Miss Kentucky is first former foster child to win the title

Miss Kentucky, Ariana Rodriguez, is competing for the Miss America crown this month. As a former foster child, she wants to ensure other children living in the custody of the state can succeed as she has.

Key Takeaways:

• Ariana Rodriguez grew up in the foster care system in Kentucky, living in about 20 homes after she and her siblings were removed from their mother's care due to drug addiction and homelessness.

• She returned to her mother's care at age 14, which meant she didn't qualify for tuition assistance for college for children in foster care.

• She decided to try pageants, which offer scholarships, including $20,000 for winning the Miss Kentucky title.

• After losing the first two attempts, she took the crown of Miss Kentucky in June and is now competing for Miss America.

The Details:

Last week, Adriana Rodriguez began competing for Miss America. She is the first foster child to win the title of Miss Kentucky, "representing every child who has ever felt invisible, every young person in foster care who is searching for belonging, and every young dreamer who has been told their dreams were too far out of reach."

She wrote on Instagram:

As the first alumni of the foster care system to compete for Miss America, I carry with me not just my story, but the strength, resilience, and hope of so many others. This moment is bigger than a title. It’s proof that your past does not define your future, that beauty can rise from ashes, and that the Miss America Opportunity truly belongs to every young woman with a dream.

As part of her work, she created the foundation, The Lucky Ones, to help children in foster care with items like prom dresses, Christmas gifts, and suitcases.

The Backstory:

Rodriguez, age 20, and her two siblings were placed in foster care as young children, and she said she lived in 20 different homes and attended a dozen different school systems growing up.

"Louisville, Lexington, Nelson County, Meade County, Russell Springs, Adair, Columbia, Taylor — we've lived everywhere," she said, noting that at age 16, she even spent time living out of her car. Her mother faced homelessness and drug addiction but is now sober.

As a foster child, she took on the role of caregiver to her younger siblings, even linking arms with her brother at the Child Protective Services office, demanding that they would "have to pull us apart" if they were going to put the children in different homes.

"We didn't know that we were going to go in foster care that day, so all we had was the clothes on our back," she said. "My grandma was able to get a few items of ours that she just happened to have in the car, but she wasn't allowed to bring us anything. All we had when we went into foster care was just those few things that were in the car, and we had to put them in a trash bag. It just sets a very dehumanizing tone."

Rodriquez returned to live with her mother at age 14, which meant she didn't meet the qualifications for financial aid given to children in foster care. She pivoted and found pageantry. At 17, she spent all the money she had — $1,000 saved for college — on the items she needed to compete in the Miss My Old Kentucky pageant, but she didn't win. The pageant director, Kimberly Lile, reportedly "worked day and night to try to find sponsors from across the country" to help her continue competing.

“I didn’t even know how to curl my hair. I didn’t even have glasses. I couldn’t see the judges on stage,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was doing at all. I didn’t have a track for the talent competition; I just got up there and sang.”

Last year, she didn't make it into the top 12 for Miss Kentucky, but this year, she returned and took the crown in June. She will hold the title for one year.

One of the requirements for pageant participation is community service, which led Rodriguez to launch The Lucky Ones. She said there are children in the foster care system who still sleep in the social services offices.

"Kids in foster care are always so focused on surviving that they don't really get to enjoy the simplicities that many of us do," she said. "We try to give them as much of a normal life as we possibly can by using the community and their resources to support them."

Rodriquez, a social work and psychology major at the University of Kentucky, also hosts The Lucky Ones Podcast, "amplifying the voices of foster alumni..."

During her podcast last year, she said, “No matter where you come from or what you’ve been through, there is always something waiting for you on the other side of the hard days. Sometimes the hardest roads lead to the greatest rewards.”