She’s not the first, nor’ the last African American to win Miss USA, but she sure is the first to prove that women can have beauty, brains, and confidence all in one package deal. Aside from ethnicity and diversity that has become a popular topic in the U.S over the past decade, Deshauna Barber has shown us that she was going for something deeper than just appreciation due to the color of her skin.

Miss USA 2016 winner Deshauna Barber has served in the army since the age of 17 following her parents and siblings, which gives a whole new meaning to what we stereotype pageants contestants to be. As a young girl, I played tons of sports. You name it and I probably did it, minus the “boy” sports only “boys” were allowed to play such as football, baseball, etc. During recess, instead of sitting around with my girl friends, I tried keeping up with the boys playing whatever sport they decided to play that day. I liked being outdoors, whether that was shooting BB’s at birds I saw in the trees or riding the four wheelers me and my brother had asked for for Christmas. With that being said, I think it’s pretty obvious that I was just your typical tomboy. Although I still owned dolls as a young girl and had Jonas Brother posters hanging from my wall until about 15, those things weren’t apart of my main focuses. My wardrobe throughout elementary consisted of my brothers basketball shorts, t-shirts, and my hair slicked back in a perfected ponytail. Not that I minded, but I was always less feminine than my friends. Up until middle school, I never really focused on my outer appearance as much as I should’ve and because of that it made me insecure. I had my group of girl friends, as well as my group of guy friends and as all of them began having boyfriends and girlfriends, I was just kind of there. Throughout high school I would have days were I would feel super girlish, which those were very rare, and then days where I would settle for no make-up and a t-shirt, which was usually 99.9% of the time. I wasn’t the “girly” type and for a while I was okay with that. The weekends that I would spend with my guy friends consisted of either watching Workaholics or being stuck in awkward conversations about hot girls they would fantasize about (Not to get in great detail I think you know where most of those conversations went). I liked being on the other side of things considering I didn’t have to worry about what guys said about me behind my back and for the longest time I didn’t think it was possible to be feminine but have that 1/5 boyish personality in you. I thought that it would be better to be true to who you were so I cherished that 1/5 more than the other 4/5 part of me that wanted to come out. After high school, I began embracing my individuality and embraced my outward feminine appearance with my masculine (sometimes inappropriate) behavior. I wouldn’t consider myself a feminist, due to the fact that there are things women and men just can’t do without the other gender, but since I am now aware of the borderline between the capabilities between the two sexes, I do believe that equality is appropriate and fair. When hearing Deshauna’s approach to this topic, I became interested and drawn to what she had to say about it and one thing is for certain, I support her argument 100%.

Just recently I have grown to love shows like The Bachelor/Bachelorette and towards the end of last summer I began watching your more popular hits like Grey’s Anatomy and Gossip Girl, which is still hard for me to really get into. As you can tell, I’m still a little behind on my girl game so watching beauty pageants is obviously not number one on my list of things to do. I remember being out at dinner with some friends when Miss USA was showing but since the Golden State Warrior vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game was going on, you could guess Miss USA was on the back burner. I had heard about Mrs. Barber winning but what really drew my attention towards this year’s contestant was the background she had. I always looked at pageant girls as being girls who weren’t quite cut out to be Victoria Secret models yet were still too perfect to not have recognition for their perfect features. After questioning Deshauna about her beliefs in female equality, her answer is what really blew me away. The woman, who won the opportunity of representing the country of females all over, believes that women can be both beautiful and respected, but have the heart and mind of a fighting male. She believes in herself and her values so firmly, and she sure as hell never gave a second thought to her race, so her winning Miss USA is no surprise to me. For this, she has my upmost respect. She is one-third soldier, one-third Barbie, and one-third of qualities that every girl should look for within herself.

Not that I have one doubt in my mind that she won’t make it close to being Miss Universe, with or without that crown she will go down in history as the woman who proved your stereotypical assumptions wrong.