation, as exemplified by April Hobson, a National Titleholder. Her journey from insecurity to empowerment showcases the importance of authentic representation for people of all backgrounds. Pageants can foster community and personal growth, encouraging everyone to embrace their unique identities and pursue their dreams.
Purple is for Faith. Over the decades Barbie has evolved and just like that timeless icon so have pageants. Gone are the days when diversity was non-existent, when contestants emulated the 1960’s Barbie physique, when the Miss America pageant rulebook stated that “Contestant must be in good health and of the white race,” and when mental health or being neurodiverse would bar the way. I experienced this change firsthand during my summer Nationals when the last two women standing were African American, one with scars on her arms and the other wearing her plus-size gown with pride.
The amount of diversity, inclusion, representation, and love I have witnessed in the past year and a half has given me so much hope for the future. If the pageant world, long associated with negative connotations, can become a safe space for women and girls of all colors, religions, shapes, sizes, and disorders to let their true colors shine, just imagine what a beautiful place the rest of our world can become.
So come join me in exploring all the Colors of the Crown; the pageant queens who are changing our world one stage at a time.
Purple is for faith
I remember sitting in the theater next to my daughter ugly crying during the opening scene to the new Little Mermaid movie. Tears streaming for the little black girl who never saw herself in the films she watched. Joyfully sobbing because there won’t be any more little brown skinned girls to ever feel that way. When we say representation matters it’s not a slogan. It’s not a political stance. It is the truth. Seeing others achieve the impossible is what motivates us to move barriers and break glass ceilings. April Hobson is doing just this. To some she is “just” a pageant system’s National Titleholder. To me though and to so many others she is an Icon. She is hope.
Love. Peace. Massage.
Massage Therapist and self-proclaimed Black-American April is true to herself and true to her faith. “If my faith had a color…It’s royalty. It’s deep, it’s rich. It’s purple.” I first met her last summer when attending a National pageant for my daughter. Her warmth and pure spirit floated through the room infecting everyone she met. She had one of those wide genuine smiles that makes you feel seen and loved. It was no wonder that she won the National title Spirit of Tiny Miss.
It’s this same abundance of joy that is helping her massage therapist business thrive. April was raised in her faith, which has only strengthened over the years, and because of that helping others is just a way of life for her. And in part it’s what led her to massage therapy. “I’m trying to help people who are stressed…have tension…They come here and I can help them…I choose through massage therapy to help people”
When you ask her where she is in her life with her business her smile lights up her entire face “I am so grateful. I thank the Lord every day for allowing me in this space, my business.” A loyal titleholder, who never found a job that felt like a home she could reside in, will be celebrating 7 years as a business owner in August. “I’ve never worked…the jobs I’ve…held…longer than about three years. It took me working for myself to be able to celebrate the seven years. I am so incredibly grateful!”
Not Your Typical Queen
Before pageants April’s skincare routine consisted of Dawn soap, and, well that was it. No 7-step skincare routine needed! As we sit during the interview, April’s hair is styled in natural locs, and a backwards baseball cap adorns our Queen in place of the National crown you’d typically find her wearing. Her face is make-up free and her cheekbones are poppin’!
April’s whole feel is one of natural beauty. And she brings that to her pageantry. When she does her make-up for pageants, she avoids the over-the-top looks and instead she laughs as she says “…Look in the mirror and I can say, OK, I still see that beauty, that natural beauty. I go with it.”
One of the difficulties many women of color in the pageant industry face is finding MUA (make-up artists) that have actual experience with ethnic faces. Because of this many BIPOC women do their own make-up for competitions. April is no different. It’s been a learning curve for her but sorely needed. Because even though we now see so much diversity on the pageant stage we’re still fully underrepresented when it comes to the vendors behind the scenes.
Time to Shame – Skinny Shaming
As a society we’ve made so many advances when it comes to how we think and talk about others. Ageism, sexism, racism are no longer the tolerable norm. Call someone ”fat’ or ‘overweight’ on the internet these days and there’s a solid circle of supporters who will defend the one being attacked and as a woman, who was once plus sized, it warms my heart! No one should ever be shamed because of their weight.
However, while we’ve thankfully moved on from ‘fat shaming’ (the majority of us at least) there’s still the opposite side of the spectrum that is just not addressed. And for people like April, it can be demoralizing leading to a lack of confidence and self-love. Joking about someone needing to eat a cheeseburger is just as bad as joking about someone eating too many.
