Columbus sisters overcome hardships to represent hometown at Miss Georgia competition
As her two daughters prepared for this week’s Miss Georgia Scholarship Competition, Paige Middleton thought about what it will feel like to watch them on stage representing their hometown — in their hometown — at this prestigious event.
“It’s going to be great just to see them up there together, doing what they love,” Middleton told the Ledger-Enquirer. “They’re there for each other. … To watch them shine in their own way, my heart might explode.”
Elise and Jillian Higgins are two of the 53 candidates vying June 15-18 to become Miss Georgia, a one-year job with lifelong impact.
The Ledger-Enquirer featured the Higgins sisters in 2017, when they won local titles to qualify for the Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen competition. They will be back on the Bill Heard Theatre stage this week at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus after winning more local titles to qualifying for the Miss Georgia competition.
Elise, 22, is the 2022 Miss Columbus. She’s a rising fifth-year senior at Columbus State University, majoring in kinesiology . Her career goal is to become the head coach of a college cheerleading team and the athletics director of an NCAA Division I program.
Jillian, 19, is the 2022 Miss Greater Columbus. She’s a rising junior at Georgia Southern University, majoring in psychology. Her career goal is to be a pediatric psychiatrist.
They attended Clubview Elementary School and Richards Middle School and graduated from Columbus High School.
Competing with her sister in Miss Georgia in their hometown and representing their hometown, Jillian said, “truly is incredible.”
Elise called it “the best feeling in the world.”
Being on the RiverCenter stage will be surreal, Jillian expects, because they’ve yearned and worked for this moment for so long.
“Finally seeing it all come to life is going to be amazing,” Jillian said. “I’m sure there will be moments where we look at each other across the stage and give each other a certain little eye or a certain little look.”
From being bullied to combating it
They’ve persevered through being victims of bullying to speaking against bullying during a visit with students in grades 4-5 at Johnson Elementary School, where Middleton is a kindergarten teacher’s aide.
“To hear them say to the kids what I taught them and how they should be, I was like, ‘OK, I did something right,’” Middleton said.
Jillian said she was “bullied very badly” about her eye twitch in grades 5-7 — to the point of begging her mother to let her stay home from school.
“A lot of times people are bullied for things they can’t control, which is so sad,” Jillian said.
Doctors told her it was just a nervous twitch due to anxiety. She grew out of it.
“The Miss America Organization has so much to do with that,” Jillian said. “I became comfortable with who I was. I became confident in who I am.”
From local titles to state competition
They’ve been competing in pageants since Jillian was 7 and Elise was 13, which is the minimum age to compete in the Miss America Organization. Jillian and Elise have qualified for the state competition six times each by winning local titles, but this is Jillian’s debut in the Miss Georgia division because age 18 or a senior year in high school is the oldest a candidate can be in the teen division.
Jillian internalized the Miss America Organization crown’s four points: symbolizing service, style, success and scholarship.
“Those four words are truly a way I live now,” Jillian said. “… I never thought that at such a young age I would be an advocate for a disease that takes the lives of so many.”
After her grandfather died from Alzheimer’s 11 years ago, Jillian made awareness about the disease her platform.
“He was 100% my favorite man I ever met,” she said. “Being on the other side of Alzheimer’s as a caregiver, I truly saw the battle they go through. These patients not only lose their memory, but they lose their dignity as well.”
As few years ago, Jillian dyed a fountain in downtown Columbus purple during the month of June for Alzheimer’s awareness. She also went to the state capitol to lobby legislators. For the past four years, she has helped raise more than $300,000 to combat Alzheimer’s with the Dancing Stars of Columbus event.
“Through the Miss America Organization,” she said, “I’m able to make connections.”
Elise’s platform is about combating abuse in athletics and improving representation of female athletes. The abuse wasn’t physical but verbal and emotional, Elise said. Coaches have accused her of faking injury, called her a “dumb b----,” and told her she needed to lose weight.
