Last week Teryn Thatcher from Kemmerer won the Miss Wyoming Teen competition and she shares her journey of hard work in earning the crown.

She says the event actually should have happened last September, but it was delayed due to the pandemic.

“So, I had lots of time to contemplate, to plan, to decide if I still thought I was able to do it,” Thatcher said.

When she received word that the pageant was going to be held in June, she only had six months to prepare herself. She says she already had her dress and athletic wear that teens wear.

“Really the biggest thing I did to prepare was just have my mom and my family call me and just interview me,” Thatcher said. “Just quick little questions to make sure I was ready for anything because one-third of your scoring is an interview with a panel of judges.”

She describes it as really learning who she was and being confident. She also says the pageant overall was “magical”. She loved being around strong, passionate women and all together in the same room.

“Truly changed my perspective,” Thatcher said. “You think of pageants and people kind of have this little stain on it of just a bunch of girls who are mean and just want the title and it was not like that at all. So, I felt so blessed to be in the room with those women.”

She says she obviously wanted to win, but when it was announced she did she said her mind went blank.

“It was like ‘What?'” Thatcher said. “But this is my first pageant I’ve done and so I guess I know how it works. It usually takes a couple of years for people to win.”

She will win thousands of dollars in prizes and awards. It also means she now has an opportunity to represent Wyoming in the Miss Teen USA Competition. She will get to go all over the state with Miss Wyoming Mackenzie Kern of Casper to meet and get to know people.

“We get to meet the people we are representing,” Thatcher said. “We just practice our interviewing skills. We just get to live and feel what it feels like to represent people.”

She says one thing she really learned in the process is the impact you can make the moment you meet someone.

“There were so many girls that as soon as I saw them…I can tell how good of a person they are,” Thatcher said. “You shouldn’t wait to share who you are with people until you ‘feel comfortable’ with them.

“I just really felt I could be myself that entire time and I honestly feel that’s one of the reasons I walked away with the crown is I was myself the moment I walked in registration.”

She says she immediately began talking with others and the same way she would anyone else back home. She also says she felt confident who she was.

“And knew if that wasn’t good enough to win or if that wasn’t what the judges were looking for,” Thatcher said. “Then that was okay.”

She carries on the tradition of her family as well as her mother also won Miss Wyoming at one time. She will now be busy getting ready for nationals. It will be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma over Thanksgiving.