It would mean the world to me if Abigail had just even one person that wanted to
hang out with her.
How many friends have you got Abigail?
I don't know, not many.
People were throwing pencils at me and pencil
erasers and floss and things at me.
I was bullied very badly. I just
wanted a friend and then I found Miss Amazing.
So this pageant has changed my whole entire life.
What do we feel is most important?
Me having fun. And who being proud of who?
Me. So are you proud of yourself?
Yes.
Hello my name is Abigail Mannery I am the 2017 National Miss Amazing Teen Queen.
I was so overwhelmed that I felt like I was gonna pass out because of all the
amount of girls and women who came to see me
and McKenna meet for the first time.
After I won nationals I was just in shock I didn't even know that it was me
until I got up there and they put the crown on my head and the sash on my body.
I was just... it was just so touching to know that I actually won.
So we adopted
Abigail when she was six years old, we were her second adoptive placement. She
was brought to the U.S. from Bulgaria when she was four years old. She has a
variety of health issues. She has dextrocardia and levocardia, basically
her heart only has one ventricle and is backwards and closer to the middle of
her body. All of her insides are backwards, they're exactly mirror flipped
and her intestines are free-flowing. Obviously Chuck and I knew Abby had
disabilities before we even adopted her. I'm not sure we understood to the extent
of what they were and what they were going to be for her life and I think
part of that was good. Ignorance is bliss and we just kind of
went on, you know, she's a little girl. We expected her to be a typical little girl.
I'm not used to looking at these dresses so I'm not really sure what we're
looking for but we'll see what we can find.
So yeah when we started it just felt like this wasn't our world you know
we're country bumpkins and we love that. You know, we love living out in farmland,
we love wearing our jeans and we still do. We've just blinged them up a little
bit and it's just fun it's, yeah a lot of fun.
Miss Amazing is a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to build confidence and
self-esteem in girls and women with disabilities.
Hi i'm Jordan Somer, I'm 24 years old and I am the founder and executive
director of Miss Amazing.
So Miss Amazing's core program is a nationwide event
circuit that is inspired by pageantry. So we hold events at around 30 states
across the country and different aspects of those events are inspired by pageants.
So there's onstage introductions, interviews, evening gown, all for the
purpose of building self-esteem and self-advocacy skills. Miss Amazing is on
a mission to celebrate diversity. To celebrate human potential of all people.
So I think that this is something that can speak to anyone from any background
anyone who has ever felt like they've been shunned or marginalised for any
reason. They should know that they deserve a community that supports them
and that they have something to offer.
Okay Gigi it's time to get ready for the day. Are you ready? Yeah we need to get...
I'm Christine and I am Gigi's mother. I left work when she was two years old.
I stopped working and I have not returned to work. My work has become supporting Genevieve.
Get it around, move it. We don't want the dentist bill anymore.
We don't want anymore dental bills. We've paid a lot this year already.
Syndromes really mean a whole group of characteristics.
It's a genetic disorder and so the only syndrome can mean many things, that could
mean speech delays, it could be motor planning issues, heart abnormality is
very typical and there's other characteristics, there's other medical
issues that go on and each person has something a little different.
Gorgeous. Okay let's do it start our day.
My name is Genevieve Sophia.
People call me Gigi. I am the 2018 Illinois Miss Amazing Teen Queen.
One of the best things that Gigi does throughout her week is volunteer at
Brookfield Zoo and so Gigi has learned all sorts of things about the animals on
exhibit at Brookfield Zoo and she, along with me, her support person, will be
stationed at these various exhibits and we come in contact with literally
hundreds and hundreds of people every single week.
This is what our vertebrae look like
as humans so we have seven in our neck... that number is seven.
Seven! Isn't that amazing?
People will walk away and really be taken aback by someone using a
communication device at the level that she does to talk about what the
characteristics of these animals are.
Working side by side with her
volunteering has been an amazing bonding experience for the both of us, it brings
us closer together, we have mutual interests that we share.
It's just our place where we are in tandem.
I am a conservationist.
A conservationist works to protect and preserve the environment and Wildlife.
Oh my gosh being under her is really remarkable.
Inclusion matters
because we all have something extraordinary to bring to the
environments that we're in, beyond that I think it's really just the experience of
being at Miss Amazing and feeling a sense of self-worth, a sense of value.
I'm not the disability, the disability is just a part of me and it makes me who I
am. It makes me special.
She has changed tremendously. She is not the same young woman that she was then.
I cannot even tell you how traumatic that is to leave a hospital setting and have
your baby remain in the neonatal unit.