Mailyn Marsh-Miss Teen USA 2025
Who will succeed Missouri's Mailyn Marsh and be the teen queen for 2026?
An interesting change is occurring this year with the new Miss Teen USA chosen for 2026 is going to compete for the 2026 Miss Teen Universe title (not affiliated with the Miss Universe pageant). Miss Teen Universe 2026 is scheduled to take place from October 19 to 26, 2026, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. What will be interesting is that Miss Teen USA 2025, Missouri's Mailyn Marsh will also be competing for the 2026 Miss Teen Universe title but Mailyn apparently has Hungarian roots and will be representing Hungary during the 2026 Miss Teen Universe pageant competing with whoever is crowned Miss Teen USA 2026.
This is all reminiscent of when in the early years of Miss Teen USA, if she met the age requirement, she would go on to compete for Miss USA. The first Miss Teen USA, New York's Ruth Zakarian (crowned in 1983) competed for Miss USA 1984 alongside Miss Teen USA 1984, Illinois' Cherise Haugen. Neither of them placed but Cherise had the higher preliminary swimsuit score (8.288) vs. Ruth's score (8.120) and Miss Teen USA 1986, Oklahoma's Allison Brown would compete for Miss USA 1987 also going unplaced with a preliminary swimsuit score of 8.187. Other Miss Teen USA winners have tried for Miss USA. Miss Teen USA 1985, Hawaii's Kelly Ann Hu competed representing Hawaii for Miss USA 1993 finishing in 4th place. Miss Teen USA 1989, Idaho's Brandi Sherwood competed representing Idaho for Miss USA 1997 and finished as 1st runner up but inherited the Miss USA crown when 1997's Miss USA winner, Hawaii's Brook Lee went on to win Miss Universe 1997. Miss Teen USA 1992, Iowa's Jamie Solinger competed representing Iowa for Miss USA 1998 but did not place. Miss Teen USA 1994, California's Shauna Gambill competed representing California for Miss USA 1998 and finished as 1st runner up to Massachusetts' Shawnae Jebbia but Shauna would be appointed to represented the USA at Miss World 1998 and finished in the top 10. Miss Teen USA 1996, Texas' Christie Lee Woods attempted 3 times to win Miss Texas USA with her best finish being 3rd runner up at Miss Texas USA 2002. Miss Teen USA 1999, Delaware's Ashley Coleman competed for Miss California USA 2006 but finished 3rd runner up. Miss Teen USA 2003, Oregon's Tami Farrell competed for Miss California USA 2009 but finished as 1st runner up to Carrie Prejean who was later dethroned and Tami inherited the title of Miss California USA 2009. Miss Teen USA 2006, Montana's Katie Blair competed for Miss California USA 2011 but finished as 1st runner up to Alyssa Campanella who went on to win Miss USA 2011 and Katie then inherited the title of Miss California USA 2011. Miss Teen USA 2011, Texas' Danielle Doty competed for Miss Texas USA 2018 but placed among the top 18.
Watch Miss Teen USA 2026 on the CW network on August 26 at 5 p.m.(Pacific Standard Time)/8 p.m.(Eastern Standard Time)!
Preliminaries are on August 25 at 2 p.m. (Pacific Time), then the big day for the Miss Teen USA 2026 crowning is August 26 and the pageant will be held for the ninth time as a concurrent event just prior to the 2026 Miss USA pageant being held on August 27 in Miami, Florida.
I will post my final predictions for Miss Teen USA 2026 on the morning of August 26 after analyzing preliminaries on August 25 and we will find out later that day, who wins the crown!