Hello all! It is truly an honor to be able to write this post for Section 36 and its fans.
My name is Chloee Kline. I hold the title of Miss Hoosier Hills 2022 within the Miss America Organization. I’m here to share my MAO journey and my social impact initiative!
The first Miss Indiana local of the season is a closed pageant which takes place at my high school. My hometown has recently been dubbed “Crown Town” as we are home to numerous former Miss Indiana and Miss Indiana’s Outstanding Teens. I grew up watching many friends and family member compete and win this local pageant. I followed their journey to the Miss Indiana stage in Zionsville on social media for years. I secretly yearned to make it to that stage someday. I never wanted to be Miss Indiana, necessarily, I just wanted the chance to be a part of the experience. At the age of 15, I competed for the teen title as two of my show choir friends talked me into it. It wasn’t really my thing but I still admired the organization and dreamed of getting involved once I got older.
After aging out of the teen category, I attended Purdue University where the Miss Purdue University Scholarship Competition was huge! One of my high school friends won the title in 2018. Her sister actually won the title of Miss Indiana 2018 and I took the 12 hour road trip to watch her compete in Atlantic City.
To dip my foot back in the pageant water, I competed at the 2019 Miss Purdue competition as a junior.
I was hooked! I only competed at three other local that season, taking home a few spirit (congeniality) awards. My senior year of college, I competed at five locals before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. One year without pageants felt like an eternity. I was itching to get back on stage with a new social impact initiative and goal of making it to the Miss Indiana stage.
Just prior to the pandemic, I was a part of a selective committee within Purdue Student Government that organized a campus-wide Mental Health Awareness Week. On top of numerous free events daily, we organized The Bandana Project which spread rapidly on campus. This initiative is a silent solidarity movement where student sport a green bandana on their backpack, purse or totebag signifying that they are a safe space and open to talk about mental health. With this movement comes resource education. We worked with the on campus student health center and Purdue faculty to education Boilermakers of the free on campus resources available. This project started at the Univertsity of Wisconsin in 2016 and has made its way across multiple Big Ten campuses. After the impact I saw this project have on my college campus, with a population of about 30,000 students, I felt that this needed to be shared across the state. I aspire to implement The Bandana Project at Indiana college campuses, high school and even within communities.
2021 brought us a COVID vaccine and the chance to compete again! I’m bad with numbers, but I believe I competed in about eight pageant this past season before winning a title. The pageant I won was my 15th competition. 15! I have never won a title before Miss Hoosier Hills and only placed one time before winning. I have truly been an unofficial poster child for perseverance.
The last competition of the season is called our “Sweeps” pageant (as it is called in most states in the MAO). Out of 15 girls, I got fourth runner-up. I was so excited that I finally placed!
I thought I would have to wait yet another season to head to Zionsville, until I heard about a new development from MAO. Many states were participating in a virtual competition, and Indiana had organized one at the very last minute. The following weekend after Sweeps, all of our paperwork was due. The next weekend would host live Zoom interviews and a virtual crowning. I was signed up to take the LSAT for the third time and thought I would not be able to participate. I am so thankful that the competition is spread out over two weekends!
To enter this virtual competition, you had to submit a 30-second introduction video and a 90-second talent video. All of the typical paperwork was submitted as well, like resume, platform statement, headshot, etc.
A few days before the pageant interviews, two titles were added on the the Miss Hoosier Hills virial competition due to the amount of candidates. I started to sike myself out. Thankfully, I had an afternoon Zoom interview on “pageant day” and gave myself plenty of time to prepare.
I found out right before the virtual crowning that there were 19 Miss candidates and I had interviewed last. I didn’t think I would even place, let alone win!
At the crowning Zoom meeting, they quickly announced a first runner-up and winner for the teen category. Just Miss Hoosier Hill’s OT was crowned as only five teen candidates had entered.
Then Miss first runner-up was announced, and I saw all of the girls who had competed that day on my screen. Unlike a typical pageant day, I had no idea who had competed. I saw some girls who had placed at numerous locals that season. I was sure that I didn’t place since they had only called a first runner-up prior to announcing three winners. The last title to be called was Miss Hoosier Hills. I heard Miss Indiana 2021, Braxton Hiser say my name. I was shocked!
I didn’t really believe she actually said it, until I saw three friends in the zoom meeting start to silently cry (since they were on mute). The meeting quickly ended and my phone was flooded with calls and text messages, truly sealing the deal that I had won.
This is was all at the end of March and Miss Indiana is always the second week of June. I knew I had a quick turn around and was in for a wild ride. Since Miss Indiana has come and gone, I feel like I can finally be Miss Hoosier Hills and start to get more involved in my community. I had little time to complete service, let alone actually prepare for state in two and a half months.
The 2023 local season has already started here in Indiana, but I’m not diving in just yet. I am soaking in my time as Miss Hoosier Hills after three years and 15 competitions later. I’ve connected with former Miss Hoosier Hills’ who have go on to become Miss Indiana, primarily in the 1980’s before this title was archived. I’ve meet so many incredible volunteers within the Miss Indiana Organization, and I got the best teen ever! We have been on quite a ride thus far and we still have eight months left on the job!
All my love,
Chloee Kline
Miss Hoosier Hills 2022
