Who Is New Miss USA 2019 Chelsie Kryst?

Chelsie Kryst, a 27-year-old lawyer from North Carolina, who works with prison inmates, won the title of Miss USA last week. Kryst describes herself as a “weird kid” with a “unibrow” who’s now part of the first generation of “truly empowered women.”

According to her Miss USA. Kryst is “a full-time attorney that is licensed to practice law in two states,” was crowned by her predecessor, Miss USA 2018 Sarah Rose Summers.

This years selection committee was comprised of accomplished female entrepreneurs, business leaders and industry experts, including former pageant winners.

Kryst was asked to summarize her generation in the final round of the competition to which she responded that they were “innovative.”

“I’m standing here in Nevada, in the state that has the first female majority legislature in the entire country. Mine is the first generation to have that forward-looking mindset that has inclusivity, diversity, strength and empowered women. I’m looking forward to continued progress in my generation,” she said at the event held for the first time in Reno.

New Mexico’s Alejandra Gonzalez, the first runner-up, and Oklahoma’s Triana Browne, the second runner-up, helped highlight the diversity of the competition on stage as the three finalists along with Kryst, who is African American.

Gonzalez, whose mother immigrated from Mexico, founded a nonprofit that teaches children the importance of being literate. Browne says shes a proud member of the Chickasaw Nation whose father is white and mother is African American. She is working on a partnership with Nike to promote a brand that celebrates Native American heritage.

Tianna Tuamoheloa, who is of Somoan descent, made it to the final five as well as Savannah Skidmore, a former state basketball champion from Arkansas who has a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo and is pursuing a law degree.