The newest Miss Iowa has been named and she only has one arm.
Nicole Kelly took the crown Saturday after a 3-day competition in Davenport, Iowa. She will go on to compete for the Miss America crown in September.
Kelly, 23, hails from the Hawkeye State town of Keokuk. She intends to use the coveted platform of the Miss America competition to discuss overcoming disabilities.
Uplifting: Nicole Kelly, born with no left forearm, was crowned Miss Iowa Saturday after a three day competition
Unexpected: The shocked beauty queen said she never expected to become a ‘pageant girl’
‘As I grew up I learned to counterbalance the initial stares I received from people with an outgoing personality that would not give into “no,”’ writes Kelly in her official Miss Iowa biography. ‘This means that I tried everything.
‘From baseball, to dance, to diving – there is nothing I would not try. I found my passion within a world where I was giving people permission to stare: the stage.’
Kelly took her passion to the next level when she enrolled at the University of Nebrask-Lincoln and began studying theater.
She graduated in May 2012 and now hopes for a career as a Broadway stage manager.
Going places: The 23-year-old is gunning for a career on Broadway and already works for Tony-nominated show The Assembled Parties. She sang Defying Gravity from the show Wicked as part of the talent showcase
She performed the number Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked for the talent portion of the Iowa competition.
Now living in New York, Kelly is working toward that goal. For the past year, she interned at theaters in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere and is now working for Tony-nominated The Assembled Parties.
‘So for now,’ she writes, ‘in between pageants and appearances, I spend my nights on the Great White Way.’
Performer: Kelly finished college in May 2012, where she majored in theater
Despite her obvious strength and initiative, Kelly’s new role as Miss Iowa is as big a surprise to her as it is to anyone.
‘If you would have told me a year ago that “pageant queen” was in my future I would have laughed,’ she writes. ‘So maybe I didn’t see this path coming my direction, but now that I am here I can see it is a perfect fit and I feel so blessed to have been surrounded by people who have encouraged my steps.’
Another first occurred at last year’s Miss America pageant when Alexis Wineman became the first autistic contestant on the hallowed stage.
In 1994, Heather Whitestone of Alabama became the first deaf woman to win the title of Miss America.
Kelly will get her shot at the crown September 15, 2013 at the Miss America 2014 pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Driven: ‘As I grew up I learned to counterbalance the initial stares I received from people with an outgoing personality that would not give into “no.” This means that I tried everything,’ says Kelly
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