Grace McClanahan started competing in pageants at 15 years old because she wanted to showcase her talent of singing. Around 10 years later, the 25-year-old holds the title as the first Miss Arkansas Volunteer.
"The reason that I stayed in pageants is the friendships, the opportunities and the networking," she said. "The amount of people that I've met through pageantry that I wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to meet and network with has been incredible."
The idea of contests determining who is the most beautiful has been traced back as far as ancient Greece. There are more reasons for competing in pageants now than being declared the most beautiful. They offer opportunity advancement through scholarships, building reputations and professional interview training.
One of Arkansas' newest pageant organizations, based in Jonesboro, is the Miss Arkansas Volunteer pageant, a preliminary competition for the Miss Volunteer America pageant. According to its website, Miss Volunteer America is a "service-based scholarship program based in Tennessee that seeks to empower young women across the country through educational scholarships and extraordinary opportunities."
McClanahan graduated from Lakeside High School in Hot Springs. She was crowned Miss Arkansas Volunteer on Nov. 14, 2021, and will compete in May for the chance to become the first Miss Volunteer America.
"I feel really honored to have the chance to shape the legacy of this organization and I hope that Miss Volunteer America and Miss Arkansas Volunteer have a long history ahead of them," McClanahan said.
She said one of the biggest differences between this organization and the Miss America Organization is that Miss Volunteer America is considered a pageant, while the Miss America Organization claims not to judge contestants on appearances and is therefore called a competition.
"I don't think of any of the different pageants as direct conflicts or competitors of each other," McClanahan said. "We're just different ways of empowering young women and giving scholarships."
She said the mission of the Miss Volunteer America Organization "is to have girls all across our country earn scholarships, serve their communities and really just empower women."
McClanahan's personal platform was "Self-Care to Start Living," which is about empowering women to take the time to take care of themselves. She said the idea for this platform came to her from personal experience after completing her undergraduate degree in business administration with a major in marketing from the University of Mississippi in 2019. She now lives in Dallas, working for Deloitte as an executive coordinator.
"I went from working and trying to navigate post-grad life to coming back and being with my parents for several months and kind of just getting to reset," she said. "I did a lot of yoga, went on a lot of nature walks and got to kind of reflect on what I wanted to be doing after graduation."
McClanahan said she performs better in her career and overall life if she's taking care of herself by eating healthy, sleeping enough and keeping herself in a good headspace by journaling or reflecting mentally.
"It made me realize how you can have many goals and aspirations, but if you're not taking time to focus on yourself, you're not going to get there."
Not only does McClanahan enjoy pageants, but the scholarships from them could also aid her in reaching her ultimate career goal -- acting.
McClanahan, who wants to obtain her master's degree in acting, is currently with The Agency Inc. out of Little Rock. She's done several commercials throughout Arkansas and even a few films.
"That's my number one career goal is to be a working actor," she said. "But at the same time, I really love business. I would love to be a business owner one day."
Originally from Wynne, McClanahan started her pageant career with the Miss Junior Lakeside Pageant at Lakeside High School. She said her choir teacher convinced her to start competing because of her ability to sing.
She's competed in several pageants since including the Miss Mississippi Organization. McClanahan has about 10 years of pageant experience now.
McClanahan sang "Happy Days are Here Again" by Barbra Streisand for the talent portion of the Miss Arkansas Volunteer pageant. She said in a way, pageants are an extension of performing for her.
When she was asked about competing in the Miss Arkansas Volunteer pageant, she said she took around two months to decide if she was ready to compete again after a long hiatus.
"I think coming back to my hometown and spending some time there really made me nostalgic for growing up in Arkansas and how great it was," McClanahan said. "I thought this was a really great opportunity to show our country at Volunteer America how great Arkansas is and how it's such a great place to grow up."
McClanahan has used her platform as Miss Arkansas Volunteer to talk to young girls about taking care of themselves. She said her platform started to develop with the girls around her neighborhood, who she used to babysit. Now that the girls have gotten older, McClanahan said she started getting to know them better and building a mentorship relationship with them.
As Miss Arkansas Volunteer, she's able to travel and visit schools throughout the state to reach out to young girls. She said part of her platform involves raising awareness and explaining what self-care is to young girls.
"It can look different for everyone, but you need to find something that you do for yourself that's only for yourself," she said.
McClanahan is also focusing her efforts on establishing a reputation for the Miss Arkansas Volunteer program. As the very first winner, she has a responsibility to bring attention to the pageant and to set an example of what Miss Arkansas Volunteer represents.
The title of Miss Arkansas Volunteer may come with responsibilities, but it also comes with fun experiences. McClanahan said her favorite event she's attended as Miss Arkansas Volunteer so far was the Christmas parade in Hot Springs.
"That was really special getting to go through downtown Hot Springs and have 'Miss Arkansas Volunteer' on the side of the car," she said. "My dad got to drive me and we froze to death but we had the best time."
Although the title of the first Miss Volunteer America may come with some pressure, McClanahan said she would be honored if she was chosen to represent the country as Miss Volunteer America.
"The Miss Volunteer America system is going to be, in my opinion, a national success," she said. "The woman that wins that pageant is going to be the first in a very, very long line of very successful pageant competitors. From meeting a lot of the other girls from the other states, I don't think you could go wrong with any of us as the first Miss Volunteer America."
McClanahan has already been preparing for the Miss Volunteer America pageant. As soon as she was crowned in Arkansas, she began preparing by selecting a custom Sherri Hill gown, deciding on what song she will perform at the national pageant and working out to prepare for the swimsuit portion of the competition.
She said if she had the opportunity to become Miss Volunteer America, she would use her platform to raise awareness about self-care, but she would also use that opportunity to promote the organization itself.
"This organization has already given thousands and thousands of dollars of scholarships and opened so many doors for contestants, so I would just want to take the year totally promoting the organization and getting as many girls involved as we can because it's really a special place to compete and grow."
McClanahan said she didn't have any sponsors for the Miss Arkansas Volunteer pageant. She said she was thankful for her support system: her family and friends and especially her biggest supporter, her mother. She said her mother has attended every pageant she's competed in. She even attends nearly all of her rehearsals and prepares with her by dress shopping with her.
"She really works just as hard if not harder for all of this for me," McClanahan said about her mother. "So, I'm really, really grateful and thankful for my mom."
McClanahan doesn't only wish to serve as Miss Arkansas Volunteer 2021. She said once her time as a titleholder is done, she would love to continue to be involved with the Miss Arkansas Volunteer program.
"I would really love to serve as a local director and be able to mentor young girls as they enter this organization and get to see this organization do for them what it's done for me," she said.