She hosts live weekly sessions on Instagram, where she interviews female athletes and coaches about what they do to be a positive role model.
“I have had amazing coaches, and I have had abusive coaches,” Elise said. “… I want young girls and males to know that you can stand up for what you believe in and it’s not OK to take abuse in athletics. There’s so many other young women who go through the same thing, and they’re just too scared to speak up about it.”
Elise’s talent for the competition is tap dancing to “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. Jillian’s talent for the competition is lyrical dance to the song “Human” by Christina Perri.
Scholarships and cost of competing in Miss Georgia
Combined, the Higgins sisters estimate they have received approximately $12,000 in scholarships for their success in these competitions to help pay for college.
“I’ll never be able to say enough what the Miss America Organization has done for me and my education,” Jillian said.
This year’s Miss Georgia competition will award more than $70,000 in scholarships, including $20,000 to the winner.
Middleton praised the MAO for helping her daughters blossom into gracious and confident women.
“I would tell anybody to give it a shot,” she said. “You don’t have to have a ton of money. You don’t have to have the most expensive dress. If nothing else, you gain friends for a lifetime.”
For her daughters to participate in these competitions, Middleton has spent as much as $10,000 and as little as $2,000 per year. Elise and Jillian work part-time jobs to help pay for the expenses.
“It doesn’t matter what you look like,” Elise said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from. Ultimately, the judges pick the person they think is best for that job on that given day. So it could be anyone from any walk of life.”
Sisters and friends, thanks to their mom
Jillian described Elise as dedicated, bighearted and selfless.
“Watching someone literally glow, it’s amazing,” Jillian said. “And that’s my sister. She’s grown up to be so proud of who she is, and I’m proud of her too.”
Elise described Jillian as “very charismatic. She is crazy, but in a good way, super outgoing and just has the biggest heart and wants to help as many people as she can.”
Sure, they bicker about clothes and hairbrushes sometimes, but those ephemeral hurt feelings are overpowered by the eternal joy they give each other.
“We’re there for those brutally honest moments, but we’re also there to love on each other,” Jillian said.
Competing with her sister, Elise said, “It’s been a lot of fun. We’re each other’s biggest supporters. … Back stage, if something happens, I know that she’s always going to be the first person to come running to check on me. Or she’s always going to be the first person that’s there for me when I come off the stage, and vice versa.”
The competition doesn’t detract from their relationship because they consider themselves competing with each other, not against each other, as they support each other at home, at practices and backstage.
“That’s all my mom,” Jillian said. “Without a role model like that, I don’t think we’d have the relationship we do, and I don’t think we’d be the people we are.”
Being raised by a single mother, Jillian said, “always is something hard to go through, having that one-parent household. But it made me stronger.”
Regardless of who wins, Jillian said, “I think we’ve both grown up strong enough in ourselves and also in our faith to know that everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for the both of us at the right timing as well.”
2022 MISS GEORGIA CANDIDATES WITH LOCAL CONNECTIONS
Columbus residents
- Miss Augusta University Chelsea Paulding
- Miss Broadway Mae’Kala McCoy
- Miss Columbus Elise Higgins
- Miss Columbus State University Tori Svenson
- Miss Greater Columbus Jillian Higgins
- Miss Magnolia Safiyyah Abdullah
- Miss Middle West Georgia Jessica Roberts
- Miss Troup County Haley Taghon
- Miss Columbus Outstanding Teen Trinity Bledsoe
- Miss Greater Columbus Outstanding Teen Riley Wolfe Rach.
Columbus area residents
- Miss West Georgia Kaleigh Griswell of Ellerslie
- Miss Harris County Camille Tyler of Hamilton
- Miss Hamilton on the Square Elizabeth Whitten of Pine Mountain
- Miss Harris County Outstanding Teen Jenna Kinsaul of Fortson
- Miss Hamilton on the Square Outstanding Teen Dakota Hubbard of Shiloh
- Miss Capital City Outstanding Teen Charley Key of LaGrange.