The reality is words hurt and sometimes they can take hold and root deep within our psyche. “…I didn’t have the curves…it was always… you’re so tiny. You’re so small. You don’t have this. You don’t have that…I’ll even say… don’t skinny shame me…and to them it’s like you can’t be skinny shamed….I’d get in my own head and say well… you’re not good enough…It…festered for the longest time…I knew that the Lord loved me but I didn’t know how to love myself…It wasn’t this perfect image that everyone else seems to have. It wasn’t the body that everyone else had, and so…I was really hard on myself.” Her lack of self-love led April down a difficult road. Before her 30’s that glow we all love had nearly been extinguished. “I had no idea what…love was. I didn’t know joy. I did not have peace within me.”
A Role Model is Born
When she turned 30 April started healing from a lifetime of insecurity. She looked inward and found the beauty that had been there all along and let it light her from within. It was then that she decided to follow in her sister’s footsteps and join the world of pageantry. I’m not shocked, that just like so many others of us, April quickly realized she’d found something very special. “When I’m in this setting, the pageantry world…I feel my best…I’m happy. I love to help… to cheer people on. I want to encourage other people…to imagine that anyone is looking up to me… this is a responsibility that I do not want to squander. I don’t want to waste this opportunity to be a good example to anyone.” And she is.
There isn’t anyone who knows April that could say she isn’t exactly what a role model should be. She’s the one whose favorite backstage moment is hearing a song while awaiting her turn, letting the competition go, and just dancing “we’re all doing different moves…just that that brief moment of time, just sisterhood…just light and airy, getting down.” She’s the one comforting a crying little girl backstage after they both made a mistake in front of the judges. “I got down on the floor…I said…Could I have a hug? I…really messed up and I’m upset…but it’s OK…We both messed up…I just needed a sister, and I found that…she’s…patting me. Like, it’s OK. And I’m like, this is the sweetest thing.” And April’s the role model inspiring so many little girls to love and accept their natural hair and to find beauty in themselves, just the way they are.
My Hair is My C.R.O.W.N.
For the uninitiated coils, curls, twists, locs, cornrows, bantu knots, afros are ALL examples of natural hair. More and more women of color are opting to wear their natural hair across the pageant stage. After decades of forced conformity, we’re finally breaking free and unapologetically letting the world know that we are MORE than enough! Is there still, in 2025, pushback in certain systems regarding natural hair? Unfortunately, some of us do experience it “I have felt that pressure. I’ve actually had a director tell me…I would do better if I wore my natural hair…” As if her natural locs weren’t her “natural” hair. Luckily though systems like that one are quickly becoming the minority. And systems like Miss USA, International United Miss, and April’s own Tiny Miss have had queens win ‘the big title’ wearing their natural hair with pride.
Representation as Truth
“Initially I had no idea how important it is for that representation…the way that I had grown up in predominantly white school systems in white neighborhoods…I never saw…representation…There was a parade that my sister was in…And there was this little girl… her eyes lit up when she saw my sister… And I wanted…to be like that…I want to be that representation…. And if I can represent for other black women, I’m going to! To be a role model for young black girls so they see…that they can do it too.” Let me repeat it for those that weren’t listening the first time ‘representation matters‘ is not a slogan or a political stance. It is the truth!’ And it is a truth that stretches across all ethnicities, ages, shapes, sizes, and identities.
I asked April how it feels to be such an iconic figure to so many girls and women across our nation. Always humble, but still so self-assured, she took a pause before responding “…I don’t always see it…to hear you say that and to be in this moment I don’t really have words…I’m just so grateful… I have the title, and I just want to best represent it…to think…I have made any sort of pathway for anyone else. That’s huge.”
Final Words on Pageantry
“Pageantry has helped me as well as so many others…Find themselves…To grow into confidence…To be able to stand in front of a room full of…strangers…with public speaking…It is a sense of community. It is as if finding home outside of home. I would encourage anyone of all ages…we’re over 30…we’re over 40 and we can do this too. There’s so much good in pageantry, especially when you put good into it…I would encourage anyone…just to try something new. To go after it. Try to put your best foot forward and be open to growth and learning. I have grown and I have learned so much more about myself and other people…from pageantry.”
