maybe okay there we go there we go now
the Mike thought well my name is Grace
and as you heard I’m missing a C I will
give up my crown actually in just a few
months but I am really excited to be
here first of all I do want to apologize
for my voice and my stuffy nose I’ve
been a little bit sick but I am just
pushing right through and I’m excited to
be here
you know TED talks are kind of what
provided me encouragement every day and
got me through my college years so this
is a very surreal moment for me to have
the opportunity to be up here in this
red carpet circle right now I want to
talk to you guys about a few different
things today I want to start off with
talking about something a topic that I
feel like we’re all pretty familiar with
and that is stereotypes everybody know
what a stereotype is yeah I think it’s
kind of us humans in our DNA to judge a
book by its cover we judge people based
on their race their ethnicity by titles
that they holds by their backgrounds by
their socio-economic association we
judge them it’s just natural but I take
on a lot of roles as Miss Tennessee I do
and you heard just a few of them you can
google and you’ll see that I’m the
spokesperson for character education I
am the goodwill ambassador for
Children’s Miracle Network across our
state
I hold all of these titles but when I
came into the position of Miss Tennessee
I didn’t realize all of the roles and
responsibilities that I would be taking
on now run one role that I chose that I
kind of put upon myself was that to
strive to break down the stereotypes of
pageantry of pageant girls because what
do you think about when you hear Miss
Tennessee or when you hear pageant girl
Miss America anything anybody want to
suggest what are what are some things
you hear some things you think maybe you
think hair and makeup right maybe you
think wealthy family maybe you think
spoiled brat maybe you think not very
intelligent maybe you think mean girl
maybe you think all of these things
maybe you think self-obsessed
what’s my job I feel like is Miss
Tennessee to break down those
stereotypes because I don’t feel like
any of those were true for me now I
didn’t grow up competing in pageants I
also didn’t grow up in a wealthy family
I am from right here in the Memphis area
I’m from Bartlett Tennessee I am the
middle sister of three girls my father
is a plumber my mother is a nurse at one
point my father tried to start his own
business and failed and we were going on
just my mom’s salary for a couple years
so I by no means came from a wealthy
family I’m very much middle-class
homegrown girl I went to Bartlett high
school I was always very involved in
high school and it wasn’t until I was in
high school my freshman or sophomore
year that I decided that I wanted to
compete in a pageant now I didn’t want
to compete in the pageant because of the
fame that’s associated with it I wanted
to compete in the pageant because of the
job the job that’s associated with Miss
Tennessee now I told you guys about a
few different roles that I take on and a
couple that I didn’t expect another one
that I didn’t expect to take on was the
role of this mystical magical imaginary
creature that lives in a child’s brain
sounds a little weird right but as my
ears Miss Tennessee I travel over 80
thousand miles and speak to over 50,000
students about a character trait of my
choice and we’ll get to that in a minute
but first of all I want to tell you
about how when I walk into a room is
grace kids will listen to me I have a
passion for children I love children I’m
not afraid to get down on my knees to
play with them to talk to them and make
them feel comfortable but when I walk in
as Miss Tennessee these kids see me as
this magical fairy princess that they
can tell anything to they don’t see me
as grace they don’t see me as an adult
they don’t see me as a friend or a
student a fellow student they see me as
this magical imaginary figure and I’ve
learned to really play that up this year
majority of the schools that I go into
are low-income schools I don’t know
which kids are going home
you foster families I don’t know which
kids are going home to people who never
tell them I love you or you’re special
or you’re capable I don’t know if I’m
going into a classroom with children who
will go home and not have dinner or not
wake up and eat breakfast in the morning
but when I walk in as Miss Ennis II they
listen to me they’re like sponges they
soak up everything that I say
there was actually a Miss Tennessee a
couple years ago that went into a school
and was getting to have some one-on-one
time with the children and uh I don’t
know if it was a little boy or a little
girl but they told her that they were
being abused at home they didn’t choose
to tell their teacher they didn’t choose
to tell a classmate or a friend this had
been an ongoing situation but they chose
to tell Miss Tennessee and I think a lot
of times people don’t realize the weight
that comes along with this tool this is
my tool my crown is my tool I think a
lot of times we think of Miss Tennessee
and this crown as being superficial and
that’s not true in my case and that
example of a child pouring out their
heart to this like I said mystical
creature of Princess Land Miss Tennessee
it made a big difference in their life I
feel silly sometimes walking into a room
full of adults in a crown and sash
pretending to be a princess I feel silly
sometimes to think that I took off a
full year of school and work and pause
my life to be a princess for a year but
then I realized just how important this
tool is in the lives of the children
that I get to touch and deaths that’s
what makes all the difference and then
all of that silliness in my mind it goes
away okay so going back I want to talk
to you guys about what I speak to my
kids on my school visits I speak to them
about perseverance I had the choice to
