When Rachel Slawson lost her first pageant, she decided to change her looks.
It was a decision the future Miss Utah regretted for years.
Slawson – who was the first openly bisexual contestant on the Miss USA stage – recently sat down with Insider to discuss her journey from homeless to pageant queen and how she’s preparing to compete in Miss Grand International 2023.
The Utah native entered her first pageant when she was 19, hoping the experience would help boost her self-esteem. But Slawson felt like an outlier.
“The first time I competed, I was basically a tomboy,” Slawson told Insider. “I had just donated all my hair to India, so I had a pixie cut. I was definitely not what most of the women looked like. And I remember looking at the top five and a lot of them had very different body types to what I had”.
“At that impressionable age, without a strong mentor in my life, I really internalised that,” she added. “So I tried to completely change myself. I started really trying to diet and lose weight – and not in the most healthy way – and I also had a breast augmentation that went horribly wrong.”
Slawson wanted to be a 32D, but her doctor made her a 32DDD.
“So my whole body was changed at a very young age,” says Slawson. “I ended up having it surgically fixed years later, so I felt like myself again.”
Slawson was initially looking for validation and acceptance when she started competing in pageants.
“I was living in Utah at the time. I was struggling with my sexuality and also struggling with myself as a person,” Slawson said. “It seemed like pageants were a space where women were embraced for being sexy, and coming from a conservative community, that actually felt really freeing to me.”
“So what drew me to pageants at that age probably wasn’t the healthiest motivation. I think a lot of it was looking for love from other people,” she added. “But it ended up being very healthy for me over the years.”
Slawson said her confidence grew significantly as her pageant career progressed.
“It took me five tries to win Miss Utah USA, so I definitely faced a lot of rejection,” Slawson said. “And I feel like every time I came back to compete, I was so much more confident in who I was as a person and I didn’t need the approval that I was originally looking for.”
“I feel like every time I compete in a pageant, I really leave a stronger version of myself,” she added. “I love pageantry, that’s part of why I was so excited to find the Grand USA system.”
Slawson made history yet again this year when she became the first queer person to compete in Miss Grand USA. If she is crowned winner on 25 October, she will be the first queer woman to win Miss Grand International.
