An Austin resident is in the running to be an International Junior Miss titleholder.
Mariah Robinson, a 22-year-old who lives in Austin, is travelling to Orlando, Florida later this month to represent Illinois in the International Junior Miss pageant. There, Robinson will compete with dozens of women in her age group from other states and countries. The pageant awards multiple titleholders with money and prizes for the likes of modeling, public speaking and academic achievement.
Robinson has participated in National American Miss pageants since she started in the circuit about five years ago, but this is her first time competing on a global scale.
“I always did the state pageant, but this year, I took a break from competing just at state. I want something bigger for myself,” Robinson said, adding that she often places in the top five contestants at statewide pageants.
Robinson has a general studies degree from Malcolm X College, where she graduated with honors. This year, she started as a respiratory care student at St. Augustine College in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. She also works up to 70 hours a week as a nursing aide.
“I get up every day and I push myself. I’m coming to work to help people that I can help, even though I wasn’t able to help my mom,” Robinson said. Her mother died at age 25 from a collapsed lung, due to complications from multiple sclerosis.
Inspired by her mother, Robinson launched Breath of Hope earlier this year as part of her pageant platform. In addition to feeding people with her church, donating clothes and raising health awareness on the South and West Side of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, Robinson is involved in her community through Breath of Hope, which aims to inspire young women to find hope in hopeless places.
“Before I entered the [pageant] industry, I was like, ‘Oh, I have to be perfect.’ But I quickly realized it’s OK not to be OK. Whether I win the crown or not, I just want people to know you don’t have to be perfect to get to your destination because it’s not so much about the destination. It’s more about the journey,” Robinson said. “I live by ‘Letting go and letting God.’ You can control what you can control and, if you can’t, you have to let it go because you don’t want it to ruin you.”
Today, Robinson studies the system that once failed her mother, aiming to help others breathe easier — both emotionally, through Breath of Hope, and medically. Robinson originally wanted to explore a career in radiology, but because the specialty is highly competitive, she instead chose to study respiratory care.
“I felt like that was the call for me when I learned about it. I didn’t know that the respiratory system was in tune with multiple sclerosis in certain ways,” Robinson said.
Though she’s come a long way in her schooling and the pageant circuit, Robinson said she was more hesitant when she first started competing.
“Honestly, I was so against pageants because I was like, ‘I got to be a size two,’” Robinson said. “And being African American, I didn’t really see too many people like me, so I was like, ‘I’m never going to get this. I’m never going to do this.’”
But when a family friend who did pageants suggested that Robinson try it, and Robinson saw Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa, a Black woman, win Miss Universe in 2019, she decided to give it a go.
For her first pageant, Robinson competed statewide and went to nationals. She said she was initially there just to have fun, but toward the end of the evening, found herself anxious to place.
“In that moment, it made me realize this is something more than a pageant. In general, people think you’re supposed to be pretty — not smart, not getting an education — when it comes to the pageant system. And it’s so much more than that,” Robinson said. “I always say, ‘The pageant system is like my home away from home.’ I’m in a very serious field. My career is very serious. With pageants, it’s stressful sometimes, but when I get there, I just feel so much adrenaline.”
Still, Robinson said that self-doubt has been the most challenging part of her pageant career. She pays for everything by herself and travels to compete alone, though many women have their mothers with them. But when it comes to what she’s looking forward to most about the International Junior Miss competition, Robinson said it’s sharing her message with the world.
“I was bullied because of the color of my skin [and because] I’m not a size two. And I want other people to realize the very thing that you hate is what makes you unique,” Robinson said. “I don’t think that I will win the crown, and that’s okay. But my main goal is to [place in the] top 12.”