choose any character trait that I wanted
to focus on throughout my school tour
and I chose perseverance for a lot of
reasons in thinking it kind of seemed
like the most common theme throughout my
life so I set two goals for myself
growing up
I set my first goal to go to college and
to be able to graduate and not have
thousands of dollars of loans and debts
holding me down when I was trying to
start my career I knew that my parents
wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for me
and both my sisters to go to a four-year
university so I made the most
financially responsible decision to stay
and go to the University of Memphis
which I do not regret I’m proud to be a
tiger got any Tiger fans in here by the
way there we go okay yeah so I did that
because it was financially the most
responsible thing to do for my family I
also sought out scholarship
opportunities and one of them was the
Miss America Organization throughout the
three years that I’ve competed for Miss
Tennessee and competing at Miss America
I’ve earned over 39 thousand dollars in
scholarship money so my school is paid
for that wasn’t an easy road though it
wasn’t an easy process and when I set
the goal to be Miss Tennessee my second
goal I didn’t expect it to be easy
either a lot of times people think it’s
all about having a nice dress and a semi
okay talent and a good body and that’s
how you win Miss Tennessee but what they
don’t know is all of the community
service work that goes into it for seven
years I developed my platform of
childhood literacy and worked hard and I
tried my best to live the job of Miss
Tennessee on the local level because it
is a job it’s a full-time job
being mrs. Tennessee is a full-time job
and a lot of people don’t know that so I
worked really really hard so that I
could do my best to know the job to be
independent to have an impressive resume
for the judges and I go my very first
year at Miss Tennessee and I didn’t make
the top 15
so what did I do I picked myself back up
and I said okay you got this so I worked
harder than I’d ever thought in my I had
worked in my entire life and I came in
first runner up my second year I’m a
Tennessee now I want you to raise your
hand if you have ever set a goal for
yourself worked really hard felt like
you did everything right and then fallen
just short of it yeah and if that hasn’t
happened to you I promise you it will
happen to you at some point in your life
now I was very proud of myself my family
was proud of myself proud of me for
reaching that goal of first runner-up
but I still felt like I failed because I
didn’t get what I sought out for so from
there I made the decision after my
parents told me that we probably
wouldn’t be able to afford it
that I should maybe take a year off I
wouldn’t be able to buy a new wardrobe
or anything like that because my sister
was getting married it was probably best
for me to just sit out a year but I said
no I didn’t want to sit out a year I
wanted to keep pushing so I persevered
every paycheck that I earned went to
vocal lessons I wore the exact same
wardrobe that I wore the year before
which is a no-no in pageant land just
like it’s a no-no to wear the same dress
two years in a row to prom but I broke
that because it was something that it
was important to me because of the job
because of the job because of the chance
and the opportunity to reach children
all across our state
I pushed I persevered and my third year
of competing I was very very blessed and
honored to receive the job that I’ve
been working so hard for for seven years
I became Miss Tennessee and I thought oh
my goodness this is it this is the easy
part not just to go on no this year I
have learned more about myself than I
thought that I ever could I’ve also
learned so much about our state and
about all of the incredible people that
are interstate and I’ve also had the
opportunity to share my story of
perseverance with children across our
state because I think it’s important to
have perseverance or what I like to call
it grit I think it’s important to have
grit
whether you’re three years old 35 years
old or 95 years old it’s important that
when you’re setting goals for yourself
that you’re working hard and you don’t
let people bring you down so when I talk
to kids of all ages I made up an acronym
for the word grit I’ll start with G G
sands forgive it you’re all in any
situation that you’re in whether your
goal is to make an a on a test or your
goal is to grow up and be a rocket
scientist you don’t want to walk away
and say man I wish I’d tried a little
harder so I encourage kids to give it
your all give it all your effort no
matter what our stands for reach high
okay when we’re younger we have this
mentality of invincibility that we can
accomplish any goal that we want we can
grow up and be whatever we want even if
it isn’t really possible I know for a
long time I wanted to grow up and be a
superhero you know these are things that
we really truly believe and then as we
get older we kind of start to let
reality weigh on us and we don’t think
that we’re capable of reaching those
goals but I don’t think we should do
that I think that we should keep pushing
dream big reach high i stands for ignore
negatives now I want you to raise your
hand if you’ve ever been told that
you’re not smart enough cool enough
pretty enough fun enough nice enough
strong enough to do something anyone
been told that before yeah people will
continue to try and bring you down but I
think that we have a choice we have a
choice too
I learned that grit and perseverance
were very prominent in my life but
throughout this year speaking to
children not pre-k children if you think
if you believe in yourself and you
ignore those negativities you don’t let
other people drag you down and your
persevere you persevere through life’s
adversities you can reach your goals
thank you all so much for having me
today
