■
is a former NFL Cheerleader
Turn Events coordinator and was
recently crowned Miss Virginia .
Now she's gearing up to competet
the Miss USA pageant. Ashley Williams,
Welcome to Great Day, Washingto.
Good morning. Thank you for
relation. Thank you so much. You
and I first met back in May at
the Miss Florida USA pageant.
You had just been crowned
a couple weeks before.
So what's the first
couple months been like?
It's been a lot of fun.
I've been traveling,
going to other different state pageants.
I've done some amazing events in
the community. It's been great.
So how did you get into what inspired
you to even start in pageants?
So my journey to pageantry
is a little bit funny,
but so I first started off judging at
a different competition and then I was
inspired by the contestants and their
eloquence and their service initiatives.
And that's when I realized that
that was the role that I wanted
to trenches transition to after
my time as an NFL cheerleader.
Who did here?
Were you cheering here for the NFL or so?
I cheered back home in Miami,
but I moved to Virginia about
a year ago and OK,
loving it so far.
OK, great.
So the USA. So we have Miss Ohi,
America, the America System, Florida, USA.
So I'm more familiar with the
system that you're competing in.
What is prep spin like?
When's Miss USA?
When do we get to see all that?
So apparently Miss USA is going
to be in the October range.
We were looking for a date
yesterday and couldn't find
it. Like, when is this happenin?
But in terms of prep, I've been doing
everything that I've been that d
leading up to the state competi.
So just working on walk, interv,
Yeah, getting ready for the competition.
And you're out in the community
a lot this year as well, right?
Is there a lot of volunteer stuff that
you're doing or you're hoping t?
Yes. So one of my most favorite
appearances so far,
I volunteered at the Arlington
National Cemetery for a Memorial
Day weekend and that was.
Is a really special project.
But yeah, I'm looking for more things
to do in the community and everything.
Yeah, we want to tell our viewers, like,
you come out and support an organization,
like if they want you out there, represent,
they can reach out to you, righ?
Yes, they can. At Miss Virginia USA Comm.
Perfect. There you go.
Yeah, you've got a whole year of
service ahead of you. And then o
much more. What's some of the
We've got your crowning video?
Is this taking you back?
I love it. Was
this the first pageant you compd
in? It is. It wasn't very no.
So you probably weren't expecti.
I wasn't expecting at all.
I was like, this is gonna be fu.
I'm gonna meet some great girls.
And yeah, here we are.
It's so funny.
I think you could see the genuine shock.
First second, I was like,
what is going on? My gosh,
your life's gonna be so differe.
This is gonna be so different.
What has
surprised you most about
competing in pageants? I mean,
you saw it from the other side,
but being part of it?
I would say the friendships.
A lot of people think that whenu
get a group of very intelligentd
very inspirational women togethr
that it can lead to a lot of ch.
But I I feel like the woman that I was around
are just so empowering and and great really.
Can you believe you're going to Miss USA?
Like, what's that like?
I mean, I need October to come,
so I can really feel like I'm going there.
But yeah, I'm so grateful.
I'm. I'm so excited.
Yeah, that's a fun week.
Yeah, or two weeks, whatever.
Long you're out there.
What a awesome experience.
And the whole nation world gets
to see you up there competing.
But I know it's more than that.
But when you think about pagean,
since we both competed,
we both have taken many
things away from this.
Why do you think pageantry is
still really relevant today?
I think because of the personal development.
Skills that you get out of it,
you really do get to embrace yourself
and and build confidence and and
know what it's like to challenge
yourself and every factor of the
competition slash how you can
translate that into regular lif.
I had a couple uncles who were ,
why is Ellen
doing this? Because a professor
told me to do it for our career.
And then after they came
and watched, they said, oh,
this is like a finishing school
like where you just learn more
confidence and on air skills
and camera skills and things. L,
I love that. Yeah, I mean the interview
prep is incredible.
I would interview. I mean both.
Benefited from that and and
just in your everyday life,
right, you're meeting people.
What are you doing when
you're not Miss Virginia,
In my free time,
I like to honestly hang out.
I I love trying new restaurants.
I'm a big sushi girl and spend
time with friends. Really.
We got some good restaurants in this.
Yeah. Yeah, that's for sure.
Welcome to the northern part of Virginia.
Well, so good to see you again.
Congrats. Good to see you.
It's gonna be an incredible yea.
We'll be following your journey
and you can keep up with and reh
out to ashley@missvirginiausa.c,
but also on Instagram at Miss VA USA.
So good luck to you.
Thank you very much.