Prairie High School

Prairie High School graduate competes for the title of Miss America this weekend

Jan. 11, 2024

In its 104-year history, the state of Washington has never had a winner in the Miss America pageant. This Sunday, a Prairie High School graduate is hoping to change that.

During a recent return to her former high school, 23-year-old Vanessa Munson spoke about dreaming of being Miss America from a very early age.

“I would watch the pageant on TV growing up, and I loved the way that the women on stage presented themselves,” Munson told the room full of students. “It wasn’t their physical attractiveness, but rather the elegance and the poise that they had. The way that they could speak so eloquently and present themselves in a way that I had never seen presented before.”

Munson has made kindness a key part of her platform as Miss Clark County and then Miss Washington. During her visit to Prairie High School in September, Munson shared how she once shared her dream with some of her peers, only to be told that she was “too fat” to win.

“So I took it upon myself to wake up super early every morning. I would come here and I made these colorful cards and I would stick them up on the walls,” Munson said. “They were called compliment cards and I put them everywhere because I didn’t want anyone else to feel the way I was feeling.”

Despite dealing with hearing loss in one ear due to a condition known as a cholesteatomas, or a cluster tumor, Munson became a sergeant in the U.S. Army. She recently had a type of cochlear implant surgery performed to help restore hearing in the ear.

“All of this has just been an opportunity for me to show resilience and believe in myself,” Munson told the students. “And that’s a huge, huge thing that plays a very big role in being a high schooler. Belief in yourself and being okay with who you are.”

The 2024 Miss America finals will take place on Sunday, Jan. 14, starting at 4 p.m. PST. It is available to watch for free online at WatchMissAmerica.com.