Hi, I am Amanda Taylor Mrs. USA Prime division 3. When I started this journey, it was originally because I felt lost and really not doing anything for myself. I have poured so much of myself into my children, husband, friends, and family that I forgot kind of who I was. I realized that I was turning 40 in March 2023, and I wanted to do something fun for me to end my decade in
my 30s. I discovered Prime pageants in a google search looking for women’s pageants. I had a small amount of experience competing in previous systems that were with my daughters.
I understood the pageant world because both my daughters ages 7 and 2 have been competing in different pageants since they were both 6 months old. After learning about Prime pageants, I loved how everything Prime represented lined up with my values and beliefs. I knew it was the right fit for me. I became Mrs. Alabama xXx in March of 2022 and loved every single minute of
the journey.
I struggled for a while in the beginning on what personal goals I wanted to accomplish. I tried health and fitness, but it just did not feel like something I wanted to really represent as a state queen. Even though I love health and fitness, I felt I was supposed to go a different path. I tried Mental Health awareness because of my career as a mental health therapist. That was a
struggle because I started to feel like it was a job not something I personally was passionate about for my own personal goals.
I had talked and visualized in the past for 4 years about starting a blog and pod cast trying to reach women who were struggling with day-to-day life and feeling confident in themselves. My first step was to gain a following by creating a social media page through Facebook, Confidence Equals Beauty Love You in 2018 but never launched it or even promoted it. The same came with creating a website and blog www.confidenceequalsbeauty.com It was not until I really was trying to narrow down my personal self-care goals through Prime Pageants, I realized it was me who was holding me back.
I knew deep down I struggled with anxiety and carrying way too much what people thought about me, but I covered it up by helping other people as a friend and in my career as a mental health therapist. I has been so easy for me to focus on others and building up their strengths, that I was ignoring my issues in why I was so terrified to put myself out there publicly. I was paralyzed not wanting to post anything for fear of negative feedback from others or failing and looking like I was a failure. This was the self-care goal I needed to work on that I could not avoid anymore. So, I worked on my anxiety and my fear of what other’s thought about me. It was a journey I had to get real with myself and face my anxiety.
Once I launched my social media group, I noticed that there was not any negative feedback and women started to respond. I finally launched my blog and started to promote it. I realized that I would actually never truly know what other’s thought about the content. I did realize that If I could just help 1 woman build confidence in herself to overcome any negative stigma that she or others placed in her life, the blog would all be worth it.
My road to nationals was one that I am so glad I learned to face my own fears and anxiety. I was so used to helping other people get out of their own negative self-destructive patterns that I was able to utilize those same techniques on myself. By the time I arrived at nationals I had gained a new confidence in myself I would have never had if I had not realized I was the only person holding myself back. Nationals was such an amazing experience. I went with the mindset to be my true authentic self. Show up and try to meet as many other queens as I could overall, just have the best time and cherish every single moment of national week.
My favorite moment when I was on stage in my costume representing the musical artist from Alabama. Being a musician myself, this was very close to my heart. I did my speech and busted out singing “Sweet Home Alabama.” Everyone from the audience to the queens backstage cheered me on! It was such an amazing moment! The next amazing moment was walking out on stage in my evening gown and just looking out at the bright lights and thinking “Amanda, you did it and you are here taking in this moment.”
The surprising moment for me was when my name was not called as the first runner up. I just lost my breath and all I could do had tears of joy and just a scene of gratitude for the crowning moment. Even months later I get emotional thinking about the crowning moment and becoming Mrs. USA Prime division 3 and just how grateful I am to be selected for this wonderful opportunity to hold this title.
Recently I launched a pod cast Confidence Equals Beauty with Amanda Taylor on Spotify and anchor. I am really hoping that my life experience, vulnerability to share my heart, and encouragement will also help reach other women find their own strength and confidence to overcome any negative stigmas.
My plans for this year being Mrs. USA Prime division 3 is to try to continue to reach as many women as I can. I want to continue creating a community where women feel safe to show up and be their true authentic self. I want to extend Confidence Equals beauty to adolescence in helping them be proactive in forming their own self and confidence to help prevent them from becoming adults with the thought of believing any negative stigmas about themselves. I also would like to create work shops where women can come together and work on areas in their lives they are feeling insecure and help build up their confidence to becoming whatever purpose they have for their lives.
My advice to anyone out there. Be your true authentic self. Enjoy the process in becoming the better version of you. Even if the process seems hard and you feel like you are in the valley, this is the moment you will learn the most about yourself. Trust yourself and the process you are going through. You will be on top of that mountain soon enough and when you look back, you will see how far you have come. Look ahead and see how much of a journey is still left for you to enjoy.
Remember You have a heavenly Father who will never leave you or forsake you. You were not created in this Universe for nothing. You serve an amazing purpose. Look into yourself you are amazing, and you do have what it takes to have confidence. Remember Confidence Equals Beauty.
Facebook: Amanda Robinson Taylor
Mrs.USA Prime Division 3- Reigning Queen Amada Taylor
Facebook group: Confidence Equals Beauty Love you
Instagram: amanda_art_taylor
Website
www.confidenceequalsbeauty.com
Podcast: Confidence Equals Beauty with Amanda Taylor
https://anchor.fm/amanda-taylor493
https://open.spotify.com/show/3Kol14J4P6IzCKYEpQNgAT?si=wNg7t54lRSi0kRAGibLmBQ
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