Miss Georgia overcomes wardrobe malfunction to be pageant’s third ever Black winner
A wardrobe malfunction that threatened to wreck her performance in Saturday night’s 2022 Miss Georgia contest instead became a victorious metaphor for Kelsey Hollis, showing the growth in confidence she gained throughout the Miss Georgia Scholarship Competition.
Hollis won the $20,000 first prize at the finals in the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus.
She previously won the 2022 Miss Capital City pageant in Atlanta and was among the 53 candidates who qualified for the state competition. Next, she will prepare for the Miss America competition, which will be conducted at the Mohegan Sun resort in Connecticut on dates to be announced.
Hollis gave her first interview as the 2022 Miss Georgia with the Ledger-Enquirer on Sunday. She talked about her faith and how that helped her remain calm during the wardrobe snafu.
Kelsey Hollis background
Hollis, 22, was raised in Warner Robins. She graduated from Houston County High School in 2017. After attending Middle Georgia State University for her first year of college, she transferred to the University of Tennessee, where she majors in journalism and electronic media.
She plans to obtain a master’s degree in clinical psychology to become a sports psychologist, combining her passions for athletics and helping people.
Some of Hollis’ relatives were in the RiverCenter audience to watch her win: mother Talenthea (a special-education teacher at Perry Middle School), father Ralph (a systems analyst at Warner Robins Air Force Base), brother Jeremy, 24, grandfather Norman Cherry, aunt Aletha Cherry and cousins Caleb Cherry and Nandi Cherry.
“It’s an honor,” she said. “When I originally envisioned the moment, I felt like I was going to cry or have a really huge reaction. But I think when it actually happened, I kind of had that moment of realization how hard I worked to obtain this job and how much it means to me.”
Her brother having Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism spectrum disorder, inspired Hollis to make her social impact initiative “Autism Acceptance: A Platform for Change.”
Hollis has presented her education initiative “A-Cubed: Awareness, Acceptance and Advocacy” at approximately 15 schools. As a freshman in high school, she created an annual pageant in Warner Robins for girls with disabilities.
In 2014, Hollis founded the nonprofit organization TAABS (Teaching Autism Awareness By Siblings). Then she learned from Jeremy that education about autism must go beyond awareness. She recalled him telling her, “I don’t need people to be aware of me. I exist. I’m human. I would rather you accept me.”
Accepting imperfection, focusing on what she can control and remembering the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing have helped Hollis persevere through problems under pressure — such as during the Miss Georgia competition.
Faith foundation
Hollis’ parents met as choir members at the Warner Robins Air Force Base chapel. Her first public solo performance was singing in church on her fourth birthday.
“Having that anointing on my life throughout this whole journey has been so monumental,” she said. “It’s kept me grounded.”
Her relationship with God evolved from fabricated to authentic, Hollis said.
“I believed in God, and I knew He did amazing things,” she said. “But being on a level where I can literally sit down when I’m having a bad day and say, ‘God, I don’t know what to do right now, and I need your guidance’ — that’s not something I’ve been able to do until the past year and a half.”
An acronym she saw on social media helped her gain such an epiphany: TRUST (Total Reliance Upon Spiritual Timing).
“A lot of times we force things simply because of flesh desires,” she said. “… But I’m understanding that my purpose here is to capitalize on the gifts that God has given me and also to minister for Him.”
A cape snafu during the pageant
A prime example of Hollis walking that TRUST talk came Friday night during her talent portion of the Miss Georgia competition.
Her dress that night had a cape with snap-on cuffs. She practiced in the outfit all week without a problem.
In the middle of her performance, she inadvertently stepped on her cape. The cuff attached to her right wrist unsnapped and fell to the stage floor.
Fittingly, she was singing “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” by Whitney Houston. The wardrobe malfunction happened while Hollis sang this line:
“There were so many times, I
“Wondered how I’d get through the night, I
“Thought I took all I could take.”
Hollis explained how she remained calm despite the potential crisis.
“I had that moment of like, ‘I talk about my faith, and I actually need to live it,’” she said. “… I tried my best to not make it obvious.”
So she continued to sing as if nothing went wrong. And the selection panelists apparently agreed as Hollis won a $500 scholarship for first place in the talent portion of the competition.
“That was huge for me,” she said. “… I think it was God saying, ‘You’re fine. You don’t have to be perfect in order to still impact the lives of those who hear you sing and hear the message of what you’re trying to relay.’”
A similar wardrobe challenge
Hollis faced a similar challenge the day of her interview in the Miss Georgia competition. The dress she had planned to wear didn’t fit.
“The old Kelsey would have freaked out, and my mom would have caught the brunt end of that,” she said. “But I took a shower and cried a little bit, and I prayed. Then I called my mom.”
Hollis had enough time to go buy a new dress. Lo and behold, she felt she looked better in it. And again, the selection panelists apparently agreed as she won a $300 scholarship for first place in the on-stage interview/social impact pitch.
“Just being able to keep a level head through that whole experience,” she said. “It was a huge testament to how much I’ve grown and matured.”
Impactful even when imperfect is a mantra that Hollis takes from pageants into other parts of her life.
“When you’re introverted, it’s kind of a slippery slope to not being confident as well,” she said. “Just expanding myself to meeting new people and experiencing different things, … I was just able to grow into who God, I think, has created me to be, rather than trying to fit that expectation of who I felt like everyone around me expected me to be.”
The third Black contestant to win Miss Georgia
This is Hollis’ second state crown. She won the 2016 Miss Georgia’s Outstanding Teen competition and finished as the national second runner-up. In 2019, she finished as the Miss Georgia second runner-up. In 2021, she finished as the Miss Tennessee third runner-up.
“When I came into this journey, I promised myself that I was going to be genuine,” she said. “I was able to give my best self this week.”
Hollis is the third Black candidate to win the Miss Georgia competition in its 77-year history, following Chasity Hardman of Columbus in 2008 and Danica Tisdale of Atlanta in 2004. Three of this year’s top five finalists are Black, including sisters A’Leah and Taylor Burrell of Tyrone.
“It’s just so special,” Hollis said, “and to be the one to represent our state, it’s just such an honor. … It all comes down to just giving people inspiration to know that this is something we can obtain and we do deserve a seat at the table.”
This story was originally published June 20, 2022 at 10:43 AM.
