Why I Started Project Pageantry (And What I Wish I'd Had as a Young Queen)

My mom signed me up for my first rodeo queen contest when I was nine years old.

She had a theory: I was a shy kid, I loved horses, and she figured putting those two things together — the horses and the competition — might just open me up a little and give me a reason to talk to people.

Where rodeo queening took me

I competed for years. First, as a girl. I won my first title at 9 and held several other junior queen titles, winning two high-point saddles in the process. As an adult, I won the title I wanted most as a girl, Caldwell Night Rodeo Queen, a large PRCA rodeo and my hometown rodeo. I competed for Miss Rodeo Idaho 2013, where I finished as first runner up, by mere points (I was told, but we know how that goes!), and won the speech, appearance, and photogenics awards. 

That speech award mattered to me. It told me something about where my strengths were, and it pointed me toward a career. I’d just graduated from college the summer I ran for Miss Rodeo Idaho, and shortly after, I was offered a paid internship with AQHA in Amarillo. With 10 days notice, I made the move. Eventually, I went on to work on staff as an editor at Horse&Rider Magazine, before transitioning to corporate communications and marketing, and eventually built my own communications company working with healthcare organizations and nonprofits.

It all started with a shy nine-year-old at a podium.

What I noticed when I started coaching

I’d actually started Project Pageantry in 2016, because I still cared about queening and appreciated what it had taught me. 

Then, in 2023, I was asked if I’d be interested in working with a state titleholder preparing to compete for America. I had a communications background. I’d worked with executives, creating presentations, writing on their behalf, and coaching them through talking points before major company announcements. Plus, I had the rodeo queen context. 

When the Miss Rodeo Idaho I was working with in 2025 won the speech category at Miss Rodeo America, and I started receiving coaching referrals, I thought, “maybe I should revive this thing.” The rest, as they say, is history.

I believe that rodeo queening is a vehicle to success, not success itself. I’m truly grateful for the skills I learned competing and as a titleholder. I learned to face my fears and do something that terrified me because I wasn’t willing to accept my beliefs as my limitations. I’ve since traveled the world solo, moved to states I’d never been to before job opportunities, pushed myself in physical challenges to test what I’m made of, and pivoted careers over and over.  

Because I’ve learned to speak in front of people, how to prepare well and put my best foot forward, and how to interview, most of the doors I wanted to open opened for me. I was very fortunate as a young lady to have an excellent coach in my own mom. Someone who also has a communication background, competed in collegiate speech and debate, and taught and coached speech and communications at a university. She coached several Miss Rodeo Idahos to compete at Miss Rodeo America, and you can see the mark of her success on the former Miss Rodeo Idahoes page in the form of top 10 and above placings. 

Her connections also led me to women like Shelly Williams, Idaho’s last Miss Rodeo America, who coached me off and on for titles, and a modeling coach who was well known in the pageant community. I also made an effort to seek opportunities for myself, attending clinics in Idaho and going to Rodeo Queen Bootcamp in Ogden, Utah, where I was blown away. Utah just goes harder! I met “Mack” Carr who gave me the tough-love talk and encouragement I needed to learn to auctioneer for my Idaho speech. (Mack, if you read this, thank you!)

But as I go down nostalgia lane, I fully recognize how lucky I am to have people who poured into me and be so proximate to these opportunities. Not every girl is so lucky. 

The idea behind Project Pageantry

I started Project Pageantry because I wanted to level the playing field, or at least tilt it a little more toward fairness, because I realized that the girls with the most resources, and often, saw the most success, were the ones who happened to live near a strong state program, had a former queen in the family, or could afford to hire a coach for every area of competition. The girls without those advantages were showing up underprepared, not because they were less capable, but because they were learning through trial and error. 

That bothered me. It still bothers me. 

So my vision is simple. I’m working to create an online community, resources, and accessible coaching where young ladies from anywhere in the country can access expert coaching across every area of rodeo queen competition. 

Not just tips from someone who read the rulebook or knew someone who queened once. Real guidance from people who have been there as professional communicators, veterinarians, rodeo athletes, coaches who have won at the level you want to compete at.

So if you're in an area with limited local resources or are looking for ways to improve your preparedness as you compete or represent. If you're just starting out and don't know where to begin. If you're preparing for your first major contest and feeling overwhelmed. Project Pageantry is for you.

You don't need to know the right people. You just need to show up where the opportunities are, and here is one of those places.