Before They Were It Girls, They Were Pageant Queens
By Alexus Mosley
Photo Credit: Miss Universe Organization / Getty Images
Before the red carpets, magazine covers, and front-row fashion moments, some of our favorite It Girls were already learning how to command a stage. Beauty pageants have long been a training ground for poise, presentation, public speaking, and knowing exactly how to work a room. For these 10 women, the crown was only the beginning.
Halle Berry
Photo Credit: PA Images/Getty Images
Before Halle Berry became an Oscar-winning actress and one of Hollywood’s most enduring beauty and fashion icons, she was competing in pageants.
Berry won Miss Ohio USA and went on to become first runner-up at Miss USA 1986 before later competing at Miss World. The pageant-to-Hollywood pipeline rarely gets more glamorous than this. Berry would go on to become a bona fide movie star, red-carpet fixture, and the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Vanessa Williams
Photo Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images
Vanessa Williams made history when she became the first Black woman crowned Miss America, winning the Miss America 1984 title.
Her reign ended under painful circumstances after unauthorized photographs were published, but Williams’ career certainly didn’t. She went on to build an enviable résumé across music, television, film, and Broadway, becoming exactly the kind of multihyphenate star that proves a crown can be the beginning of a much bigger story.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Photo Credit: Michael Crabtree/Getty Images
Before becoming a Bollywood superstar, Hollywood actress and global fashion fixture, Priyanka Chopra Jonas was Miss World 2000, representing India, Chopra won the international crown at just 18 years old.
What followed was an extraordinary transformation from pageant queen to one of India’s biggest stars, and eventually, an international celebrity whose appearances at the Met Gala, major fashion shows, and red carpets regularly generate headlines.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Photo Credit: Walter Dhladhla/AFP/Getty
If there were ever a woman destined for the words “beauty icon,” it might be Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Rai won Miss World 1994 while representing India, becoming one of the most famous titleholders in the pageant’s history. Her career afterward included major films, international campaigns, and decades of unforgettable Cannes Film Festival appearances. Few former pageant queens have maintained such an enduring association with glamour.
Olivia Culpo
Photo Credit: Richard Harbaugh/Miss Universe Organization
Olivia Culpo may be one of the clearest modern examples of turning pageant success into full-fledged It Girl status. She won Miss USA 2012 representing Rhode Island and later that year took home the Miss Universe crown.
Since then, Culpo has carved out a career built around fashion, beauty, social media, and celebrity culture, becoming a fixture at major events and building the kind of highly polished public image that feels tailor-made for the Instagram era.
Kenya Moore
Photo Credit: Miss Universe/AFP/ Getty Images
Before she was twirling on reality television, Kenya Moore was making pageant history.
Moore won Miss USA 1993 representing Michigan, becoming the second Black woman to win the title. She later moved into acting, producing, entrepreneurship, and reality television, where her larger-than-life personality made her one of the most recognizable stars of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Crown first, peach later.
Sushmita Sen
Photo Credit: Romeo Gacad/AFP/ Getty Images
1994 was a very good year for Indian beauty queens. Sushmita Sen became the first woman from India to win Miss Universe when she took home the crown that year.
She later became a major film star and fashion figure in India, known for her elegance, confidence, and unmistakable presence. Her transition from international pageant queen to actress made her one of the defining glamorous public figures of her generation.
Eva Longoria
Before Wisteria Lane made Eva Longoria a household name, she had already had a taste of pageant life. Longoria won Miss Corpus Christi USA in 1998 before pursuing acting, eventually landing the role of Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives.
That role transformed her into one of the defining television It Girls of the 2000s, complete with designer wardrobes, beauty campaigns, and enough red-carpet moments to fill an entire fashion retrospective.
Ali Landry
Photo Credit: Associated Press (AP)
Ali Landry’s path to pop-culture fame began with a crown. The Louisiana native won Miss USA 1996 after previously competing in Miss Teen USA. But it was a Doritos commercial during the Super Bowl that turned her into a late-’90s sensation, helping launch a career in modeling, acting, and television hosting.
It was one of those very ’90s celebrity trajectories: pageant queen, commercial breakout, instant It Girl.
Dayanara Torres
Photo Credit: Omar Torres/AFP / Getty Images
Dayanara Torres became Miss Universe 1993 while representing Puerto Rico, beginning a career that would take her into modeling, acting, and television. Her beauty-pageant roots helped introduce her to an international audience, while her work afterward kept her firmly in the celebrity conversation.
Torres is another reminder that for many pageant winners, the crown is less a finish line than an introduction.