Perseverance Pays Off


Throughout my life I have learned that nothing comes easy and that no goal is ever met without hard work and a long journey toward it. “Your Miss Teen International 2010 is Juliana McKee.” Before I lost my cousin, Erick, two years ago, I would never have even imagined hearing that sentence.

Erick was born with 8 congenital heart defects, and though he surpassed the odds time and time again for twelve years, his heart became too weak for his growing body and he passed away while waiting for a heart-lung transplant. Losing Erick made me realize how lucky I am to have been born with a healthy heart and the opportunity to choose to eat healthy and exercise to take care of my heart for the rest of my life. I started working with the American Heart Association, sharing with others who had been born with healthy hearts like me that they were lucky to be able to choose to take care of their hearts when so many people like my cousin Erick were born without that choice.

Around the same time, a friend of mine was giving up her International state title and encouraged me to compete for it. It was the perfect opportunity and I knew that God had brought me this opportunity to do great things in memory of my cousin. I competed and was awarded first runner up!

Fun Fashion at my first State Pageant

My sister, Caroline & I at our first pageant

Top 2 at my first State Pageant

The Top Five at my first State Pageant

I knew that losing the pageant was not the end of an experience, but the beginning of a journey. I continued my service work with the AHA and along with Erick’s Hope, an organization that I was involved
in from its' formation, founded in memory of my cousin. With so many supportive people encouraging me to compete again, I competed for Miss Teen DC International and was awarded the title!

My first crowning - Miss Teen DC International 2009

That summer (2009), I was blessed with my first opportunity to compete in Chicago for Miss Teen International and met some truly amazing women who inspired me to continue my passion for what I believe in and to never give up. I continued speaking on behalf of the AHA and its Alliance for a Healthier Generation about my cousin and how we should take advantage of the opportunity that we are blessed with to make healthy choices but what I was ignoring was my own story. Throughout high school, I dealt with low self esteem, yo-yo dieting, and eating disorders, issues that directly affect heart health. However, the negative stigmas attached to these issues caused me to keep them secret, even from my own parents.

Fun Fashion at Miss Teen International 2009 - I won the Preliminary Fun Fashion Award!

Interview at Miss Teen International 2009 - I won Miss Teen International 2010 in the same interview suit the following summer, you don't always have to break the bank to put your best foot forward!

My interview group at Miss Teen International 2009 - Notice Miss Teen International 2009, Jessica Byington, was in my group- so glad we are sister queens now!

Evening Gown Competition at Miss Teen International 2009

During the summer of 2009 I gained a lot of self esteem and confidence from speaking on my platform in public and competing for Miss Teen International. However, in September, I broke the fifth metatarsal in my foot and had to have surgery and casts on it for nearly four months, severely limiting my mobility and causing me, a girl who had been athletic my whole life, to gain over 20 pounds from inactivity and my inability to exercise. This caused a relapse in my low self-esteem and my unhealthy eating habits as I decided that the extra weight needed to come off right away when my cast was removed. I started over-exercising and under-eating throughout the week, however, on the weekends when I would leave my college campus and go home and eat regularly with my family, all of the weight would come right back. I finally realized that this was not the answer. I needed a permanent solution, which this was not.

As Miss Teen DC International 2009 on crutches with a freshly broken foot at DC Fashion Week in Fall 2009

Utilizing the tools and resources provided by the AHA and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, I re-engineered my lifestyle. I started running daily, an activity that I used to deplore which I now find so relaxing and stress-relieving all at the same time. I started paying attention to food groups in my meals, making sure that I ate high fiber, low fat foods and got a good balance of vegetables, proteins, and power carbohydrates in every meal and snack. I stopped paying so much attention to the scale and trying to be skinny and instead focused in on nutrition and getting in some exercise every day. I watched my body transform, I gained lean muscle, lost fat, and found myself even feeling better and sleeping better. I finally gained the courage to share the struggles that I had faced with my family. After telling them everything I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me and that I could breathe easily. I knew that I was ready to share my own story, not just my cousin’s, with everyone.

When I started sharing my own story, especially with young girls, I realized that I had the power to show those who were experiencing the same struggles that they are not alone. I also realized the power I had to transform the word beautiful. The word beautiful has become so warped by our media and the celebrities who are so unhealthy and rail thin, dangerously so, in fact, who it hails as beautiful. I have made it my mission to share my story with everyone and change this misperception of beauty to show everyone that healthy is beautiful.

I have learned that the crown and sash have unimaginable power, not only as a strong microphone and podium for sharing what I believe with others, but also power to take me down a path of self-acceptance and discovery. I know that, now that I had the emotional strength to share my own personal story and potentially touch the lives of others with it, I have an obligation to do so. In spring of 2010, I competed again for an International state title to fulfill this obligation. Though I placed first runner up, I found even more personal growth and strength from the experience and I knew that I could not give up.

Fun Fashion at an International state pageant in April 2010

Runners Up at an International state pageant in April 2010

Friends who came to support me at an International state pageant in April 2010

I was blessed with the opportunity to compete as Miss Teen East Coast for the title of Miss Teen International 2010 and won the title in July! I am now spending my year spreading a message of self-acceptance to children and teens nationally and internationally to show them that you don’t need to look a certain way to be happy, you only need to love who you are and embrace the things that make you different from others as the things that make you special.


Juliana McKee

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