Alumna Snags Hootworthy Pageant Win

Did you know that GCA Champions don’t just rise up and aim high… they soar!?  They keep on soaring after graduation too, like GCA alumni, Damacia Howard!  Damacia graduated in May 2021 after having attended GCA since the 6th grade!  She is headed to Georgia State University this fall with plans to study film, art history, or really anything art related.  Her recent hootworthy accomplishment is being crowned Miss Georgia Teen 2021 at the National American Miss Pageant this July.  While she is currently enjoying the pleasure of her Miss Georgia Teen title, she looks forward to crowning the next Miss Georgia Teen in 2022.

The National American Miss Pageant consisted of three categories: interview, introduction, and gown.  Six judges scored each category and tallied up the numbers to calculate the winner.  During the interview portion, she had to answer one question from each of the judges.  Her most memorable question was about how she spent her summer serving as a camp counselor.  The introduction piece was a brief 30-second speech to the crowd which displayed her poise and confidence.  The final category had the young ladies sport a formal gown. 

This was not the first pageant Damacia has competed in.  She entered her first pageant in 2015, and she has participated in multiple pageants since including National American Miss and Miss Teen USA.  One could say she is quite the pageant veteran.  She has found pageants to be a fun hobby and her schooling with GCA gave her the opportunity to compete in pageants, all while staying on top of her education.  Damacia loves to travel, so she initially started competing in pageants because state winners traveled to national pageant competitions, and around the country for national winners.  She was also looking for ways to pay for college, so scholarship prizes were a draw as well!

In 2016, she won the preteen title for National American Miss and was able to take a trip to California to compete in the national competition.  She did not win, but she did place in the top 10 in the country!  This time around, the national competition is in Orlando, Florida.  She heads there in November with hopes to place in the top 10 or better.  The winner of nationals receives many prizes, which are about 2 pages long, including scholarships and sponsorship gifts, as well as traveling the country to state pageants as the National American Miss winner.

On top of Damacia’s pageant efforts, she also started her own non-profit during the pandemic last year called LegendaryGyrl.  Her company aims to honor young women who are serving in their communities.  She sends them gift boxes and inducts them as Legendary Gyrls celebrating their service. For the initial year, most of the Legendary Gyrls were young ladies that Damacia knew throughout her community who were volunteering; however, as the organization grows, the goal is to have a committee take nominations and select one Legendary Gyrl each month, and award one scholarship per year.  You can find more information about her nonprofit at legendarygyrl.org.

We are so proud of Damacia’s pageant win, and we know her #GCAFAM is rooting her on at nationals in November!  Keep soaring, Damacia!