the Mike thought well my name is Grace
and as you heard I’m missing a C I will
give up my crown actually in just a few
months but I am really excited to be
here first of all I do want to apologize
for my voice and my stuffy nose I’ve
been a little bit sick but I am just
pushing right through and I’m excited to
be here
you know TED talks are kind of what
provided me encouragement every day and
got me through my college years so this
is a very surreal moment for me to have
the opportunity to be up here in this
red carpet circle right now I want to
talk to you guys about a few different
things today I want to start off with
talking about something a topic that I
feel like we’re all pretty familiar with
and that is stereotypes everybody know
what a stereotype is yeah I think it’s
kind of us humans in our DNA to judge a
book by its cover we judge people based
on their race their ethnicity by titles
that they holds by their backgrounds by
their socio-economic association we
judge them it’s just natural but I take
on a lot of roles as Miss Tennessee I do
and you heard just a few of them you can
google and you’ll see that I’m the
spokesperson for character education I
am the goodwill ambassador for
Children’s Miracle Network across our
state
I hold all of these titles but when I
came into the position of Miss Tennessee
I didn’t realize all of the roles and
responsibilities that I would be taking
on now run one role that I chose that I
kind of put upon myself was that to
strive to break down the stereotypes of
pageantry of pageant girls because what
do you think about when you hear Miss
Tennessee or when you hear pageant girl
Miss America anything anybody want to
suggest what are what are some things
you hear some things you think maybe you
think hair and makeup right maybe you
think wealthy family maybe you think
spoiled brat maybe you think not very
intelligent maybe you think mean girl
maybe you think all of these things
maybe you think self-obsessed
what’s my job I feel like is Miss
Tennessee to break down those
stereotypes because I don’t feel like
any of those were true for me now I
didn’t grow up competing in pageants I
also didn’t grow up in a wealthy family
I am from right here in the Memphis area
I’m from Bartlett Tennessee I am the
middle sister of three girls my father
is a plumber my mother is a nurse at one
point my father tried to start his own
business and failed and we were going on
just my mom’s salary for a couple years
so I by no means came from a wealthy
family I’m very much middle-class
homegrown girl I went to Bartlett high
school I was always very involved in
high school and it wasn’t until I was in
high school my freshman or sophomore
year that I decided that I wanted to
compete in a pageant now I didn’t want
to compete in the pageant because of the
fame that’s associated with it I wanted
to compete in the pageant because of the
job the job that’s associated with Miss
Tennessee now I told you guys about a
few different roles that I take on and a
couple that I didn’t expect another one
that I didn’t expect to take on was the
role of this mystical magical imaginary
creature that lives in a child’s brain
sounds a little weird right but as my
ears Miss Tennessee I travel over 80
thousand miles and speak to over 50,000
students about a character trait of my
choice and we’ll get to that in a minute
but first of all I want to tell you
about how when I walk into a room is
grace kids will listen to me I have a
passion for children I love children I’m
not afraid to get down on my knees to
play with them to talk to them and make
them feel comfortable but when I walk in
as Miss Tennessee these kids see me as
this magical fairy princess that they
can tell anything to they don’t see me
as grace they don’t see me as an adult
they don’t see me as a friend or a
student a fellow student they see me as
this magical imaginary figure and I’ve
learned to really play that up this year
majority of the schools that I go into
are low-income schools I don’t know
which kids are going home
you foster families I don’t know which
kids are going home to people who never
tell them I love you or you’re special
or you’re capable I don’t know if I’m
going into a classroom with children who
will go home and not have dinner or not
wake up and eat breakfast in the morning
but when I walk in as Miss Ennis II they
listen to me they’re like sponges they
soak up everything that I say
there was actually a Miss Tennessee a
couple years ago that went into a school
and was getting to have some one-on-one
time with the children and uh I don’t
know if it was a little boy or a little
girl but they told her that they were
being abused at home they didn’t choose
to tell their teacher they didn’t choose
to tell a classmate or a friend this had
been an ongoing situation but they chose
to tell Miss Tennessee and I think a lot
of times people don’t realize the weight
that comes along with this tool this is
my tool my crown is my tool I think a
lot of times we think of Miss Tennessee
and this crown as being superficial and
that’s not true in my case and that
example of a child pouring out their
heart to this like I said mystical
creature of Princess Land Miss Tennessee
it made a big difference in their life I
feel silly sometimes walking into a room
full of adults in a crown and sash
pretending to be a princess I feel silly
sometimes to think that I took off a
full year of school and work and pause
my life to be a princess for a year but
then I realized just how important this
tool is in the lives of the children
that I get to touch and deaths that’s
what makes all the difference and then
all of that silliness in my mind it goes
away okay so going back I want to talk
to you guys about what I speak to my
kids on my school visits I speak to them
about perseverance I had the choice to
choose any character trait that I wanted
to focus on throughout my school tour
