Usually we avoid beauty pageant mainstays like Vaseline-teeth and Spanx like the plague, but Analouisa Valencia is gorgeous, charming, smart, and she's vying to be the first openly lesbian Miss South Carolina. The current Miss. Lyman, S.C., is competing for the Big Fancy Crown of Awesomeness (uh, I mean the state title of Miss South Carolina) in July, and then possibly to be Miss America in September. Here are five reasons why we all have to root for her to flash her elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist this summer.
5. This prom dress is epic.
4. She's 19 and likes to sing Jazz and Blues! There is hope for the world—the musical tastes of everyone under 30 is not imited to Ke$ha and The Wanted.
3. She had the ovaries to come out in ninth grade. Sure, not everyone from the Palmetto state is a hateful bigot, but coming out at 14 in the South is assumedly not a wonderful experience for everyone. In fact she said her dad couldn't speak to her for weeks and her mom was pretty upset, too. But here she is a couple of years later, kicking butt and taking names.
2. Everyone in her home town loves Analouisa and her girlfriend. "In Spartanburg, I think we’re one of the most well-known couples," she said. "Everybody loves us, we don’t know why."
1. Because she could win a $25,000 scholarship if she wins. Hey, college is expensive.
