The winner of the annual National American Miss beauty pageant could be a girl from right here in New Tampa.
Lilly Jo Rosson, 5, of Tampa Palms, has been selected as a state finalist in the National American Miss Florida pageant’s “Princess Division,” which is comprised of about 80 girls, each competing for the title of “Miss Florida Princess” during the weekend of July 17-18 in Orlando at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress.
“It’s going to be so much fun,” Lilly says. Lilly’s father John says that the family was contacted by the National American Miss company, urging them to have Lilly try out at the Tampa Convention Center in February.
“This is all new to us,” he says. “They reached out to us.”
John says that the he thinks a parent of a previous contestant suggested them for the competition and passed along the family’s contact info. He says that they received both a flier in the mail and a message on Facebook.com.
Lilly’s mother Heather says that, since Lilly found out that she would be part of the competition, she has been practicing around the house with a plastic microphone, reciting her full name, where she’s from (Tampa), her favorite food (spaghetti) and what she wants to be when she grows up (“an animal doctor”). The Q&A will be part of the interview portion of the competition. She also will be performing a tap-dance/ballet routine.
“Our goal is to prepare them with life skills for the future,” says National American Miss spokesperson Lakeisha Edwards. “We teach them self-confidence, poise and interview skills. Every aspect of the competition relates back to a life skill.”
The pageant consists of four competitions: formal wear, a personal introduction, an interview and community involvement. The formal wear section encourages young ladies to walk and stand before crowds with confidence, the personal introduction is meant to introduce the girls to public speaking and the interview section helps the girls learn to make good eye contact and answer questions with confidence at a young age. Contestants in Lilly’s age bracket will be asked to name their favorite color, book, movie, TV show and animal, as well as what they want to be when they grow up and why they want to be named “Princess” for the state.
Contestants also take part in a community project during the weekend. Lilly and the other contestants also will be bringing children’s books and school supplies to donate to local charities.
“The competition will help me not be afraid to talk in front of a lot of people and to make new friends,” Lilly says, adding that she’s excited to get to dress up like a princess. She says she wants to make it to the national competition, but really just wants to do her best locally and have fun.
“We want (the girls) to know that they can do anything,” Edwards says. “We try to help them learn the confidence to step out from behind mom’s skirt.”
For more information, please visit NAMiss.com, or to help sponsor Lilly, visit GoFundMe.com/Lilly Rosson. Funds raised will go towards paying the competition’s sponsor fee, purchasing her evening gown and interview attire, as well as helping to pay for the trip. At our press time, she had already raised $790 of her $1,000 goal.
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