and I chose perseverance for a lot of
reasons in thinking it kind of seemed
like the most common theme throughout my
life so I set two goals for myself
growing up
I set my first goal to go to college and
to be able to graduate and not have
thousands of dollars of loans and debts
holding me down when I was trying to
start my career I knew that my parents
wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for me
and both my sisters to go to a four-year
university so I made the most
financially responsible decision to stay
and go to the University of Memphis
which I do not regret I’m proud to be a
tiger got any Tiger fans in here by the
way there we go okay yeah so I did that
because it was financially the most
responsible thing to do for my family I
also sought out scholarship
opportunities and one of them was the
Miss America Organization throughout the
three years that I’ve competed for Miss
Tennessee and competing at Miss America
I’ve earned over 39 thousand dollars in
scholarship money so my school is paid
for that wasn’t an easy road though it
wasn’t an easy process and when I set
the goal to be Miss Tennessee my second
goal I didn’t expect it to be easy
either a lot of times people think it’s
all about having a nice dress and a semi
okay talent and a good body and that’s
how you win Miss Tennessee but what they
don’t know is all of the community
service work that goes into it for seven
years I developed my platform of
childhood literacy and worked hard and I
tried my best to live the job of Miss
Tennessee on the local level because it
is a job it’s a full-time job
being mrs. Tennessee is a full-time job
and a lot of people don’t know that so I
worked really really hard so that I
could do my best to know the job to be
independent to have an impressive resume
for the judges and I go my very first
year at Miss Tennessee and I didn’t make
the top 15
so what did I do I picked myself back up
and I said okay you got this so I worked
harder than I’d ever thought in my I had
worked in my entire life and I came in
first runner up my second year I’m a
Tennessee now I want you to raise your
hand if you have ever set a goal for
yourself worked really hard felt like
you did everything right and then fallen
just short of it yeah and if that hasn’t
happened to you I promise you it will
happen to you at some point in your life
now I was very proud of myself my family
was proud of myself proud of me for
reaching that goal of first runner-up
but I still felt like I failed because I
didn’t get what I sought out for so from
there I made the decision after my
parents told me that we probably
wouldn’t be able to afford it
that I should maybe take a year off I
wouldn’t be able to buy a new wardrobe
or anything like that because my sister
was getting married it was probably best
for me to just sit out a year but I said
no I didn’t want to sit out a year I
wanted to keep pushing so I persevered
every paycheck that I earned went to
vocal lessons I wore the exact same
wardrobe that I wore the year before
which is a no-no in pageant land just
like it’s a no-no to wear the same dress
two years in a row to prom but I broke
that because it was something that it
was important to me because of the job
because of the job because of the chance
and the opportunity to reach children
all across our state
I pushed I persevered and my third year
of competing I was very very blessed and
honored to receive the job that I’ve
been working so hard for for seven years
I became Miss Tennessee and I thought oh
my goodness this is it this is the easy
part not just to go on no this year I
have learned more about myself than I
thought that I ever could I’ve also
learned so much about our state and
about all of the incredible people that
are interstate and I’ve also had the
opportunity to share my story of
perseverance with children across our
state because I think it’s important to
have perseverance or what I like to call
it grit I think it’s important to have
grit
whether you’re three years old 35 years
old or 95 years old it’s important that
when you’re setting goals for yourself
that you’re working hard and you don’t
let people bring you down so when I talk
to kids of all ages I made up an acronym
for the word grit I’ll start with G G
sands forgive it you’re all in any
situation that you’re in whether your
goal is to make an a on a test or your
goal is to grow up and be a rocket
scientist you don’t want to walk away
and say man I wish I’d tried a little
harder so I encourage kids to give it
your all give it all your effort no
matter what our stands for reach high
okay when we’re younger we have this
mentality of invincibility that we can
accomplish any goal that we want we can
grow up and be whatever we want even if
it isn’t really possible I know for a
long time I wanted to grow up and be a
superhero you know these are things that
we really truly believe and then as we
get older we kind of start to let
reality weigh on us and we don’t think
that we’re capable of reaching those
goals but I don’t think we should do
that I think that we should keep pushing
dream big reach high i stands for ignore
negatives now I want you to raise your
hand if you’ve ever been told that
you’re not smart enough cool enough
pretty enough fun enough nice enough
strong enough to do something anyone
been told that before yeah people will
continue to try and bring you down but I
think that we have a choice we have a
choice too
I learned that grit and perseverance
were very prominent in my life but
throughout this year speaking to
children not pre-k children if you think
if you believe in yourself and you
ignore those negativities you don’t let
other people drag you down and your
persevere you persevere through life’s
adversities you can reach your goals
thank you all so much for having me
today
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