My MAO Journey - A Blog Series By Hannah Roque (Part 1 - Taking the Leap)

This is the first in a four-part guest blog series by Hannah Roque discussing her MAO journey. You can find part two here. I  am honored to be able to present them, and hope you'll read and share them all. -S36F

Hello everyone! My name is Hannah Roque, and I’m back at Section 36! I’m currently in the competition off-season, but I’ve been reflecting a lot on my experience on the Miss Vermont 2023 stage, and my overall journey as a delegate competing in the Miss America Opportunity. While my journey to the Miss Vermont stage may look very standard from the outside, it’s been a long and complicated ride. Yes, I watched the Miss America competition on TV religiously each year, but my journey has been slightly more unconventional than most. When I first competed in 2019, I absolutely fell in love and knew I would come back to the Miss Vermont stage. That being said, after a global pandemic and many big shifts in my life, I returned to compete nearly three years later, in 2022. 

Those of you who know me know that my mom was Miss Vermont 1996. Because of her, I grew up loving and adoring Miss America - I went to my first Miss America state competition when I was 3 weeks old! Growing up, my mom and I went to as many Miss Vermont state competitions as we could, so I have dreamed of competing since I was little. Each year as a teenager, I toyed with the idea of competing for Miss Vermont’s Teen, and when I turned 18, I considered competing for Miss Vermont. It wasn’t until I watched the 2018 competition, that I made a promise to myself that I would compete the next year. The idea of competing in swimsuit had always held me back; I felt uncomfortable walking onstage in a swimsuit and facing the pressure to make my body conform to the “standard” swimsuit body type. That being said, despite my anxieties about the swimsuit phase of competition, I knew that I would always regret it if I didn’t take the jump and compete. 

I jumped into my first year competing wholeheartedly. My sophomore year of college brought a lot of challenges; I was struggling to find friends that I connected with on campus, I didn’t really know what I wanted to pursue academically, and my stepdad had his first major stroke. There were so many changes happening that my life felt very up in the air, so I utilized my goal of competing as something to ground me. I dedicated myself to preparing and taking every opportunity to grow; I went to every workshop, tried to make friends with the other girls competing, and focused on having fun above all else. Though I wanted to win, I went in wanting to learn as much as I could and enjoy the process; having this mindset helped me because I never felt any external pressure to perform well onstage. I’ve done a lot of reflection since this first year, and I see how much I’ve grown as a person, as a change maker, and as a delegate in the Miss America Opportunity. I am so proud of my 20 year old self for taking the leap, but I also see that I was not my most authentic self, because I was caught up in who I thought Miss Vermont should be, rather than who I would be as Miss Vermont. I learned so many valuable lessons, and was so excited to continue my journey.