By Chandler Ramelli
What does the life of today's modern Beauty Queen look like? A lot different than you might think and leading the charge is Mrs. Raquel Riley Thomas, the new Executive Director of Mrs. DC America.
Raquel Riley Thomas, is a former Captain in the Army, a Veterans activist, a full-time mother of two, Pageant Queen and now, the new Executive Director of Mrs. DC America. She is the living embodiment of the modern women. Armed with her military training steeped in discipline and dedication, Raquel has been on a meteoric rise in the Mrs. America organization for the past 2 years and is out to change the face of the Pageant world.
Just how did this Officer go from weapons to tiaras?
Raquel was a United State Ordnance officer, specializing in demolition, bombs, large machine guns and trained in hand to hand combat when an innocent question from her then four year old daughter took Raquel's life into a completely different direction.
One day while her daughter was watching a Disney video she asked, "Mommy, why don't any of these Princesses look like me?" Raquel tried to give her daughter an answer, but fumbled for the correct words. With that one heart breaking question Raquel was on a mission. If Disney could not provide her daughter or millions of other daughters like her with a Princess that resembled them, Raquel would make them one.
A few short months later, Raquel entered the Mrs. Maryland Pageant 2010-11.....and won.
Before Raquel could catch her breath, Mrs. Maryland 2010-11 was off and running to the Mrs. America Pageant 2010-11.....and placed as first runner-up.
The next week the Mrs. America organization called her and asked if she would be a celebrity judge at next year's Mrs. America pageant 2011. She accepted and was beyond thrilled when she learned that she would be only the second African American judge, the first being the incomparable Diahann Carroll.
This Beauty Queen's reign was not over yet. Shortly after completely her stint as a celebrity judge, the Mrs. America organization came calling again. This time the rights for Mrs. DC America had come up for sale and the organization thought Raquel would be the perfect fit to run the District of Columbia's pageant. Raquel accepted, started her own company, An Officer and Gentlewoman, LLC., and is now the Producer and Executive Director of Mrs. DC America.
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