THOUGHTS OF MISS TEEN USA
2021
Breanna Myles of Florida is Miss Teen USA 2021!
Interestingly enough, all of the top 5 had never hit their respective positions in the list of Who Has the Most Miss Teen USAs? For example, Florida had never won before, District of Columbia had never been 1st runner up, Texas had never been 2nd runner up, Pennsylvania had never been 3rd runner up and Utah had never been 4th runner up! It's almost as if they took pity of some of the underdog states (or cities, in DC's case) and wanted to shake things up this year. And shake they did... Lots of favorites were left out and I really tried to look at bios and find the delegates that were the best overall but then surprises were to be expected as is often the case at Miss Teen USA. I will say last year was more sensibly judged though and I still think my list is better...
Breanna is Florida's first Miss Teen USA winner and this proud Afro-Latina won the national title at age 18. She was born in Kentucky to a Dominican mother and African-American father, and moved to Florida at age seven. Raised in Port St. Lucie, Florida, she graduated from high school in 2021, with a dual enrollment associate degree from Indian River State College. She attends Florida State University studying computer science and musical theatre with ambitions of becoming a software engineer.
The opening number set to Katy Perry’s ‘Smile’ had some great choreography courtesy of the experienced Kent Gregory Parham featuring the delegates with the reigning Miss Teen USA in outfits that had a fun, unique take on the whole schoolgirl uniform look. The hosts were Kalani Hilliker and Nicole Adamo. Kalani’s hosting was disastrous. Everything from the cleavage-bearing outfit that probably wouldn’t be deemed Teen appropriate to the multiple mispronounced words throughout the night like ‘diplomacy’ almost pronounced phonetically like dip-loh-mah-cee or saying ‘mythologist’ instead of ‘Methodist’ and even some noticeably incomplete sentences. Maybe the lighting wasn’t great where she was reading her cards or the prompter went too fast but it was cringeworthy. Nicole co-hosted the preliminaries with the reigning titleholders and she got a bit of experience there but perhaps needed a bit more.
In terms of my predictions, I picked 9 of the top 16 plus 1 alternate (Florida who won), 1 honorable mention (Mississippi). The 5 ladies I missed were: District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin and Wyoming. My 7 picks that didn't place were: Tennessee (huge shock exclusion but probably needed a better gown? She was also the first Asian Miss Tennessee Teen USA but I guess while more black delegates have enjoyed success in recent years, I find other visible minorities tend to get overlooked), Michigan (the daughter of Miss Michigan Teen USA 1999 and top 5 finalist at Miss Teen USA 1999-Sara Dusendang-Moylan who was so fun and good-spirited but took a risk wearing a watermelon-esque gown. It gave me a watermelon sugar high… and I wanted more berries!!), Delaware (who had an amazing body and gown), Hawaii (also had an amazing gown and very bright), Alabama (a great overall candidate with a very nice look, a Disney-esque gown and an achieved lady who completed her junior and senior year simultaneously to graduate with honors a year early and managed to obtain 29 college credits through dual enrollment courses while in high school. She attends the University of Alabama at Birmingham double majoring in political science and Spanish aiming to become an attorney to focus on human rights and immigration law inspired by her two adopted brothers from Honduras adopted by Dailyn's parents seeing the struggle of the immigration process), Indiana (who won the Photogenic award and was also bright was a 4.31 GPA and won her state title on her first try), Oklahoma (the host delegate who looked very teen with her short blonde hair and petite figure and had a great gown). This year's congeniality award went to Nebraska's Daisy Sudderth. The winner of the fan vote was Georgia's Liza Greenberg (who was also my pick to win). The photogenic award went to Indiana's Lexi Gryszowka. The top 3 of the state costume competition were: Utah, New Mexico and Washington.
ACTUAL TOP 16: |
MY PREDICTIONS: |
Winner=Florida-Breanna Myles |
Winner=Georgia-Liza Greenberg* |
1st Runner Up=District of Columbia-Hannah Gilliard |
1st Runner Up=South Carolina-Augusta Roach* |
2nd Runner Up=Texas-Landry Davis |
2nd Runner Up=Tennessee-Annie Zhao |
3rd Runner Up=Pennsylvania-Yvonne Burke |
3rd Runner Up=Louisiana-Gracie Petry* |
4th Runner Up=Utah-Ayzjiahna Wood |
4th Runner Up=Michigan-Jada Moylan |
SEMIFINALISTS (alpha'l): |
SEMIFINALISTS: |
California-Cameron Doan |
California-Cameron Doan* |
Georgia-Liza Greenberg |
Delaware-Sky Knox |
Iowa-Angel Strong |
Hawaii-Tia Bustamante |
Louisiana-Gracie Petry |
Iowa-Angel Strong* |
Maryland-Maria Derisavi |
Maryland-Maria Derisavi* |
Mississippi-Mattie Grace Morris |
Texas-Landry Davis* |
Missouri-Anna Long |
Alabama-Dailyn Swann |
Nebraska-Daisy Sudderth |
Indiana-Lexi Gryszowka |
South Carolina-Augusta Roach |
Oklahoma-Hunter Gorton |
Wisconsin-Shreya Gundelly |
Nebraska-Daisy Sudderth* |
Wyoming-Teryn Thatcher |
Utah-Ayzjiahna Wood* |
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ALTERNATES: Nevada, Florida*, Ohio, New Hampshire, Illinois |
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HONORABLE MENTIONS: Mississippi*, Virginia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Alaska |
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* = made actual top 16 |
The Prethoughts - Miss Teen USA 2021
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Some photos courtesy Miss Universe L.P., LLLP